Easy Chicken Salad Sandwiches. Delicious Chicken Salad loaded with chicken, green onion, celery and all things yummy; served with incredible homemade light and fluffy cream puffs.
Chicken Salad Cream Puff Sandwiches
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Fanciful Thoughts and Flirty Foods
As I sit here ready to write this post I keep glancing at the flowers I have on my table top.
I caught myself feeling fanciful earlier this week when I bought myself a bouquet of spring flowers. They are large white flowers and tiny pink ones. They are bright and flirty and I love them. The little pink buds are first kisses and blushing and stomach butterflies. The bigger white flowers are friendship and laughs and happiness.
If I could create a food that represented this beautiful bouquet I find lightening my soul right this moment; it would be cream puffs. Cream puffs are light and fluffy, bright and flirty, they are kisses and butterflies.
But what of something more substantial? What of the white flowers? That’s where we add the chicken salad; The chicken salad is where we find the meat and depth of this beautiful relationship.
Cream Puffs
For these light, crisp and perfect Cream Puffs; we make the dough, separate it into shape, and then freeze it. Then when we do bake the puffs; we bake them frozen. By freezing them, the cream puffs will cook up more crisp in shell. However, the longer a cream puff sits, the softer it’s shell will become. A wonderful benefit to freezing the cream puff dough before baking them is that you can make the whole batch of dough at once and then just bake as many as you want at a time; therefore guaranteeing a fresh crisp puff each time.
So while the initial work may seem intense (but not really! You just need to read the instructions and you will realize these are truly quite easy to make), it then pays off for meals at a time.
*Please note that the Frozen Cream Puff dough can be kept in your freezer for up to a month.
*To freeze the dough in shape, you will want a muffin pan. Preferably a silicone one for ease in removing the frozen puffs, however any muffin tin will do.
Chicken Salad
Growing up, my mother always made Chicken Salad that she then served on croissant rolls. I loved those chicken salad sandwiches! My mom would make them for all special occasions; baby showers, bridal showers, weddings, and all other celebratory moments.
My mother’s chicken salad sandwiches had celery, chicken, green onion, and grapes. I love the crunch of the celery with the soft chicken; I love the sweetness of the grapes; and chicken salad just wouldn’t be as good if it didn’t have the subtle flavor of the green onion.
In my chicken salad sandwiches recipe I have changed the home of the chicken salad and I have also omitted the grapes. However, while I do love the grapes and the sweetness they add, I have come to find I like the texture of the salad better without them. I am a tactile and texture oriented person, especially when it comes to my palate. If texture is not a big deal for you, then I highly suggest you try making these chicken salad sandwiches with grapes or pineapple some time.
Let me know if you prefer it more with out without the sweetness! Either way I’d love to hear back from you.
Okay, enough talk! I’m ready to smell my pretty flowers and then bake up a couple cream puffs from my freezer. Let’s eat!
Recipe for Chicken Salad Sandwiches:
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 1/4 cup Water
- 10 TBS Butter
- 1 cup Flour
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 4 extra-large Eggs, or 5 regular to small Eggs
- 1/3 cup Green Onions, minced small
- 1 cup Celery, diced small
- 3 cups Chicken, cooked and roughly shredded (I often use rotisserie chicken)
- 1 tsp dried or partially-dried Parsley
- 1 TBS Chives (or partially-dried Chives, if you use dried chives cut the amount down by half)
- 1 scant cup Mayonnaise
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- *Optional Ingredients: Grapes, Pineapple, Apple, walnuts, pecans or Craisins
Instructions
- Combine water, butter and salt in a saucepan over med-high-high heat.
- Bring to a light boil and then remove from the heat.
- Stir in all the flour. and continue to stir for 2 minutes until the mixture has become paste-like.
- Then place the pan back on the heat and turn it down to medium.
- Stir rapidly and let the dough cook for 2 more minutes, until the dough becomes glossy and smooth looking.
- Transfer the dough to your kitchen mixer mixing bowl, turn the mixer to low and let it mix for approximately 45 seconds to a minute, then add 1 egg.
- Continue adding the eggs one at a time, letting it mix for one minute at a time before each addition.
- Increase the speed of the mixer to medium for an extra 30 seconds or so until eggs are well incorporated.
- Transfer the dough by large 1/2 cup spoonfuls into the cups of a (nonstick sprayed) muffin tray.
- Get your fingers wet and shape the dough blobs into something beautiful.
- Cover the molds with plastic wrap and freeze the puffs for at least 6 hours.
- In a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment, put all ingredients (except the optional fruit) into bowl.
- Stir on low until all the ingredients are well combined but be sure to stop the mixer before they've been turned to mush.
- By hand, Stir in fruit if there is any.
- Add Salt and Pepper to taste.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Unmold the cream puffs and arrange them 2 inches apart from each other on a sheetpan.
- Bake 25 minutes. Then lower the over to 325 F. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN.
- Bake for another 13-15 minutes until your puffs are a med-dark gold and feel hollow.
- Let them cool completely before you fill them with Chicken Salad.
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