Pineapple Chicken Salad Pitas

Mayonnaise is like an avocado. People have very strong feelings about it. They either love it or they hate it. My husband won't eat anything with mayo on or in it, but I think that when used properly, mayo can be good in a dish. I recently posted about my homemade pita bread and promised to share with you what I chose to stuff them with. Instead of a traditional Greek filling, I decided to fill mine with chicken salad. I have always been a fan of chicken salad containing pineapple, so when I saw this recipe from Cooking Light, I knew I wanted to try it.


The Worcestershire sauce gave this chicken salad a bit more depth. I added some celery because I like my chicken salad to have a little crunch (and I don't like nuts). The only other thing I would probably change next time is to use canned pineapple tidbits instead of crushed pineapple - I prefer a chunkier chicken salad.


If you don't have any pita bread on hand, this would be great sandwiched between some toasted bread, or simply by itself with a fresh fruit plate.

Pineapple Chicken Salad Pitas
from Cooking Light

2 1/2 cups chopped poached or cooked chicken breast* (about 1 pound) (My 1 lb of chicken yielded about 2 1/4 cups, so you might want to use more chicken; save time by using store bought, precooked Rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup matchstick-cut carrots
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted (I omitted these)
1/3 cup light mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple in juice, drained
4 (6-inch) whole wheat pitas, each cut in half (I used my homemade pitas)
8 Romaine lettuce leaves (I forgot these)

* To poach your chicken, put the chicken breast halves in a large saucepan and add lightly salted water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. You can do this with frozen chicken breasts, too.

Combine first 11 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well. Line each pita half with 1 lettuce leaf; fill each half with 1/3 cup chicken mixture.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed pita halves)