Quickie: Pesto Chicken Salad

Got some leftover pesto from the linguini orgy? Put it to good use!

I made an amazingly tasty chicken salad out of these ingredients:


To be more specific, how about a recipe?

Pesto Chicken Salad

1 Cup of cooked chicken, diced
3 Green onions, chopped and sauteed
1/4 Cup of Almonds, broken
1/4 Cup of shredded, hard cheese (I used Asiago, but Cheddar or Parmesean would be nice as well)
1/4 Cup of Pesto
1/4 Cup of Mayo
1/4 Cup of Miracle Whip

Notes on this recipe:

Firstly, meat is always better when there is visible browning. There are two reasons 1) Browning Causes Sugars to Caramelize, which produces a deeper, more complex flavor for the meat. and 2) It looks better. The meat looks cooked, and therefore more appetizing. Remember, you always eat with your eyes first!

I suppose you could skip the browning of the green onions, but I think they taste too harsh that way. And raw onions overpower other flavors too much.

Crushed Almonds? Throw 'em in a sandwich bag and whack 'em with a rolling pin, skillet, or dead cat.

Finally, I don't like the way that all mayo tastes (greasy, gloppy, pore-cloggingly thick), and I don't like the way that all Miracle Whip tastes (sickeningly sweet, trailer-trashy) -- but split they taste great.

And one more photo of the end result: