December 17, 2017
Appetizer Recipes, Christmas, New Year's, Salad Recipes, Special Occasion Dinners
This Chicken Salad Christmas Tree idea has been so popular that I’ve decided to make an instructional video for it. You can use this idea and make other holiday salads as well, as I have done in the past.
How to make Chicken Salad Christmas Tree Video Recipe
FYI, it may seem like I’m cutting the chicken on newspaper, LOL, but actually, it’s a Newsprint Parchment Paper that I saw at one of the burger places. I liked it so much that I asked for a few papers for my cooking purposes.
A couple of years ago, I was cooking a Christmas dinner and had a leftover chicken salad that I wanted to somehow use for the table. But the chicken salad is not “fancy” enough to serve to guests.
So the idea of making it into a tree with a star on it popped into my head!
No tools are needed as you can see. All you need is two hands and a plastic wrap, which makes shaping easier.
My Hubby said that I will get grief from using a “newspaper” under the rotisserie chicken in the video.
Well, it’s not a newspaper! It’s a food-safe paper that I got from our local burger joint!
I just loved it so much how they serve burgers on top of it and asked for a few to use as my props.
How to make Chicken Salad Christmas Tree
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cup Cooked Chicken, diced
- 1/3 Cup Onion, diced
- 1/3 Cup or 1 Celery stalk, diced
- 1 tsp. Dill, or your favorite herb
- 1/3 Cup Mayo
- 1 Tbsp. Whipped Cream Cheese
- 1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt and Pepper, or to taste
- Tree Embellishments:
- 1/3 Cup Colorful Bell Peppers, diced
- 1 tsp. Dill, or your favorite herb
- 1/2 Cup Pecans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients listed to a smooth consistency.
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap on top of your workspace.
- Scoop out the chicken salad and wrap it around.
- With your hands shape the chicken salad into a tree.
- Refrigerate for one hour.
- Prepare the embellishment plate, bell peppers, dill, and pecans.
- Unwrap the tree and cover it with the pecans mix.
- Use a cookie cutter and cut out a bell pepper star.
- With a toothpick attach the star on top of your tree.
- Embellish the serving plate as you like.
- Transfer your tree onto a serving plate.
- The chicken salad will last for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.
This salad is made to be adjustable!
It’s absolutely delicious on its own, but in order for it to be shaped and stand – it can’t swim in mayo!
It has to have a certain consistency as you see in the video.
Unfortunately, every rotisserie chicken is different in size. Some are small, like the one I’m using from Publix in the video. It’s one of our favorites as far as taste is concerned! Lemon-pepper and BBQ flavor are what we usually get.
Costco’s rotisseries are HUGE and you can make a Tall and Large – Chicken Salad Christmas Tree! Just double the ingredients. Add more mayo, or cream cheese, or Greek yogurt. Adjust it to your taste!
You can make this salad a day before and cover it with plastic wrap. The chicken salad will last for3 to 5 daysin the refrigerator.
My very first tree from Christmas Dinner 2015!
MORE IDEAS
3 Salad Trees: Chicken, Crab, andShrimp
Chicken:
Costco’s canned chicken, celery, green onions, chives, dill, cream cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, and olive oil.
Crab:
Canned Real crab meat, celery, green onions, chives, dill, cream cheese, lemon juice, Yum-Yum sauce.
Shrimp:
Diced shrimp from The Fresh Market, celery, green onions, chives, parsley, cream cheese, lemon juice, Yum-Yum sauce, Wasabi sauce
All encrusted in crushed pecans, hazelnuts, panko flavored bread crumbs, dill, and parsley.
It’s the same idea just forgot to add very important stars to top the tree, oh well…happens. I was making so many dishes, just overlooked some details.
I love experimenting in the kitchen and this is how I’ve learned how to cook. I have never taken any classes or watched cooking videos much. I do enjoy them when I have a chance, but always so busy.
The ideas just pop into my head, can’t take all of the credit. But the reality is very different than our imagination.
This idea worked – Perfectly – as you can see!
CARROT-SHAPED CHICKEN SALAD
On my recent trip to Publix, I bought this super cute Easter Decor in a shape of a carrot and that gave me an idea to make a Carrot-shaped Chicken salad! Sometimes the strangest things inspire us.
This is the back of the decor.
And Easter Bunny on the front. How cute is this?
I’ve used the same recipe for the Chicken Salad mix.
Then shaped it in the form of a carrot and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes while I prepared the rest of the ingredients for my charcuterie board presentation.
Added the toppings to the Carrot-shaped Chicken Salad.
Added freshly shaved Cheddar Cheese and VOILÀ, it looks just like I’ve imagined it!
It tastes as delicious as it looks!
Inside bursting with flavor!
So as you can see this Chicken Salad can be shaped so easily for any holiday or special occasion! Have Fun creating your version!
Chicken Salad Christmas Tree
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
This delicious and fancy Chicken Salad Christmas Tree will dress up any table for the holidays! Impress your friends with your creation!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cup Cooked Chicken, diced
- 1/3 Cup Onion, diced
- 1/3 Cup or 1 Celery stalk, diced
- 1 tsp. Dill, or your favorite herb
- 1/3 Cup Mayo
- 1 Tbsp. Whipped Cream Cheese
- 1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt and Pepper, or to taste
- Tree Embellishments:
- 1/3 Cup Colorful Bell Peppers, diced
- 1 tsp. Dill, or your favorite herb
- 1/2 Cup Pecans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients listed to a smooth consistency.
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap on top of your workspace.
- Scoop out the chicken salad and wrap it around.
- With your hands shape the chicken salad into a tree.
- Refrigerate for one hour.
- Prepare the embellishment plate, bell peppers, dill, and pecans.
- Unwrap the tree and cover it with the pecans mix.
- Use a cookie cutter and cut out a bell pepper star.
- With a toothpick attach the star on top of your tree.
- Embellish the serving plate as you like.
- Transfer your tree on to a serving plate.
- The chicken salad will last for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.
chicken, christmas, Christmas chicken salad tree, Christmas recipes, rotisserie, tree, video
April 16, 2022
4 Responses to Chicken Salad Christmas Tree
Lauri December 21, 2022 at 11:26 pm Reply
I made this tree for my Christmas Brunch. Your directions were so easy to follow. The taste was delicious! And it looked so pretty on my table. I did a forest on a charcuterie board of this tree, a Crescent Roll tree with pesto dripping and one of delicata squash. Never had so many compliments on presentation. I will do this again.
Crafty Cooking by Anna December 27, 2022 at 8:20 pm Reply
So wonderful to read your comment, Lauri! Thank you! I’m sure your guests were impressed! Happy Holidays!
Gail Saunders December 22, 2019 at 2:03 am Reply
This looks so impressive. My next gathering will have to have one of these trees. Everything on this site looks really like it took hours of prep, but maybe I could actually pull it off myself. Thanks for the great ideas.
Crafty Cooking by Anna December 22, 2019 at 2:25 am Reply
Thank you so much, Gail! Glad that you like this recipe and others on my blog. You can see that this Chicken Christmas Tree is pretty easy to make; just watch the instructional video. Most of the recipes are pretty simple and easy, the decoration part takes time and creativity, but I think you can do it! Happy Holidays!
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