Mediterranean Chicken Salad with Fennel, Raisins & Pine Nuts

By The Daily Dish

(photo: Scott Phillips)

This salad is good as an appetizer served on toasted sliced baguette, or in sandwiches on ciabatta or baguette segments. It will serve two to three as a sandwich filling, but it can easily be doubled if you have more leftover chicken. You can substitute any leftover grilled or roasted chicken or a store-bought rotisserie bird.

There's a great balancing act of flavor and texture in this Mediterranean-inspired main-dish salad. Using leftover or rotisserie chicken makes it a perfect dish for a busy weeknight meal. 

To make this delicious salad, begin with the dressing. In a small bowl, combine garlic that's been mashed to a paste with a pinch of salt, some mayonnaise, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and a pinch of cayenne pepper, and mix it well. For the salad, combine chopped or shredded cooked chicken, diced fresh fennel, chopped sweet onion, toasted pine nuts, golden raisins, and chopped fresh parsley. Add the dressing and toss to mix all it all together. Cover and refrigerate the salad for about at least an hour for the flavors to blend.

Before serving, taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice as needed. 


Yields about 1-2/3 cups

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Susie Middleton is editor at large for Fine Cooking magazine and the author of veggie cookbooks Fast, Fresh & Green and The Fresh & Green Table.

Follow her on Twitter at @sixburnersue