Another 5-Minute Chicken Salad

If you have an extra, already cooked chicken breast growing old in your fridge, why not upcycle the dry meat (we just know it's dry, let it go) into spicy, creamy chicken salad? This Tex-Mex preparation also rescues white meat from store-bought rotisserie birds, abandoned after the the drumsticks and thighs have been picked over. Our Jalapeno and Cilantro Chicken Salad is good enough to justify just buying chicken breasts, simmering slowly with onion and carrots and a few black peppercorns and then shredding the meat and tossing in the recipe as below. That method yields about a quart of fresh chicken stock, always a bonus for your freezer.

Easy No Brainer: shred or chop the cooked meat from two split chicken breasts (or one entire breast) and mix well in a large bowl with salt and pepper to taste, 3 T. each mayonnaise and sour cream (or Greek yogurt), 1 handful of cilantro, minced and 2 chopped pickled jalapenos. Stir in a bit of the juice from the pickled jalapenos and 1-2 sliced scallions if you like. Check for seasoning and adjust if needed. 

Good on sandwiches, with crackers, stuffed in ripe tomatoes.