The Problem with School Lunch – Chicken Salad

I was traumatized as a kid; scarred for life. To this day, I can only eat peanut butter and jelly on toast.

I used to take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school for lunch on days when I wasn’t tortured with meatloaf (a story for another day). Peanut butter, grape jelly – only grape jelly – on squishy white bread, with an apple. The problem arose because I didn’t have a lunch box; I was only granted a brown paper bag. In the mix of my backpack, in which I stuffed a myriad of loose papers, books, and other important middle school supplies, my lunch jostled around and smashed. Almost every day the sandwich molded around the apple, forming a soggy, purplish mass. It was awful.

I suppose I could have carried the brown paper bag in my hand, outside of my backpack, and that would have saved me a lifetime’s worth of grief, but that never occurred to my 6^th grade brain. Switching to a sturdier variety of bread was not an option. I also probably could have asked my parents for a lunch box, but I didn’t. Now, on those rare occasions when I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich – with jams far more sophisticated than grape jelly – I will only eat it on toast, so there is no chance of sodden, purple, jelly-stained bread.

As I head back to school this week to teach another year, I am thinking about what I can take for lunch. I can’t toast bread at school; peanut butter and jelly won’t happen. Nowadays, I usually take a salad in some form or another. But I get sick of salads, so from time to time, I take leftovers or recycle last night’s dinner into something new. A perfect example is chicken salad.

To make chicken salad, all you need is leftover chicken; really any type of leftover chicken. It can be grilled chicken breast that didn’t make it onto a salad or sandwich, or kebabs from a Mediterranean meal the night before. The most obvious is leftover rotisserie chicken from the supermarket or one I roast at home, picked clean from the bone. Of course you can always prepare chicken specifically for chicken salad by grilling, roasting, or poaching it, but leftovers are the way to go.

Once you have the meat cooked and cut or torn into pieces, there are many different types of chicken salad to be made. Traditional, with mayonnaise and maybe a bit of onion and celery is my go to order from any local deli (on a roll with bacon, lettuce, and tomato, please). In a light vinaigrette, with olives, capers, or some other tart, pickled vegetable would be nice. But when I make it at home I usually add toasted nuts, chunks of red pepper, and sweet raisins, mixed together with the chicken in a little mayo. However you make chicken salad it will be delicious, and as long as you don’t let it get smashed in your backpack, I guarantee there will be no trauma.

Chicken Salad

10 minutes, serves 2-3

2 cups cooked chicken, cut or torn into bite-size pieces

⅓ cup red bell pepper, seeded, stemmed, and chopped

⅓ cup slivered almonds (or other nut), toasted to golden brown in the oven, toaster oven, or a skillet

⅓ cup raisins (or dried cranberries)

4 Tbsp. mayonnaise

¼ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper

• Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

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