I made an avocado chicken salad a couple weeks ago and was HOOKED.
I have never been a big "chicken salad" fan because of the mayonnaise. I gave up eating mayonnaise YEARS ago and just can't bring myself to eat it. When I saw it called for avocado instead of mayonnaise, I KNEW I had to try it. Plus, all the ingredients were REAL ingredients. A friend suggested adding jalapeño; the only change she made when she tried it, and I can't imagine NOT adding a jalapeño to this recipe. Then I saw a recipe for Chicken Avocado Soup. Sure the ingredient list doesn't look much different than Chicken Tortilla Soup, BUT it LOOKS like Avocado Chicken Salad in soup form! I wanted it! After that I saw the Guacamole Deviled Eggs. And I had to make those too!
With the ever looming "problem" of avocado not lasting long on the island counter, I was able to accomplish Avocado Chicken Salad and Avocado Deviled Eggs. The ingredients are almost exactly the same; it just depends on which part of the chicken you are going to use: chicken breast or eggs? And because my eggs looked VERY sad after de-shelling (the "secret" to make it easy does NOT work for me), I decided to make an avocado egg salad as well!
Avocado - Take Your Pick - Chicken Salad, Deviled Eggs, or Egg Salad
What You Need: (for Avocado Mix)
1 avocado (more if you want MORE avocado flavor/green coloring or covering/moisture
Salt and Pepper - to taste
1 SMALL jalapeño (mine came from my garden, is ANGRY hot, and smaller than my thumb
1 green onion (I only used MAYBE a third of mine and only the green part)
1 clove of garlic
Lime juice - 1Tbsp or so
SMALL bunch of cilantro - about 1Tbsp
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| Can you find the TINY jalapeño from the garden? These things have been ANGRY hot (this is #3 so far this season) so this tiny guy is PERFECT for this amount of avocado mix. |
For Chicken Salad: Add a chicken breast (depending on how large a breast you have, you'll want to increase the rest of the ingredients to coat the entire breast (see photo below)) and season your breast and cook on a skillet or boil with an onion (or shallot, garlic, etc.)
For Deviled Eggs: Add 6-7 eggs (my eggs looked VERY sad after being de-shelled, so I ended up using 7 eggs total and paprika.
For Egg Salad: Add 6-7 eggs (again my eggs looked sad after de-shelling, so I only made ONE avocado deviled egg (2 halves) and the remainder of the eggs I chopped up for the egg salad; only using the YELLOW yolks and tossing out any grey ones. And paprika.
Halve your avocado and take out the pit. Score it with a small knife. Scoop out your avocado into a mixing bowl. Mince up the jalapeño, green onion, garlic, and cilantro.
Add your jalapeño, green onion, garlic, and cilantro to your avocado. Add salt and pepper and a tablespoon or so of lime juice. Mash/Mix it all around.
Then it's time for deciding what to do next!
For Avocado Chicken Salad:
Cook your seasoned chicken breast on the skillet, boil it, or cook it in the oven. Pull it and add to your avocado mix. Serve. Eat and ENJOY!
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| This was my FIRST Avocado Chicken Salad and I wish I had used MORE avocado. |
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| A separate batch looking more moist/green/delicious/avocado-y! |
It's good the next day too! And because of the lime juice, it doesn't brown! (That is, IF you don't consume the entire thing in one sitting the first day. You'll see I didn't leave a whole lot for a second meal. And my chicken breast size range in weight between 14oz and 1lb.)
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| Second Day Avocado Chicken Salad |
For Avocado Deviled Eggs:
I have been trying the "secret to easy peeling hard boiled eggs" now three go arounds and it is just NOT working for me. So, I'll say hard boil your eggs however works best for you because the ice over the hot eggs just doesn't work for me. (I'll try playing bumper cars next time, but after that I'm over it.)
I DO place my eggs in a pot, add water to cover them and turn on the stove top. I let the water come to a boil and then I turn the burner to low and wait for the water to reboil. Once the water has begun to boil again, I usually let the eggs sit 5-10 minutes before turning the water off and let them sit/set for 20 minutes. This ensures yellow yolks without the grey ring; this HAS worked for me the last three attempts at icing my eggs.
Halve your eggs.
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| These eggs have the grey ring because I just boiled them for 20 minutes straight. |
Now, scoop out the yolk. I personally did not add the yolk back into the avocado mix, but it was because I wanted to get an egg half in my mouth and I wasn't going to be patient enough to mash in the egg yolk to the avocado mix. I suggest if you do add in the egg yolk, you add more of the avocado mix ingredients. (But it tasted DELICIOUS without. Although I'm sure it tastes just as good with the yolk in too; although you might lose some of the green color.)
All you need to do now is scoop in some avocado mix and sprinkle some paprika over these babies. Then DEVOUR them!
For Avocado Egg Salad:
Hard boil your eggs. (Or use your leftovers from your Avocado Deviled Egg attempt; mine looked FUNKY after trying to peel them, so they were PERFECT for egg salad.) Peel them and start chopping them up!
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| See how "not happy" these eggs look after de-shelling? I think they wanted to be turned into egg salad instead of deviled eggs. |
Then add you egg bits and pieces to your avocado mix and sprinkle paprika on top.
Mash/Mix it altogether and serve yourself a plate. Or bowl. Or plastic container; just make sure you get some. Then BEFORE you take a bite, package the leftovers. Trust me.. you might inadvertently eat ALL of it if you don't.
I can vouch for ALL three of these avocado recipes. They're healthy AND delicious! The problem.. I don't keep even mashed avocado mix in my house for very long. Two meals TOPS. Speaking of.. I'm feeling a little snackish.
Look out Mr. Avocado. Look out..
P.S. I should add that if you let your egg salad sit in the refrigerator.. the flavors just get BETTER! Lay it on a bed of lettuce.. DELICIOUS!
