Loaded Pimento Cheese Chicken Salad

So one of my favorite summer sandwiches is chicken salad.  We had this along with ham salad sandwiches a lot growing up.  Usually with a big ole slice of fresh tomato straight out of the garden along with some lettuce from just a row or two over as well.   Usually mom would make us a sandwich and some chips for lunch, but other times it could have been our dinner too.  On those hot summer nights in Ohio, with no central air, there was no way mom was going to heat up the kitchen cooking a big dinner on the stove or in the oven.  If it was going to be a dinner time meal, she would serve it with her home made potato salad or macaroni salad.

Of course any left overs always turned into a grab and run half sandwich as a snack.  You know, one slice of bread and some chicken salad to make a half sandwich.  I found out last week on a vacation in Key West with some of our amazing friends that this is called a “fold-over” sandwich.  I had never heard of that until our friend Melissa asked for a fold over sandwich of some chicken salad we had taken with us out on the boat one afternoon.  I honestly had never heard it called that, but now that’s my new go to description for half sandwiches.  Plus, I always think of her and her amazing laugh when I make a “fold-over” sandwich.

Of course one of my other favorites has always been pimento cheese sandwiches.  Really, I could and did slather this stuff on bread, crackers, pretzels and many a time, on just my finger.  I just couldn’t get enough of this old southern treat.  To this day, I keep it in the fridge with some “Club Crackers” in the butter compartment in the door of the fridge for a quick snack.  I keep opened crackers in the fridge because I’ve found it keeps them fresh for so much longer.  Of course, if there’s pimento cheese around, those crackers never last long.

So that is how this recipe came together.  Over the weekend I made some pimento cheese to snack on.  I also smoked a couple chickens for putting together a quick week night meal.  You could easily use any left over chicken or grab a rotisserie chicken from the store as well.

When I started putting the chicken salad together I saw the pimento cheese looking back at me from the fridge and thought why not just put them together?  I was thinking of putting cheese in the chicken salad anyways.  Well let me tell you what.  After adding a little of something here and little of something else there, I came up with what I think turned out to be an amazing chicken salad.  Flavors of the chicken salad and pimento cheese melded together so well.  I might have made one of those “fold-over” sandwiches to test it out.

Why don’t y’all give it a try and let me know what you think as well.  Leave me some comments below to tell me how it turned out for you and if you changed/added anything.

Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups diced or shredded chicken
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (more or less to your taste)
• 6 strips bacon cooked and chopped
• 3 or 4 green onions, whites and green stalks
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup pimento cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Now the easy part.  Just combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon.  Don’t use a stand mixer, this will only shred your chicken.  Unless that’s what you are wanting.  I like mine with chunks of chicken.

I literally layered the ingredients in a large bowl as I listed and then mixed it all together.  Sprinkle with some celery seed and sliced green onion tops to make it pretty.  Then spread on your bread or lettuce leafs and enjoy.