Chicken Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

There are some nights during the summer when it's just too darn hot to cook and even going outside to grill is painful because of the heat and humidity. It's on those nights when you want something that is light and refreshing. The dish has to satisfy your hunger while not leaving you with a bloated feeling and you saying to yourself, "why did I eat so much, because all I want to do is take a nap!"
This simple and delicious recipe fits the bill. It is light. It is refreshing. And using up left over cooked chicken from another dinner, there's hardly any cost to the meal at all. Chicken Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing served over a crunchy iceberg lettuce cup with some sliced melon on the side will fill the hunger void and you'll still be able to get up and move after you finish your dinner.

I've had a container of poppy seeds for a long time. I think I purchased them with the intention of someday making some home made hard rolls with poppy seeds on top or perhaps some New York style bagels with poppy seeds. Well those ideas never became a reality. If they had I certainly would have blogged about them.

Using up the left-over chicken to make chicken salad was easy but I wanted a different flavor profile, so I created this poppy seed dressing. Killing two birds with one stone: using up left-overs and using some of the millions of poppy seeds in the container!

• 2 - 2 1/2 cups left-over chicken
• 1/4 cup onion - small dice
• 1/4 cup celery - small dice
• cracked black pepper to taste
• Iceberg or other lettuce leaves

For the dressing:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. poppy seeds

1. Dice up your chicken meat into small pieces and place in a good sized bowl.
2. Dice the onion and celery and add to the chicken.
3. Grind some fresh ground black pepper to taste over the chicken mixture and toss with a large spoon or your clean hands.
4. In a measuring cup add the mayonnaise, sugar, cider vinegar and poppy seeds. Whisk together.
5. Add the dressing to the chicken mixture and mix well to coat.
6. Lay out the lettuce leaves on a plate and scoop out as much of the chicken salad as you want.

This amount of chicken serves about four portions. We had sliced cantaloupe melon pieces to go along with the chicken salad and it was such a great light Summer night supper.