Mural of Flavor Chicken Salad

Life has been a little less eventful around here the last few weeks. My hubby has been out of town for his rotations for the past couple months. He's been back on the weekends because he's only been a couple hours away, but it has just been animals and I kicking it most of the time.

As much as I love cooking, I've always found it hard to cook for 1 person. Anything you make, you end up eating the leftovers ALL WEEK, and after 4 or 5 days of the same thing, I'm definately ready for something new.

A couple weekends ago, we were out hunting for the dried chipotle peppers that I needed for these dark chocolate chipotle cookies, and we ended up at Penzey's Spices. While we were wandering through the store, my husband found a spice mixture called Mural of Flavor. It's a mixture of several spices (which I'm not for sure), shallots, onion, garlic, lemon peel, chives and orange peel and is suppose to make a pretty good turkey salad.

In addition to being home by myself, I am attempting to motivate myself to study for our chemotherapy exam on Friday. Think treatment regimes for every major type of cancer plus the worst form of alphabet soup possible - CVP, R-CHOP, FOLFIRI - I thought pneumonics were suppose to help you remember something!

Anyway, the salad... Turkey salad sandwhiches sounded a pretty good solution for a couple of quick meals for myself at home, so we decided to get some of the spice mixture.  Well, it wasn't quite turkey salad... but a rotisserie chicken quickly fixed that problem.

I unfortunately do not have any pictures of the finished sandwiches, but I can assure you that they were quite delicious! It wasn't as heavy on the mayonnaise as some other meat-salad sandwiches can be. Both the hubby and I really liked this fact. The reicpe card states that this would be a great solution for a lighter meal after Turkey day - I would have to agree. This may be one to bookmark for after the holidays next year (or just sub in some chicken and try it now)! Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Mural of Flavor Chicken Salad

Adapted from Penzey's Spice recipe card

Ingredients:

6 c. cubed chicken (leftover turkey)

2 Tbsp. Mural of Flavor

2 Tbsp. water

1/2 c. fat-free mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1-1/2 tsp. prepared Dijon mustard

1/3 c. dried cranberries

1/3 c. chopped pecans

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt (optional)

1-2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl, mix the Mural of Flavor with the water. Add the mayonnaise, vinegar, and mustand and mix well. Stir in the dried cranberries and the pecans. Add the chicken to the mixture and toss gently to coat. Add sugar, sald and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to eat.