Whole Foods Sonoma Chicken Salad recipe

My friend James loves the Sonoma Chicken Salad at Whole Foods. So I thought I would give it a try one day. I picked up a medium sized tub of it to bring home for lunch. I could not believe how much a little tub of chicken salad cost! It was 12 bucks. No. Way. 

I got home and tried the chicken salad. It was good. But jeez. 12 bucks? So I went on a hunt for the recipe. It was easy to find. Whole Foods has it right on their website. Yay!

I decided to made it one afternoon to take to the beach for a picnic with Don and Elli.  It was SO GOOD!  Even Don liked it. And he's not a big chicken salad kind of guy.  You have to try it the next time you're craving chicken salad. Here is my adaptation of the recipe. 

Summer Chicken Salad 
Adapted from Whole Foods

Dressing 
1 cup low-fat Hellman's or Best mayonnaise 
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar 
5 teaspoons honey 
2 teaspoons poppy seeds 
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Salad 
2 large, cooked, chicken breasts (from a roasted chicken or use leftover chicken)
3/4 cup pecan pieces, toasted, roughly chopped
2 cups red seedless grapes , sliced
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced

1. In a bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, honey, poppy seeds, salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to dress the salad. This can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. 

2. Remove breasts from chicken and dice into bite-size chunks and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in pecans, grapes, celery and dressing.

Viola. The best darn chicken salad you'll ever have.