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Salad with chicken walnuts and cheese

Layered Chicken Salad with Walnuts and Cheese

Colorful, made from everyday ingredients, and easy to put together! This chicken, walnut, and cheese salad bends to whatever you have on hand — switch up the cheese and the whole flavor shifts. Build it in tidy layers or just toss it in a bowl, for a holiday spread or an ordinary weeknight dinner.

Maria

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Chicken breast

350

Hard cheese

150

Walnuts

100

Apple (sweet-tart and juicy)

Mayonnaise

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 39 % 16 g

Fats 54 % 22 g

Carbohydrates 7 % 3 g

272 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make this easy chicken, walnut, and cheese salad? Gather your ingredients. Besides chicken breast, you can use meat from chicken drumsticks or thighs — it'll only make the salad juicier.
Step 2:

Boil the chicken breast in salted water until cooked through. Cool it and cut it into small cubes. Tip: if you cook the chicken ahead, say the night before, leave it sitting in its broth so it doesn't dry out or lose its juiciness.
Step 3:

Grate the cheese on the coarse or medium side of a box grater.
Step 4:

Finely chop the walnuts with a knife or pulse them in a blender. Set aside a few whole halves to garnish the salad.
Step 5:

Peel and core the apple, then quickly grate the flesh on the coarse side. Prep the apple dead last, after everything else. To keep it from browning so fast, sprinkle the grated flesh with a little lemon juice. Use a juicy, sweet-tart apple — Granny Smith or a similar variety is ideal.
Step 6:

Build this salad in a clear glass bowl, or on a plate inside a cooking ring, so the layers show. Start with a layer of chicken and smooth it out. My breast came out a bit more than I needed, so to keep the salad from drying out under a thick layer of chicken, I split it into two layers. Top with mayonnaise — I spooned mine into a piping bag and snipped the tip to spread it neatly over each layer.
Step 7:

Spread the grated apple over the chicken in an even layer and top it with mayonnaise as well.
Step 8:

Next I spread out the remaining chicken and topped it with mayonnaise too.
Step 9:

The next layer is grated cheese and mayonnaise.
Step 10:

The final layer is chopped walnuts. Press the salad down lightly with your hands or a flat tamper. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours so the layers meld. If you're leaving it longer, cover the mold with plastic wrap.
Step 11:

Before serving, lift off the cooking ring and garnish as you like. I used walnut halves, cherry tomatoes, and sprigs of rosemary. Enjoy!

Homemade mayonnaise is well worth it here — tastier and better for you. (There are some good homemade mayo recipes on the site.) You can also dress the salad with sour cream or plain yogurt instead of mayonnaise, or blend them with mayo in any ratio you like to lighten it up.