Apple, Almond, & Dried Cherry Chicken Salad Sandwich

I love apples (maybe because they begin with “a”?), and I love baked apple delights — apple pie, apple crisp, apple turnovers… But my roommates recently turned “macro” on me (macrobiotic… it means they now only eat kale, seaweed, and things with weird names), and I feel bad filling the kitchen with the beautiful aroma of buttery pie crust and cinnamon laced apples, knowing that it will drive them nuts and that I will have to eat the entire pie myself. So I started thinking of kinder, less aromatic ways of enjoying my favorite season’s favorite fruit.

My neighbor almost always has half a left-over rotisserie chicken from Costco that she wants to give me. Bored of turning it into regular-old chicken salad, I saw an opportunity to use some of the delicious Jonah Gold’s I picked up this weekend at the farmer’s market.

Apple, Almond, & Dried Cherry Chicken Salad Sandwiches

makes 2 hefty sandwiches

• Half of a cooked chicken – 1 breast, 1 thigh. Or whatever you have / like — you could poach a chicken breast, if you don’t have any leftover chicken
• About half an apple, cut into little sticks (you should have about 3/4 the amount of chicken you have – it’s chicken salad, not apple salad…)
• Sliced almonds, about a quarter cup
• Dried tart cherries or cranberries (cut in half), about a quarter cup
• Two heaping tablespoons Mayonnaise
• A little dill, fresh or dried
• A pinch of nutmeg
• salt & pepper
• 4 sliced toasted whole-wheat bread

The amounts of each ingredient are really “to taste” — if your chicken is kind of dry, use more mayo; if you really like dill, use a lot of dill…

Season the chicken with the salt & pepper, add the mayo, dill and nutmeg, and incorporate well. Add the apples, almonds, and cherries and mix until evenly distributed. I let it sit in the fridge for about half an hour before making up the sandwiches. If you want to get a head start, you could mix the chicken and mayo the night before, and then add the apples, almonds, and cherries just before serving – you don’t want those getting soggy or turning colors. Toast your bread, assemble, and devour!

Unfortunately for my roommates, this sandwich looks as good as apple pie smells, and I think I saw a little macrobiotic drool on their chins… Sorry, guys… I’m sure your seaweed tastes just as good as this… (definitely not…)

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