Cooka-cooka-coo!

My absence can only be explained by a never-ending desire for homemade chicken salad that has required me to run all over town finding croissants and spending my time meticulously removing the good stuff from chicken bones and making sure nothing... questionable... enters my salad, followed by my quest to recreate the perfect honey mustard dressing one of my first employers, Everyday Gourmet (it was a high-end deli - are we surprised? I didn't think so) used on their amazing sandwiches. And so, here I am, ready to share my wealth of new knowledge with you. My mom made a casual mention of her delicious curried chicken salad when we talked earlier this week which may have set the wheels of desire in motion for me, but after some unofficial data collection via blogs and message boards, it seems true that every pregnant woman everywhere starts craving chicken salad after they get over being utterly repulsed by meat. Was/is this true for you?

I'm no chicken salad connoisseur, but I've taken what I think is a more traditional chicken salad approach this week. Here it is:

I don't measure very well, so basically I take equal parts cut up chicken, halved grapes, and chopped walnuts, add about half a chopped onion, and whatever fresh or dried herb seems appropriate that I have (this week I've used fresh oregano and dried sage, and a third batch without any herbal enhancements). To this I add enough plain Greek yogurt to get it moist enough for my liking (ha ha, I said moist!), some lemon juice (1/4 to 1/2 a lemon depending how much salad there is-- the lemon should enhance the other flavors, not overwhelm them), and freshly ground salt and pepper. I had been adding a bit of Dijon mustard into the mix, until I started making some honey mustard sauce which I now excessively slather across the croissant. The sauce: roughly equal parts plain yogurt, honey, and Dijon mustard, a little rice wine vinegar, and salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Slice a croissant (or other desired carbo bundle) and enjoy 37 seconds in heaven, or however long it takes you to inhale.

If you have a favorite chicken salad recipe, will you post it in the comments so that I can explore my options?