Chinese Chicken Salad

• 2 or 3 cooked chicken breasts, cut in chunks 
• 1 large bell pepper, diced (you can use all green, or a mix of green and red for extra color)
• several green onions, finely chopped
• about a cup of diced celery
• 1 can of pineapple chunks or tidbits, well drained or equal quantity of fresh
• 1 tablespoon of chopped pimiento (I usually leave this out; mostly adds color)
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of chopped black olives
• 1 can mandarin oranges, drained (opt.)

Mix above in large bowl. 

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (not salad dressing)
• 1 tablespoon cream (this is to thin the dressing but a bit of milk will work, too)
• 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

This is the original dressing recipe but I also add a little garlic powder and Creole seasoning.

Immediately before serving, toss salad with dressing until well coated (you can adjust the amount of dressing if you need to).  Add one can of crunchy Chinese noodles and mix lightly.  Serve immediately.  I like to serve it with extra noodles to sprinkle on top.

This is my adaptation of a recipe that uses tuna instead of chicken.  It is quite flexible and you can adjust it to taste.  Sometimes I add other drained canned fruits or grapes.  You could add things like drained water chestnuts, snow peas, raw carrot, broccoli or other crunchy veggies. It tastes best when made with chicken that has been cooked on a grill with barbeque sauce or sweet and sour sauce so whenever you are cooking chicken this way, cook extra and make this salad the next night. 

I like to serve this with candied carrots and some type of roll or muffin.

If you think you might have leftovers, don’t add the noodles directly to the salad. Just put them on top of each portion so they don’t get soggy.