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easy peasy curried chicken salad

My local market has a curried chicken salad among their prepared foods which I love and buy often. This is an expensive habit so I decided it was time to try to make it myself. It was unanimously voted a success in our two-person house.

curried chicken salad

– the meat from one rotisserie chicken, cut into pieces that are good for a fork

– three stalks of celery, sliced into nice half moons (maybe less, I like celery a lot and tend to overdo it)

– Vegenaise (I realize one could use mayo but I think the salad tastes really great with this stuff)

– peas, frozen are fine, warm up and cool down again

– cashews, unsalted, slightly toasted

– lemon juice, just a squirt

– curry powder, something mild and bright yellow

– garlic (I skipped this because we, gasp, didn’t have any in the house)

I mixed together some Vegenaise and curry powder, the put everything else into a big bowl and mixed the curry mixture into it. Squeeze a little lemon on top and mix in. I estimated all amounts, maybe half a cup of peas and half a cup of cashews? I used about a third of a jar of the Vegenaise and probably a few teaspoons of curry powder.

Vegenaise was something that was new to me, and I was surprised to find it at a regular big box type store. I learned from reading the site that it’s always in the refrigerated section, and in this case it was over near the natural foods, in the case with egg substitutes and meatless chicken nuggets.

I have a sad excuse for curry powder and I’m hoping to use it up soon so I can go and buy the Madras curry powder or this curry powder from Chefshop.

· comments [36] · 06-13-2008 · categories:food · recipes ·

36 responses so far ↓

  • 1 caff // Jun 13, 2008 at 5:38 am

    Looks delicious. I bet it’d be good with some sliced apple in it as well.

  • 2 Tami // Jun 13, 2008 at 6:31 am

    I’ve made a curry chicken salad similar to yours with plain yogurt with golden raisins. I also throw in some Sriracha sauce for kick. I’ve never seen the Vegenaise; I’ll have to try it. It looks delicious.

  • 3 sprizee // Jun 13, 2008 at 6:43 am

    That looks delicious!

  • 4 Carrie // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:02 am

    I make something similar but with raisins — reminds me of Coronation Chicken in England, one of my favs! Yum :)

  • 5 gaile // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:19 am

    Have you ever purchased spices from World Spice, behind the pike place market? they’re cheap, great service, and their spices are top notch. here’s their website if you wanna see some of their selection:
    http://worldspice.com/home/home.shtml

  • 6 megan // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:26 am

    Gaile – I have not, though I always wander through. I’ll have to make a trip.

  • 7 Susan // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:53 am

    I second adding golden raisins or currents. The sweetness is a nice counterpoint to the curry.
    Which market are you going to? I’m always looking for new sources of prepared foods in the Seattle area.

    Thanks!
    Susan

  • 8 Ahava // Jun 13, 2008 at 8:24 am

    So Vegenaise is good? We tried Lemonaise several weeks ago and loved it, but none of the grocery stores that we frequent carry it. We did see Vegenaise at Whole Foods, but haven’t tried it yet.

    The salad looks great!

  • 9 sir jorge // Jun 13, 2008 at 8:50 am

    thank you for this, i’m going to try this

  • 10 megan // Jun 13, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Susan – This is at a PCC Market in south Seattle, they seem to offer it every other time I’m in there.

    Ahava – I really like the Vegenaise, it tastes very much like Miracle Whip but all the ingredients are things I know (canola oil, brown rice syrup, sea salt), and no preservatives. I think it tastes a little fresher and brighter than mayo or Miracle Whip. I’m definitely a fan of the brand.

  • 11 becky // Jun 13, 2008 at 9:12 am

    Veganaise is the best faux-mayo out there! Do not be fooled by the alike sounding Nayonaise (yuck.)

  • 12 Patti // Jun 13, 2008 at 9:52 am

    Yum! This would be good with bits of apple in it. Or grapes. And the Madras is my favorite curry powder. I bought a case a couple years ago and gave boxes of it with Christmas presents.

  • 13 sandra // Jun 13, 2008 at 10:07 am

    On the same lines as #5, what about Market Spice, the spice/tea shop behind the fish-throwing stall? Care to compare the two for us? :-D I didn’t know there was another spice shop, but World Spice wins so far because they have a real web site. I think they also have a wider curry selection, but I’m comparing a web site to a quick glance at a giant wall of spices.

    PS: *Nay*onaise? Hmmm. Ick.

  • 14 tula // Jun 13, 2008 at 10:16 am

    i am so making this and eating it every day of my life!!

  • 15 Kelly // Jun 13, 2008 at 10:35 am

    I second Gaile’s praise of World Spice…you MUST make the trek. :) Another good place to get bulk spices in Seattle is Big John’s PFI, as well other dried goods and everything Italian your heart desires.

    http://amasci.com/pfi/

  • 16 mel // Jun 13, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    I third World spice! They have the most marvelous curry and chili powder mixes. Oh, heck, everything they have is great and fresh. Big John’s PFI is good, tho’ I question just how fresh their spices can be, in those big tubs they’re in.(have great cheese, tho’ usually there is a pound minimum). try mixing your own curry…experiment with different amounts of the major components of curry.

  • 17 hag // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    That looks so good! I just love the idea of using veganaise for a chicken salad! I agree with whomever suggested adding grapes…I think that would be really tasty.

  • 18 Kathy // Jun 13, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    I can’t abide curry, but my husband loves it! Your recipe looks terrific for him, and tempting for me to try :-)

  • 19 condo blues // Jun 13, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    Your curried chicken salad is making me hungry! My attempts at curried chicken salad have failed miserably. I’ll have to try yours and I’m sure I’ll have better results!

  • 20 Stephanie // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    Is Chefshop in Seattle? I’m almost positive I visited their small retail store on site. Lots of fun goodies!

  • 21 megan // Jun 14, 2008 at 8:19 am

    Stephanie – Yup, it’s in the Interbay, a relatively bleak looking area next to Queen Anne. Interbay is getting a Whole Foods soon so I expect it to be a whole lot less bleak.

  • 22 Ansley // Jun 14, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Yum. I make this every now and then. I like to add dried cranberries and wrap it in large lettuce leaves.

  • 23 E // Jun 15, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    I made this last night. Only I didn’t have most of the ingredients so I made some subsitutions. I used tofu and broccoli and grilled asparagus instead of peas. Excellent.

  • 24 Karen // Jun 15, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    I tried your recipe tonight – yum!

  • 25 Alice // Jun 15, 2008 at 8:18 pm

    I am a vegan and I just made chicken-less salad for the first time today, before reading this post! I also used vegan mayo, but the brand I use is called Spectrum Naturals eggless mayo. Instead of chicken I crumbled up tofu which I had frozen and then defrosted to give it a chewy “chicken-like” texture. It’s very good! I’ll have to try adding curry powder next time!

    Love your blog :)

  • 26 Alya // Jun 16, 2008 at 1:59 am

    yumm! Never heard of a curry chicken salad, but I’m willing to try it..

  • 27 donna // Jun 16, 2008 at 2:58 am

    Cool thanks, I’ve been wanting to make a curry chicken salad while i have my roasted chicken and some curry powder and now I can, just have to get some wraps and probably will add some golden delicious apple to it.

  • 28 Amy // Jun 16, 2008 at 5:00 am

    Okay, so this question has nothing to do with the recipe (although it looks very tasty!)… Where did you get that awesomely orange mixing spoon???

  • 29 hana // Jun 16, 2008 at 7:12 am

    i tried this recipe and it’s DELISH! I ended up forgetting to buy peas, but I put in a handful of golden raisins (soaked in hot water first) and substituted the cashews with toasted walnuts. SO AMAZING. Next time, I’ll try it with peas and maybe yogurt, too.

  • 30 Dorothy Stahlnecker // Jun 17, 2008 at 9:35 am

    I saw you on Mighty Girls blog roll. This salad sounds and looks wonderful.

    Nice site…

    Dorothy from grammology
    remember to call gram
    grammology.com

  • 31 nicole // Jun 17, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    this looks and sounds fabulous!

  • 32 Monica // Jun 18, 2008 at 7:11 am

    I made this last night for my lunch today, and I’m am SO looking forward to it! Yum! Couldn’t help sampling it before I packed it up.

    My husband doesn’t like curry, so I’m always looking for ways to have it on my own. Thanks!

  • 33 Colleen // Jun 18, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    You can also add grated carrot. It’s a good way to get more veggies into someones diet and it adds a nice crunch. Also,I love curried egg salad.Just add the curry spice to egg salad.

  • 34 sprizee // Jun 19, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    I made this last weekend minus the pea (only because I forgot) and the garlic, plus almond slivers instead of cashews and had it on bread for sandwiches. So good.

    I’m pretty sure using roasted chicken to make other dishes might just be the smartest recipe idea I’ve heard all year. Now I have plans to make chicken tacos, chicken soup and more using a whole cooked chicken I can pick up for $5 at my local groc.

    Oh, and I’m making more of this stuff to take with me this weekend when I go camping/fishing. Easy peasy is right!

  • 35 Rachel // Jul 1, 2008 at 11:11 am

    A local supermarket here recently added a “Bombay Chicken Salad”. The ingredient listing has the lemon pepper rotisserie chicken, mango chutney (I used Major Grey’s), Worcestershire sauce, Curry, scallion, raisins, Dijon mustard and Cilantro. They mix it with small sea shell shaped pasta. I tried duplicating today as buying it all the time, as you mentioned, can become quite expensive. It came out terrific. Yours looks wonderful too and I’ll give it a try next time. Thanks for posting it along with the photos.

  • 36 Jackie // Mar 4, 2009 at 6:43 am

    I made my with grapes cut in half, pecan pieces and celery. It was the BOMB!

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