Wild Rice Chicken Salad

"Tuna salad, chicken salad, macaroni salad? Who the hell cares! It's all just another word for 'mayonnaise'!"
-Roseanne*

I love all kinds of salads. If I had to choose one food to eat for every meal, it would probably some sort of chicken salad. Mixtures and assortments of foods are delicious, especially when bound by some sort of deliciously high-calorie dressing, be it mayonnaise or not.

This is a new recipe for Chicken Rice Salad that I acquired from Sara at our enrichment recipe swap. Last month's topic was salad, and everybody raved about this one. I think it is pretty flexible, as you could add any leftover vegetable odds and ends or really anything else that strikes your fancy. You could substitute the regular peas for snow peas. Make it without the chicken if you want to. BUT I wouldn't swap out the avocados or the chopped pecans, as they balance a very acidic dressing. When I made it at home, I didn't really follow the measurements for the vegetables and I served it in a pita (though it was also delicious on its own).

* If I remember correctly, this show was forbidden in my house. Somehow I watched it anyway. Sorry Mom. I guess you found the Roseanne family trashy and offensive, but somehow I have remembered this quote for years because to me, it was offensive. How could she insult some of my favorite salads like that? And also, is she right? Because if she is, that means I like mayonnaise a whole lot more than I thought. I'm not a food snob or anything, but that is so trashy.

Chicken and Wild Rice Salad

2 Packets of wild rice mix, prepared according to directions
(the packets I used contained about 2 or 3 servings each)
juice of 1 small
lemon
3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

4 chopped green onions
3 oz snow peas
1 diced red pepper
2 avocados
1 C chopped pecans

Dressing:
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t
salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 C rice wine vinegar

stir the rice, chicken, vegetables, and pecans together. Add some of the
lemon, but not all as you will add the rest to taste later on. Emulsify dressing
ingredients in a food processor or blender and stir about half of the dressing
into the salad and taste. Add more to taste and allow salad to sit overnight to
allow flavors to mellow and blend. Keep the dressing and lemon juice- you might
want to add more tomorrow.