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Without doubt; the best tip I can give you for making a chicken salad that turns out spot-on each and every time, is that you should always prepare the salad and the salad dressing separately. Well; I’m going to take my own advice and obey this rule while preparing this chicken salad. So without further ado let’s to it!

Ingredients

• 350 Grams (¾ Pound/2½ to 3 Cups) of Cooked Chicken Meat
• 4 to 6 Green Olives
• 2 Stalks of Celery
• 1 Medium-Sized Apple
• ½ of a Medium-Sized Red Bell Pepper
• 1/3 Head of Iceberg Head Lettuce
• ¼ Cup of Chopped Red Onion
• 5 Tablespoons of Mayonnaise
• 1 Tablespoon of Plum Preserves
• 2 Teaspoons of Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
• Freshly Ground Sea Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Optional/Alternative Chicken Salad Ingredients:

• Preserves – Feel free to substitute any sweet berry preserve in place of the plum preserves
• Honey – For the diet conscious wishing to substitute honey in place of the plum preserves; do so. Just remember to use a lesser amount of honey (e.g. 2/3 of a tablespoon rather than the full measure)
• Pine Nuts – To give the chicken salad a bit more of a crunch consider adding some pine nuts in with the salad ingredients
• Sprouts – Additional nutrition with crunch
• Garlic – Add 1 crushed garlic clove to the salad dressing
• Other Vegetables – Other vegetables that are quite commonly found in chicken salads the world around include: carrots, snow peas, sweet corn kernels

We are going to prepare our chicken salad in two parts:

1. The Chicken Salad
2. The Chicken Salad Dressing

Method

1. We will start preparing the chicken salad ingredients first. Because we are using the same glass salad bowl to combine and dress our chicken salad ingredients as that which we will use to serve it up to our dinners it is best to prepare and combine our chicken salad ingredients as follows.
2. Chicken Meat – Coarsely chop the chicken meat (with or without the skin, it’s up to you) and set to one side.
3. Iceberg Head Lettuce – Rinse and trim lettuce. Now cut lettuce into two parts of 1/3 and 2/3. We are going to use only the 1/3 portion so place the 2/3 portion back into refrigerator. Slice and chop the 1/3 lettuce head portion. When ready place about ½ of chopped iceberg head lettuce into glass salad bowl.
4. Celery – Wash, trim and chop celery into small pieces. Transfer celery pieces to glass salad bowl.
5. Green Olives – Rinse, pit and mince the olives. Then add to the other ingredients already in the glass salad bowl.
6. Red Bell Pepper – Wash, destalk, cut in half and deseed the medium-sized red bell pepper. Dice one half of the red bell pepper medium fine ready for use in this recipe. Return the unused half to your refrigerator for storage. Add the diced red bell pepper to those chicken salad ingredients already in the glass salad bowl.
7. Red Onion – Peel, rinse and medium-fine dice enough red onion to ¼ fill a 1 cup measure. Add this to the other chicken salad ingredients already in the glass salad bowl.
8. Apple – Rinse and core the apple. We will use between half and the whole apple. That portion (no less than ½) of the apple that we are using needs to be diced into sugar-cube sized bits. 
9. Before making the salad dressing we need to add in the remaining chopped iceberg head lettuce after which we will toss the chicken salad to ensure that all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Custom Engineered Chicken Salad Dressing:

It is important that you prepare this salad dressing separate from the preparation of the chicken salad itself. So the first step is to select a suitable bowl in which to mix our salad dressing ingredients.

Chicken Salad Dressing Ingredients:

• 5 Tablespoons of Mayonnaise
• 1 Tablespoon of Plum Preserves
• 2 Teaspoons of Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
• Freshly Ground Sea Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Chicken Salad Dressing Method:

1. Add the mayonnaise, the preserves, and the lemon juice to mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.
2. Taste for proper balance. The dressing should be not too sweet and yet at the same time not too sour.
3. Adjust the ingredients until you have achieved the balance you want.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serving:

Drizzle ¾ of your salad dressing over the chicken salad and toss the salad. This helps to get even coverage of the dressing throughout the entire salad. Once done you may sprinkle the remaining salad dressing over the chicken salad.

• Yield – The above portions will yield 4 generous servings of this wonderful chicken salad
• Buffet Style – One of the most popular of all self-serve dinning experiences. The chicken salad is loaded into a large, glass salad serving bowl from which all dinners individually load their plates.
• Complimentary Side Dishes – Consider serving along with side dishes such as potato salad, honey mustard carrots, snow peas, creamy sautéed spinach

Do enjoy!