Avocado Apple Chicken Salad, You Complete Me

I have only recently discovered the magic of avocados. Out of nowhere, I began craving them on a regular basis. Well, I craved guacamole. Then I discovered it was made of avocados. So, I bought some avocados, and stared at them in my kitchen, until I finally broke down and googled how to get the gooey green goodness to come from the weird-looking thing I bought. At that point, I put avocados on everything - toast, salmon, chicken. A fork. No telling if this was my arthritic body screaming for Omega-3s or just another delicious discovery by a fat lady. In any case, thus my love affair with avocados.

Since I roasted a chicken in the slow cooker yesterday largely for the bones so I could make stock, I wanted to do something with the meat that would last me all week. I had been thinking of chicken salad, whcih I've never made before. Then I thought, Hey! I have both apples, and onions, and celery, and avocados. I wonder if I can throw that all in and make deliciousness. So, I decided to try it. This recipe is an epic success, though I'm certain I'll be fooling around with it in future weeks to tweak it. What you'll need:

Ingredients
- The breast meat from a roasted chicken (or 2 large breasts, baked), cubed
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 large Honeycrisp apple, diced
- 2 small avocados (or 1 large Hass avocado), diced
- 2 tsp lime juice
- 1 cup mayo
- 1/2 tsp black pepper

I started in my largest glass bowl, and had to transfer to a large pot for stirring room, so make sure you use a large bowl. Literally combine all ingredients and fold gently with wooden spoon until everything is mixed. Best if served cold, so refrigerate once you either cover the bowl or parcel it out into smaller containers.

Note on the mayo: I used Hellman's Light because I didn't have eggs in the fridge to make my own, and because after comparing the ingredients, the Hellman's Low Fat mayo had high fructose corn syrup and food colorings in it than did the Light. Normally I'd shrink from using mayonnaise (it's an ingredient I rarely touch unless I am making deviled eggs), but I'm not sure what you can replace it with in a chicken salad. As for the fat content, well...I'm seeing a personal trainer. Plus, the calories are actually probably an improvement over my usual practice of don't-eat-anything-all-day-until-7pm-and-then-EAT-ALL-THE-THINGS. *Ahem*

For next time: For some more tang, next time I might (1) make my own mayo, and (2) try it with 1/2 cup of light mayo and 1/4 cup of brown mustard or some such (recommendations appreciated), or (3) replace the mayo altogether with something else, though I'm not sure what. You could easily use another stalk of celery if you like the stuff. Also, I'm not terribly adventurous with spices because they so easily mess up a dish, but fresh parsley or cilantro would probably go well in this dish. You could probably add raisins, but I'm not a fan; red grapes would work equally well. Other recommendations - please do add them in the comments!

I used my cup measure, and with an overflowing scoop into smaller containers, this netted me four large lunch servings for the week. (I also ate a few tablespoons of it, to test it. Delicious - the apple really makes it, and though I usually despise raw onions and celery, I can completely deal with it since they're offset by the sweetness of the apple and the creaminess of the avocado. I'll end up eating it out of tupperware for this week, but I think this would be delicious either served on lettuce leaves, or atop tomato slices for the acidity.

Considering this one a raving success. I can't wait until lunchtime tomorrow!