(not so) Fancy Chicken Salad

Our Daily Bread on King Street in Boone, NC is one of my favorite sandwich shops.  My favorite item on the menu... chicken salad.  It is all kinds of delicious.  When I moved off the mountain I had to start making my own chicken salad.  It's so simple yet delectably scrumptious. 

Anytime I have guests coming to play for the weekend I make a big bowl (a lunchtime specialty).  It is so easy, yet will make people think you spent quite a bit of time perfecting it in the kitchen. 

Directions:

Boil three chicken breasts.  If you're in a rush you can buy a roasted chicken at the grocery, just be sure to peel the skin off, use only the white meat, and get rid of the creepy veins (seriously).  Chop or shred the chicken after it cools. 

Chop 1/3 sweet onion. 

WASH and then halve two handfuls of grapes. 

Chop 1/4 cup of walnuts.  Many of you have fancy choppers.  I prefer to take it back to the basics and use a sandwich bag and hammer.  There is no reason to complicate things.

Add all ingredients to include a dollop of mayonnaise.  Now, this is really important.  If you want to make true, southern chicken salad only, I repeat ONLY use Duke's mayonnaise.  My family is so serious about this that we've been known to ship this delicacy up the eastern cost to Maine, and across the Atlantic to Ireland. 

Serve either on a bed of lettuce (my preference is romaine lettuce with balsamic vinaigrette) or croissants.  Trust me, it's a hit!