Get your apple pickin’ pants ready because the blog is about to be full of apple recipes!! My family and I have made visiting the apple orchard an annual tradition. I swear there’s something in the air over there – we always end up leaving super happy and with way too many apples and fall food mixes. Who am I kidding? You can never have too much of either. We looooooooooooove fall!
With my husband being home for a couple of weeks, we decided to venture over to the orchard during the week to avoid the crowds. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and it was so nice being able to stroll through the orchard’s store and outdoor area peacefully. We were bummed to find out the apple picking portion of the orchard isn’t opened during the week, but plan to go back again before we enter into pumpkin season. Give me all the apples!
We currently have apples at home and plan on getting more when we go picking, which got me thinking how nice it would be to have a couple of staple recipes on hand to be able to use the apples we have at home. Not that I’m complaining about just munching on plain apples and peanut butter.
While brainstorming some recipes, I remembered we had some leftover chicken my mom brought over after Emory was born, and to me, leftover chicken almost always equals chicken salad. That’s right, I decided to put together a crunchy, salty and sweet chicken salad that screams “I LOVE FALL!” Yes, the chicken salad is that dramatic.
To give you the rundown, this chicken salad is made up of chicken (duh!), bacon, diced red apples, fresh thyme, pecans and maple syrup (hello sweetness!). So, after a nice trip to the apple farm, I suggest you make a trip to the grocery store to gather the rest of the ingredients for this recipe. It’s a fall recipe you don’t want to miss! If you end up making it, don’t forget to tag #marinamakeseats!
Apple, Bacon & Maple Chicken Salad
Makes about 4 cups of chicken salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
- 2 cups of cooked chicken, chopped into bite-size cubes (recommend buy a rotesserie chicken)
- 1/2 cup of diced sweet, red apples
- 1/3 cup of walnuts, roughly chopped
- 4 slices of cooked bacon, chopped
- 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine Greek yogurt, olive oil, fresh thyme, salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Add chicken, diced apples, chopped walnuts, bacon and maple syrup and stir to combine.
Place chicken salad on top of toasted multi-grain bread or a bagel. It’s also good enough to eat on it’s own!
Marina Makes 