(Probably) Not Your Grandma's Chicken Salad

Minnesota is full of many things: Mosquitoes, lakes and my relatives, to name a few. Every year, during the muggy Iowa summer when school was out and sweet corn was plentiful, we'd pile into the green family hatchback and make our pilgrimage north.

This was the land of my mom's childhood and of my grandma's cooking, home of hotdish and the ham sandwich. All the traditional Midwest dishes that my mom turned her back on forever when she left Minnesota were there for my discovery. What most people would call comfort food was completely foreign to my childhood palate. The fact that I was born in San Francisco to a couple of health-obsessed granolas whose only form of transportation was a camper, explains a lot.

The strange intersection between international and healthy is squarely where my mom's cooking resided. Hummus, pan-fried Falafel, and whole grain pitas were her answer to creamed corn and casserole. Wheat germ cookies and chocolate meringues stood in for Rice Krispie Treats and Jello salad. I only knew about Kool-Aid from camp, commercials and hanging out with friends. Until the day I moved out I was expected to drink a glass of pureed vegetables, affectionately dubbed "Veggie Drink" by my mom, with each meal.

To say my diet was non-traditional is putting it mildly so when we visited my grandparents I felt more like we had crossed an international border than just a state line. I was a tourist taking in the local fare at every meal. Buttered white bread? Sugar cereal? Don't even get me started on the things my grandma could do with a can of cream of mushroom soup! Of course there were, as I later discovered, Swedish dishes like rice pudding mixed in with the Midwest comfort food but I loved them all.

When it was finally time to leave, my grandma would pack us a lunch for the drive home. It usually included either egg salad or chicken salad sandwiches. Although both were pretty standard food, to me they were a special treat. My palate has changed since then but I still appreciate a good chicken salad sandwich. I especially enjoy this curried version, which I like to think is a fitting combination of my grandma's traditional fare and my mom's flair for the international.

In this salad, apples and raisins sweeten up the chicken nicely while the addition of curry powder is an incredibly simple way to amp up the flavor and give it an enticing saffron color. With the use of olive oil mayonnaise in place of regular mayonnaise it's relatively healthy too unless, of course, you serve it on a buttery croissant like I did. Make it and you're sure to curry favor from the members of your household.

Curried Chicken Salad with Apples and Raisins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 cup chopped skinless, boneless chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon-herb
• 3/4 cup chopped Braeburn apple (about 1 small)
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 3 tablespoons raisins
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Combine mayonnaise, curry powder and water in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add the chicken, chopped apple, celery, raisins and salt, stir mixture well to combine
2. Cover and chill
3. Serve between a halved croissant, two slices of bread or with a side of crackers. 

This recipe is from My Recipes