Mom's Favorite: Sonoma Chicken Salad

Every week my mom goes to Whole Foods and all she does is rave about their amazing Sonoma Chicken Salad.  I have never been a gianormous fan of chicken salad/potato salad/egg salad because of how much mayo can be in those things.  Not only do I enjoy eating healthy, but I really just don't like the taste of mayo that much.

I found a recipe for "Sonoma Chicken Salad" over at Cooking Classy (a fantastic site...go check it out!) and I thought it would be really cute to make some for my mommy for lunch.  Instead of mayo, I used greek yogurt, and I threw in some chopped red grapes because I know how much she likes those.  The chicken salad was amazing! It tasted light, delicious, and a little sweet.  I was thrilled with how it came out and I'll definitely be taking this as lunch when I start camp.  I asked my mom how it compared to the store's and she thought it was very good, but she still would get the store's stuff if she didn't have time to whip up this recipe.  I was a little sad that my recipe didn't blow her away...

But then, I went with her to the store and I discovered that the guy at the deli counter, who knows that her favorite is the chicken salad and offers her free samples of anything she wants, is extremely good looking.  That explained a lot!

Sonoma Chicken Salad (adapted from Cooking Classy)

Ingredients:
2 medium chicken breasts, cooked with a little olive oil (I used stuff from Sonoma, California!), salt and pepper, and shredded
3 celery stalks, chopped
2/3 cup pecans, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup red grapes, halved or quartered
2 tbsp parmesan cheese, shredded
For the dressing:
2/3 cup non-fat greek yogurt
1/4 cup apple juice
3 tbsp honey
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp yellow mustard
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Toss the shredded chicken, chopped celery, pecans, dried cranberries, grapes, and cheese in a large bowl.
2. Whisk all the dressing ingredients together, add salt and pepper to taste, add more honey if you want it a little sweeter.
3. Pour dressing over the chicken mixture (I only used about 3/4 of the dressing) and toss to evenly coat. Eat on it's own, as a sandwich, or, as we did it, with toasted pita bread...mmm!
Enjoy :)