Monday, August 20, 2012

Copycat Recipe: O'Carrs Chicken Salad

Over the past few years, I've collected copycat recipes for some of my favorite restaurant foods...O'Carr's chicken salad, Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets, Taziki's Friday Special, PF Chang's mongolian beef, and several others. I plan on trying these out and sharing the successes/failures on our blog. First on the list?? O'Carr's chicken salad. I met my mom and aunt there for lunch last week. It reminded me about the copycat recipe that I pinned forever ago. I finally got around to testing it out last weekend and the end result tasted pretty darn close to the real thing!

I found the copycat recipe here. I followed it for the most part. I left out the paprika (because I didn't have any) and added extra grapes.

2 cups boiled chicken, chopped in the food processor
1 tsp fresh dill
1/4 cup of grapes
1/8 cup of chopped pecans
4 pinches of paprika
2 oz cream cheese
3 T mayonnaise 
1 tsp honey
2 pinches salt
(Makes 3-4 servings)

We got a food processor for our wedding so thanks to this recipe I was finally able to use it. After I boiled the chicken, I ran it through the food processor to get the chicken similar to how it is in the O'Carr's recipe. 


Then I added the rest of the ingredients. I've never tried to chop up dill before. Let's just say I need a little more practice ha!


Mix it all together and here is the end result... 


Overall, this recipe turned out great. It was easy and pretty close to the real thing. I think the honey and cream cheese are what really makes it stand out from other chicken salads. In order to compare it to the actual O'Carr's version, I used regular cream cheese and mayonnaise. Next time I'll try it with reduced fat/fat free versions of everything. Try this out for yourself and leave a comment letting us know how it turns out!

10 comments:

  1. Can't wait to try this! Since we moved to Gulf Shores, I really miss O'Carr's. Now to find the wonder various fruit!

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  2. Yay! You'll have to let us know how it turns out :)

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  3. Angela and Mary - I love that you found Julie and my recipe! We blogged about it thinking we were our only readers. Over a year later, it is crazy how many people find it (friends and people we don't know...thanks to pinterest)! It makes me smile. Happy blogging!

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    1. It really is so close to the real thing! Thanks for sharing :)

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  4. I tried this recipe today. It's very good, but I don't think it tastes like o'carrs. I'm going to add dates and garlic next time and see how it turns out.

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  5. Love this recipe, but I have never been to O'Carr's. Will be seeing what other treasures are on your blog.

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  6. Thank you for this fine recipe. I am planning to make chicken salad on the weekend and I guess this will be something nice to try. I will give it a little twist and use Greek yogurt instead of mayo. I hope it turns out good!

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  7. Thank you ! I can’t wait to try this recipe. The chicken salad with the side of fruit was a gift to Birmingham! Silvertron and Cobb Lane were also my favorites. I loved the fruit with poppy seed dressing and yeast rolls. I live in Memphis now and nothing compares!! Thank you!

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  8. I LOVE O’Carrs. I live in Nashville now and plan every trip to the beach around the chicken salad and greens. I’ve tried to copy the love pile salad dressing but I just can’t quite figure it out. I’d live to get your thoughts on that.

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    1. Ugh!!! Not “love pile“ but olive oil salad dressing

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