Portable Pesto Chicken Salad

A new twist on a familiar classic.

I’ve made traditional Southern Chicken Salad for years with eggs, mayo, celery, chopped dill pickles and sweet pickle relish. I love it! My husband isn’t a fan. He doesn’t like pickles. One day, John had grilled plenty of boneless chicken thighs and breasts, and I was looking for something to make with the leftovers. I took the grilled chicken and made a different kind of chicken salad – a riff on a Waldorf salad with crunchy celery, heart-healthy toasted walnuts and apple chunks but with a twist.

Savory, crunchy, heart-healthy with a twist.

I made my new recipe for my hubby and one of his friends, Toby, who stopped by the house. He also doesn’t like pickles and Southern chicken salad either (what’s with these two?), but he decided to give this chicken salad a go. He asked for seconds! This is great portable meal for fall tailgating using crisp apples. If you're watching summer baseball games, you could create a Sandwich Bar – bowls of pimento and cheese, platters of sliced ham, mounds of chicken salad and some greens – leaf lettuce, arugula, a plate of sliced garden tomatoes and an assortment of breads – pumpernickel, croissants, wheatberry or white. Now that's a game-changer!

I use a lot of limes for cooking. The acidic punch is great for so many dishes. At the grocery store, I buy the organic ones by the bag because I often zest the lime with a micro planer and I don't want residual chemical. The zest has a lot of the essential oil and flavor. Then I take a wooden handheld juicer to get the juice. Nothing goes to waste. Limes can really vary in size and in how juicy they. Try one in the recipe, but if you like a little more zing, add the other one. It cuts the richness of the pesto nicely. On this recipe, you can use canned chicken, chopped rotisserie chicken, even boiled chicken. I prefer it grilled for the most flavor.