Filipino Chicken Macaroni Salad Recipe

Filipino Chicken Macaroni Salad is made with elbow macaronismothered with mayonnaise, condensed milk, chicken or ham, pineapple and otherother ingredients.

Course Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Filipino

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 35

Total Time 1 15

Servings

Calories 464kcal

Ingredients

Chicken

½ pound skinless chicken breast boiled and shredded or cubed
½ teaspoon salt
1 small yellow onion quartered
5 cups water

Macaroni

1 pound uncooked elbow macaroni
1 ½ teaspoons salt
6 cups water

Other ingredients

½ pound ham cubed
1 medium sized yellow onion peeled and chopped
1 large carrot peeled and diced
1 (20 ounces) pineapple tidbits 2 cups, drain juice
3 tablespoons sweet pickle relish drain juice
¾ cup raisins
1 cup cheddar cheese diced or shredded
¼ cup pimiento (optional) drained and diced
¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
2 – 2 ½ cups mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a medium pot over high heat, add water, onion, chicken and salt. Bring to a boil and remove scum that floats on top. Once boiling, lower heat to medium and simmer chicken for about 15 to 20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken to cool. Cut into small cubes and set aside.
While cooking chicken, prepare the other ingredients. Peel and dice onion, carrots and pimiento. Cut ham and cheese into small cubes. Set aside.
Note: Carrots can be added fresh. If you like it tender crisp, parboil carrots in boiling water then quickly submerge in ice cold water. Drain water. See notes below or blog for tips.
In a large pot, boil 6 to 8 cups of water over high heat and add 1 ½ teaspoons salt. In a rolling boil, add elbow macaroni. Stir occasionally until cooked about 8 minutes. Bite into one to check for firmness. Cook al dente meaning chewy and firm. Don’t overcook or it will get mushy. Follow the packing instructions for cooking time. In the sink, pour pasta over a sieve or colander and drain water completely. Transfer in a large bowl and cool.
Mix all the ingredients with macaroni, in any order.
Add the mayonnaise, condensed milk, chicken, ham, pineapple, carrots, onion, sweet relish, pimiento, raisins, cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Stir gently.
Taste and tweak the recipe to suit your taste.
Cover with lid and refrigerate for at least 3 hours for ingredients to meld.
Serve as a snack or side dish. Enjoy!

Notes

Making this macaroni salad requires quite a bit of dicing. To save you time, use shredded cheese, diced pimiento and diced ham. Carrots are sold julienne but not diced.
You can use other parts of chicken. Remove skin. Also, you can use red onion instead of yellow onion.
I used regular mayonnaise but you can substitute with light mayo.
Carrots can be added fresh, parboiled or parboiled and blanched. Blanch or submerge quickly in ice cold water to stop the cooking process and keep carrots vibrant.
Another time saver, boil carrots with chicken. Boil whole carrot for 3 to 4 minutes and dice or place diced carrots in a strainer and parboil for 2 minutes whichever you prefer. Carrot should be tender crisp and not too soft.
Save chicken broth to use for soup. You can also save the pineapple juice.
No time to boil chicken, get a rotisserie chicken instead.
Store leftover in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 to 4 days. Don’t leave in room temperature for long hours for food safety. Freezing is not recommended.

Nutrition