BBQ Chicken Salad

Hundred-degree heat this week, which in Nebraska means the air is thick enough to chew and the highway shimmers like water that is not there. I drove with the AC on full blast and the slow cooker unplugged because even I have limits and making soup in a truck cab when it is a hundred degrees outside is one of them. Instead I packed the mini fridge with cold food: chicken salad I made Sunday night, crackers, fruit, hard-boiled eggs, and a gallon jug of sweet tea that was empty by Tuesday.

The chicken salad is one of my best truck recipes. You cook the chicken at home, any way you like. I bake thighs because they are cheap and forgiving. Let them cool, shred them, mix with mayo, diced celery, a little mustard, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice if you have one, which I usually do not, so a splash of pickle juice works just as well. Store it in the fridge and eat it on crackers or bread all week. No cooking required on the road, which in July is the entire point.

At home the kids are living in the sprinkler. Dave set up the old oscillating sprinkler in the backyard and it runs from ten a.m. to five p.m. and the water bill is going to be absurd but four kids who are cool and wet are four kids who are not fighting, and that math works out in my favor every time.

Amber has been helping me cook this summer, which I did not ask for and which I am not going to question. She stands next to me in the kitchen and watches how I chop onions, how I season meat, how I know when the oil is hot enough to fry. She does not ask questions. She watches. That is how Novak women learn: by watching, by standing next to someone who knows, by absorbing through proximity. I learned from Gayle the same way. Gayle learned from her mother. The chain goes back as far as the kitchen does, and the kitchen goes back forever.

I am teaching her the chocolate sheet cake. Not yet, not the whole thing, but pieces. This week she measured the flour and the sugar while I handled the rest. She will learn it all eventually. The cake will pass to her the way it passed to me, and someday she will make it for someone she loves, and the recipe will carry in it every hand that ever measured that flour, and that is how we live on. That is how all of us live on.

The chicken salad I throw together on Sunday nights is a little simpler than this one — just shredded thighs, mayo, celery, and whatever acid I can find — but when I came across this BBQ version, I thought: that’s the upgrade. The smokiness, the crunch, the way it comes together with almost no effort and holds up in the fridge all week. It’s the kind of recipe Amber is going to want in her back pocket someday, right alongside the chocolate sheet cake — the kind you make without thinking because it’s already part of you.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or chopped (rotisserie or baked thighs work great)
1/3 cup BBQ sauce (your favorite brand or homemade)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup corn kernels (canned, frozen and thawed, or grilled fresh)
1/2 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Romaine or mixed greens, for serving
Tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips, for topping

Instructions

Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the BBQ sauce and mayonnaise until smooth and combined. Taste and adjust the ratio to your liking — more BBQ sauce for tang, more mayo for creaminess.
Combine the salad. In a large bowl, combine the shredded chicken, corn, black beans, red bell pepper, red onion, and cheddar cheese. Pour the dressing over the top and toss until everything is evenly coated.
Season. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Stir in cilantro if using.
Serve or store. Serve immediately over romaine or mixed greens, topped with tortilla strips for crunch. To make ahead, store the dressed chicken mixture in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Add the greens and tortilla strips just before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

BBQ Chicken Salad — The Recipe That Carried Me Through a Nebraska Heat Wave