Pecan Bacon Chicken Salad Sandwich

 Nutty, Creamy, Smooth!

I love a nice creamy chicken salad. I decided to take my traditional chicken salad and kick it up a lot! I started by roasting my chicken in a bunch of spices.

Next, I baked some nice crispy bacon and decided to go nuts, by adding a big handful of pecans to the mix. 

I must admit, sometimes I do make a chunky chicken salad. As I mentioned the other day, I have a bunch of my nephews staying with me for the summer and I needed a way to hide the veggies....by "blending" the veggies... they never knew it was full of vegetables. 

I saved some extra bacon and pecans to put on top of the salad before serving on freshly toasted Texas size bread.

Garnish with lettuce and tomatoes if you like, Big Goo was not having it, no lettuce and tomatoes for him and he added sliced cheese, go figure!


Pecan Bacon Chicken Salad Sandwich

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast
1 1/2 cups pecans, diced
1 pack of thick cut bacon
1 1/2 cups Hellman's mayonnaise
1/2 cup relish
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1 small white onion, diced
1 1/2 tablespoon creole seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon of black pepper
pinch of cayenne
extra virgin olive oil
Texas Toast

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all spices and set aside. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Place chicken on baking sheet and coat with olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle seasoning blend on chicken covering both sides and life the skin lightly to get seasonings under the skin.

Reserve remaining seasoning blend. Roast chicken for about 35 to 40 minutes are until chicken reaches 165 degrees. Remove chicken from oven and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place bacon on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes are until nice and crispy.

To assemble salad. Add vegetables and 1 cup of pecans to a food processor or blender, and mix well, making sure to not mush the vegetables up. Place mixture into a bowl. Shred chicken, discarding chicken bones.

Add chicken plus skin to food processor and process until nice and smooth. Place mixture in the bowl with the veggies. Mix in mayonnaise, relish and remaining seasoning blend. Mix well. Fold in bacon and remaining pecans, chopped coarsely, and mix well.

Chill salad until ready to serve. Serve on nice toasted bread with lettuce and tomatoes. Enjoy!