RE-cipe sharing: Chicken Monique salad

The ladies above are having my usual ladies' luncheon meal of cranberry gelatin salad, Chicken Monique, green salad and mini muffins.  You can find our grandmother's FANTASTIC Cranberry gelatin salad HERE.

At this shower, I seated my mother-in-law, Sherry, our mother, and some of their friends together.  You may notice that the serving of Chicken Monique has already disappeared off some plates.   That is not surprising.  It certainly disappears off my plate very quickly. 

This is my favorite chicken salad recipe.  I serve it at almost every shower and everybody likes it.  To dress up the salad, I serve it in a baked pie crust and top it with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese.  This is the way chicken salad was served at one of my favorite restaurants that has since closed.  At the restaurant, the chicken salad served as a slice of pie was called Chicken Monique.

Chicken salad
4 servings
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper (if you don't like pepper, reduce to 1/4 teaspoon)
2 lbs. chicken cubed
3 cups seedless grapes halved
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup celery slices

Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper in one bowl.  In another bowl, combine chicken, grapes, pecans and celery.  Add the mayonnaise mixture to the chicken until it is all mixed.  Chill. Serve over lettuce leaf.

For Chicken Monique, you will need
 1 frozen pastry pie shell
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

To serve the Chicken Salad in the Chicken Monique style, bake a frozen pie shell per instructions.  Let cool.  Fill pie shell with chicken salad, mounding the salad a little in the center.  Cover the chicken salad with 1/2 cup sour cream.  Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top. Put the pie in the refrigerator for at least three hours.  Slice the pie into five slices and serve.

WRITTEN BY REBA