Hooray for picnic season! From impromptu backyard lunches to outdoor concert series, excuses to stretch out on a grassy lawn abound. Enter what I affectionately refer to as "picnic salads" – that adaptable category of recipes that, while they contain little to no lettuce, yet are still included in the salad realm. Think pasta salad, egg and tuna salad, potato salad and even chunky, vegetable-laden grain salads that are best served cold and are easy to both serve and eat.

Of them all, chicken salad has always been a personal favorite and is one of those dishes, right along with deviled eggs, that I simply feel compelled to serve nearly anytime I entertain. This is likely due to a deeply entrenched sense of Midwestern hospitality, but also because folks simply adore the stuff. Chicken salad

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