Creamy, Crunchy, Chewy, Curried Chicken Salad (Gluten Free, too!)

Join me in the following chant: Creamy, crunchy, chewy, yeah! Creamy, crunchy, chewy, yeah! Those three alliteration-worthy descriptor words quite successfully boast the goodness of this wonderful curried chicken salad.  I adored this beautiful golden-hued salad and so did my youngest daughter.

We made it together, actually, and she did most of the work. (Doesn't everyone wish they had a red panda shirt like my little gal?) Now that she's homeschooled, we are spending more time together in the kitchen. (Not just cooking either ... today we made invisible ink to write coded messages like the Patriot's did in the American Revolution! Um, then we, um, proceeded to make secret coded messages for the entire family. hehe) Okay, back to the recipe.

For those of you who are wrinkling your brow wondering if you're ready to venture into the curry-flavors of the world, let me assure you that this is the recipe for you. It is not spicy at all, but does explode with terrific texture ... creamy, crunchy, and chewy, yeah! Plus, it calls for curry powder as opposed to assembling multiple spices that are par for the course when actually making a curry. Make sense?

Anywhoooo ... this couldn't be simpler, is delicious the moment it's made, and tastes outstanding the next day. It would feel right at home as part of a luncheon menu to serve to guests as well as everday lunch fare. Little curry girl and I ate ours right off the plate. I even licked the serving spoon and was tempted to lick my plate, as well.

Here's what you need:

1/4 cup sliced almonds (or chopped peanuts or cashews)

3 cups cooked chicken, cubed

Scant 1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup plain yogurt (Greek style is AWESOME!)

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup red grapes, sliced in half

1/4 cup raisins (or diced dried apricots)

1 Tbsp snipped cilantro

In a saucepan over medium heat, carefully toast almonds. Remove from heat and let cool. In a large mixing bowl, whip yogurt, mayo, curry powder, and cilantro until creamy. Fold in chicken, almonds, and raisins. Carefully fold in grapes. Serve. Tastes even better the next day. Can be served as is, over lettuce greens, or as a sandwich filling. YUM! And obviously, this is gluten free all the way, baby!

In case anyone is wondering where I've been lately, here's a hint. First, Blogger has changed how to post things and I get so many error messages when I try to post that I'm seriously considering moving the blog. Second, now that I'm homeschooling two out of three kids, spare time goes to shuttling all three to track practices and meets. Here's proof: Check out my 14 year old son running at the meet this past weekend. It's stunning how much a kid can change in just a couple of months. Click on the photo to enlarge it. We call him the "man-child"!  :-)