In Philippine cuisine, salads are mostly made up of a generous coating of creamy dressing with tropical fruits and less greeny vegetables like most Westerners are familiar with. Most salad or ensalada recipes in the Philippines needs to be stir-fried first so raw vegetable Filipino recipes are quite rare.
Enter the Filipino-style macaroni chicken salad. A salad that represents what most Filipinos would think of when salad recipes came up: chilled, creamy with bright colors, and a generally sweet flavor. It’s in the same category as other Filipino salad recipes like buko salad and fruit salad that uses generous amounts of cream.
These types of salad recipes are also generally eaten for desserts and palate cleansers but they can be occasionally eaten for meryenda to beat the midafternoon heat. They are at their peak popularity during the Christmas season.
These kinds of salads bring out the nostalgic side of me. Growing up, my mom would often enlist my help to prepare these kinds of Filipino salad recipes for the holiday season or whenever before any big celebrations. I would be a help in the kitchen. My main task is to cut up all the ingredients that need to be cut in a uniform shape (all with the supervision of an adult, of course). Occasionally, I can help with the ingredients with the cream in the mixing bowl.
The ingredients for Filipino salad recipes like macaroni chicken salad needs to be uniformed and well ratioed with each other so that all the flavors are well-balanced and all the ingredients are there with every bite.
I love preparing this recipe because all the memories are coming back to the surface. And helping out to prepare the creamy salads back then growing up is what actually honed my skills as a cook in terms of efficiently preparing the ingredients.
So it’s going to be nothing but fun as we add the macaroni chicken salad recipe to our list of Filipino recipes on this site.
The Philippine’s macaroni chicken salad is a deliciously sweet salad dish that uses tropical fruits and vegetables. The macaroni pasta and the bits of boiled chicken make it a fulfilling dish. All of the ingredients will be mixed well with cream which will bring the entire macaroni chicken salad dish together and balanced all the flavors.
For the macaroni chicken salad, other than the macaroni salad, chicken, and cream, it’s up to the cook to choose the other ingredients. For our macaroni chicken salad recipe, our we’ll be using a cup of diced pineapples, ¼ cup of diced carrot, ¼ cup of diced cheese, and ¼ cup of raisins. Quite simple ingredients but they bring delicious flavors to the dish.
I recommend getting a small carrot for the portions on this recipe and going up a size if you want something bigger. For the pineapple, you can use canned pineapple but using fresh pineapple would be best, you just need to exert effort to dice it to fit into a cup. I recommend getting a little helper to prepare all the ingredients for some bonding time.
Of course, we’re also going to need the main ingredients in the form of ½ kilo of macaroni pasta and ¼ kilo of chicken breasts that we’re going to boil. For the cream, we’re going to use ¼ cup of mayonnaise, and 3 tablespoons of Nestle cream.
When it’s time to pour the cream onto the bowl, I recommend being a little conservative and only add some more of the cream when needed. It’s better not to overdo it with the cream lest it floods the rest of the ingredients.
Last but not least, for seasoning, we’re going to be using 1 tablespoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper. I know that some Filipino cooks don’t usually season their creamy salads but I opted to season mine for this recipe to better bring out the flavors.
And that’s all the ingredients we need! The instructions for this recipe are enumerated down below and if you’re a visual learner, we’ve prepared a fun video for you to watch. Don’t forget to refrigerate the macaroni chicken salad after you’re done and serve it while it’s still cold. Enjoy!
Macaroni Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients.
- ½ kilo of Macaroni Pasta
- ¼ kilo of Chicken breast
- 1 cup of Pineapple diced
- ¼ cup of Carrot small diced
- ¼ cup of Raisins
- 1 tbsp. Salt
- ½ tsp. Pepper
- ¼ cup of Mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp. of Nestle cream
- ¼ cup of Diced cheese
- Water for boiling pasta
Procedure for Chicken boiled:
- In a pot bring to boil 2 cups of water with salt.
- Add the chicken breast and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside
Procedure for Pasta boiled:
- In boiling water add the macaroni pasta.
- Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Cool it down by running water or ice water.
Procedure for Garnishing:
- In a mixing bowl put together the macaroni pasta, mayonnaise, cream, pepper, and salt. Mix well
- Add the boiled macaroni pasta, diced carrots, pineapple, raisins, and diced cheese. Mix well
- Refrigerate before serving.
- Served and Enjoy
Youtube Video
