Chicken Salad Apple Bites

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Savory and sweet chicken salad sits on top of apple slices for a delicious and quick appetizer.  Chicken Salad Apple Bites are a perfect afternoon snack, easy appetizer, or quick nibble before dinner.  

This post is sponsored in conjunction with Apple Week . I received product samples from sponsor companies to aid in the creation of the Apple Week recipes. All opinions are mine alone.

 

It’s day two of Apple Week .  I hope y’all dropped by yesterday to see what everyone served up in the first day.  I did have a bit of a snafu with mine.  Apparently, I forgot we were doing a FULL seven days this year due to all the sponsors.  I thought for sure I had one more day to work on posts.

 

Yes, I realize that we plan for this event every year, but sometimes the sponsors don’t ship until it’s already September and, well, September sucks for me right now.  Being in finance in the Federal government this time of year pretty much sucks for everyone, but my little office is just the worst.  And a lot of pressure and responsibility is put on two of us every year.

 

 

There’s no spreading the love in my office.

 

Anyway, this post isn’t about work.  However, I could probably write a book with all the gripes I have about my job.  This post is about Apple Week and what I’m serving up for you today.  Chicken salad apple bites!

 

Last year I made a roasted cranberry chicken salad.  It went over really well!  So, that got me thinking of all those types of chicken salad I could make for events like this one.  It’s such a versatile dish that you could put pretty much anything in it.  Nuts, fruits, vegetables, mayonnaise, yogurt, cream cheese; you name it!  It’s like the chameleon of recipes.

 

 

I know what you’re thinking. 

 

“But, Christie, you don’t like the sweet and savory combination.  You’ve said so.  Repeatedly.”  I know, but for some reason chicken salad is different.  I like that little crunch of sweet from apples or grapes that you get in some chicken salads.  It just seems to bring out the richness of the chicken and all the other ingredients.  Which makes chicken salad that much more delicious!

 

Consequently, when it came time to plan my Apple Week recipes, I knew that a chicken salad had to be in there somewhere.  And, to make it even simpler, I made mine with some leftover roasted chicken.  Then I wandered around the pantry to see what was in there and stumbled on pecans.  Yes!  Added crunch!

 

 

Of course, it wasn’t enough to just have the apple in the chicken salad.  I thought, “Why not serve these appetizer style ON slices of actual apple?  It will be an apple bi-fecta!”  Genius!  But then I realized that I wanted to CORE the apples.  Because, well, eating the apple core isn’t the kind of crunch I was looking for in this recipe.

 

Then it hit me!  Put a little surprise slice of cheese to cover the core.  Voila!  It’ll be a little sharp cheddar surprise that your guests and family will not be expecting.  They will be wondering why the chicken salad isn’t falling through the apple core hole or thinking, “Man this is going ot be super crunchy if we’re to eat the core.”

 

SURPRISE!  No core and little cheeky cheddar core blocker.

 

 

My essential elements of chicken salad are chicken (duh), celery, onions, mayonnaise, garlic salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper.  Those are the die hard essential elements for me.

 

Now, I’ve been known to add green onions or red onions.  Sometimes I’ve use a sweet onion like a Vidalia.  I’ve added cranberries or apples, almonds or pecans, and even thrown in a radish or two for more crunch.  The crunchier the better in my book!

 

 

I’ve made it with straight mayonnaise or added Greek yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese, and sometimes mustard of some sort.  In this recipe I added some Dijon for a little extra kick.  I like the flavor it adds to these chicken salad apple bites.

 

I added a bit of paprika to these, too.  You can see it flecked in the mayonnaise and sour cream sauce.  Is it considered a sauce?  What do you really call it?  A dressing?  But it’s not really a dressing to me.  It’s much thicker than that.

 

 

Either way, this mayonnaise mixture is flecked with paprika, my own blend of poultry seasoning, garlic salt, lots of pepper, and a dash of Dijon mustard.  Tossed with the dressing is the chicken, celery, onion, diced apples, and chopped pecans.  All sitting on top of a slice of aged Irish Cheddar on top of a slice of delicious Envy apple.  I’ll be talking more about these apple later on in the week.

 

Make sure you enter the giveaway!  There are some great prizes to win!  And make sure to check out what the other bloggers are serving up today.  There’s some seriously drool worth recipes being shared this week.  You won’t want to miss a single one!

Monday’s Recipes: