Hi, I'm Dr. Josh Axe and welcome to my kitchen.
This week we're going to be making chicken salad, and this is one of my favorite recipes
because it's easy, it's fun, and you can actually get pretty creative with it.
We're going to do some basic chicken salad right now.
You're going to start off with two chicken breasts.
Now you can cook this any way you want.
You can boil it, you can fry it up in a skillet, or you can actually even put it on the grill.
What we did, though, is we actually went ahead and just boiled it.
And so we're going to take a couple chicken breasts here and these are already cooked.
And what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and just cut these up.
You can shred it, you can cut it.
It's up to you.
We're just going to go ahead and cut this in thin slices.
Some people like it a little chunkier, but this is kind of what we start doing.
So you just take a knife and just start getting this chicken cut like so.
Now in this recipe we're using organic, free range chicken.
The reason we don't use conventional chicken is most chickens have actually been kept in
a coop, they've been injected with steroids and antibiotics and all kinds of other dangerous
chemicals and that's why we always go organic and natural with our chicken.
We're going to go ahead and just take the chicken and put it in a bowl here, like so.
Then we're going to go ahead and start slicing up some celery.
Celery is great because it's full of electrolytes.
A lot of people don't know that.
So it's actually good to eat after you're done working out, it's actually good for recovery.
You're just going to cut these in thin slices like so, but it's full of good sodium, full
of potassium, magnesium, and a lot of the other good trace minerals and electrolytes.
You're going to be using about two to three cups of celery, really just depending on your
preference.
That's the great thing about chicken salad.
You can fancy it up.
Today we're using grapes and walnuts and celery, but you can throw in blueberries and apples
and sliced almonds and kind of anything you want in this.
But again, we'll take about two to three cups here of the celery.
We already have a little bit cut up, so we're just going to add that to it, and mix this
in the bowl here with the chicken.
The next thing we're going to do is we're going to add some grapes.
Grapes are great because they contain what's called Resveratrol, which is a potent antioxidant.
It's the same antioxidant that's found in red wine.
What we do is we actually take the grape and we're going to just cut it in about quarter
slices or so, like this, and then we're going to add those to the mix.
And just a little fact here a lot of Americans don't realize, is we are really deficient
as a country in antioxidants.
Okinawa, one of the countries that has the longest life expectancy, has about eight times
the levels of antioxidants that we do in America.
It's a type of antioxidant that's a flavonoid, like in grapes that has Resveratrol, again,
a very good antioxidant.
The next thing we're going to add in are some walnuts here.
Now these have been chopped, and you can do larger ones, you can do smaller ones, it's
kind of up to your preference in here.
We put about a fourth of a cup.
Now sometimes I add more, sometimes I add as much as a cup.
Walnuts are great because they contain Omega 3 fatty acids, the same thing as flax seeds
and salmon.
Omega 3 fats are known for reducing inflammation, and most diseases today are inflammatory in
nature.
Arthritis, inflammation of the joints, intestinal problems, inflammation of the intestines,
heart disease, inflammation of the arteries and heart.
And so these little nuts here are going to help reduce inflammation, reverse disease,
get your body healthy.
So we're going to add those in as well.
The last few things here, actually, we're going to add in some lemon juice.
We're just going to take a fresh lemon here, cut that in half, and you're going to do about
two teaspoons or so of lemon juice.
I usually just take about half a lemon, though.
You'll take a half a lemon and just go ahead and squeeze that over here, okay, like so.
The last few ingredients here, also, we're going to add in Vegenaise.
Now Vegenaise, this is your mayonnaise replacement.
Mayonnaise is actually loaded with hydrogenated oils if you go and get the regular conventional
mayonnaise.
What we're adding in is Vegenaise with grape seed oil.
Grape seed oil is one of the best oils to cook with because it doesn't oxidize under
heat, and it's a good monounsaturated fatty acid.
It's very similar to olive oil.
But again, you can pick this up at Whole Foods, almost any natural health food store, even
a lot of regular grocery stores now are carrying this Vegenaise.
We're going to add in about two-thirds of a cup and we've got a third of a cup here,
so we're going to do a couple of these.
We're going to go ahead and add this in, like so.
That's about one-third a cup there.
We're going to add in a couple more.
And again, we're getting some good healthy fat here in the Vegenaise, those Omega 9 fatty
acids known as monounsaturated fatty acids.
The last few things here, we're going to add in just a little bit of black pepper.
It's kind of up to you how much you want to add in.
And then we're going to add in sea salt.
We're going to add in about one to two teaspoons of sea salt.
I'm just going to grind it over here.
And this is kind of to taste.
I like quite a bit sea salt in here.
Sea salt is great because it's full of trace minerals and electrolytes.
Specifically, it's got quite a bit of magnesium and potassium in it.
This is way, way better than your conventional salt that's actually going to cause heart
disease and other health issues.
What we're going to do now is we're going to go ahead and take the chicken salad and
we're going to start mixing it up.
Our chicken salad is now ready to serve.
Just remember a few things.
Number one, you can be creative when you're cooking.
If you don't like celery, hey, take the celery out and add something else back in.
Also, remember that there are all sorts of different situations where this chicken salad
is good.
It's good actually to do dinner for the whole family.
It's good to bring on a picnic.
It's also great for the kids.
You know, if your kids are used to eating all the junk at school, you can actually throw
it on some Ezekiel bread, make it into a lettuce wrap, send it to school with them or to your
husband at work, whatever you want to do.
Again, great options here with the chicken salad.
Also, remember that this is very nutritious.
It's loaded with all natural ingredients you can pick at any store and even health food
store.
And this is going to bring health to your body, help transform your health and life.
So try the chicken salad, let me know how you like it, and I'll see you next week.