Summery Chicken Salad

I guess one cannot have too many chicken salad recipes.  I posted one I created during the 2020 pandemic while at the same time, adding My Number One Fan's favorite chicken salad recipe. Hers is arguably more Southern in its ingredients and flavor profile because it contains boiled eggs.  Today was really a serendipitous discovery of a recipe that would incorporate some things in our pantry we needed to eat sooner than later, namely a bag of Sun-Maid Golden Raisins, some Granny Smith Apples, an opened bag of pine nuts and a can of Swanson's Chunk White Chicken.  The latter would be the big departure from my other chicken salad recipes, found here, which make use of boneless, skinless chicken thighs that have been cooked and diced.

To be honest, I had a slight aversion to using canned chicken.  I'm not sure why.  But I got over my aversion once I tasted how well it works in this bright, fresh recipe that My Number One Fan said when she read the ingredients, "Wow, sounds cool and summery!"  So, there ya go.

Needless to say, you could easily substitute your own cooked chicken or even use leftover store-bought rotisserie chicken.  But for convenience and keeping it easy, the canned version works very well here.

Ingredients
1 12.5-oz can chunked chicken (like, Swanson's Premium White Chuck Chicken Breast)
1 medium Granny Smith, Honeycrisp or Fuji apple, peeled, cored and diced
2-3 celery stalks, finely diced
2-3 green onions, finely chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp course sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried dill
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 cup golden raisins (like, Sun-Maid)
1/4 cup pine nuts

The Recipe
First, add the diced apples and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl and toss well to coat the apples. This will keep them from turning brown while you finish preparing the recipe.

Drain the canned chicken well, and then lay it out on a cutting board.  You'll find the pieces are of an inconsistent size.  Remedy that by cutting the chicken chunks into more or less uniform diced pieces.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the mayonnaise and stir well to combine.  Add the mayonnaise and fold it into the mixture so that everything is coated.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours before eating.  This recipe is recommend on slices of whole-grain bread with leafy lettuce and served as a sandwich.