Chicken Macaroni Salad

During Holidays my mother will always make Chicken Macaroni Salad. It is one of her specialty. I remember back then when I was a kid, I would watch her prepare the ingredients. It is not because I want to learn how to make it but I would be there in her side just to eat some ingredients like the cheese that she already cut into cubes and the nata de coco which is my favorite. I was never interested in cooking during my younger age. I only learn to love cooking when I got married and be separated from my parents. I miss her cooking. She is a wonderful cook. Unlike me, I still need to measure everything and look for recipe guides. My mom would just use a dash of this or a pinch of that. She dips her finger to the ingredients before she cooks it to know if its ok or she might need to add more. Of course except for raw meats.
Back to the recipe, this Chicken Macaroni Salad is a Filipino version since Kaong and Nata de Coco are added to make it more colorful and adding sweet flavor to the sourness of the mayonnaise. The colors of Christmas are present in this dish which is green and red. Don’t forget to include this in your Noche Buena.

You will need:

400g elbow macaroni pasta, cooked

¼ kilo chicken meat, cooked and shredded it small pieces.

1 cup kaong (red), drained

1 cup kaong (green), drained

2 cup nata de coco, drained

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained

1 carrot, diced, boiled

1 cup raisins

¼ cup sweet pickle relish

1 tsp. finely minced onion.

1/4 cup condensed milk
1 cup all purpose cream

1 ½ cup mayonnaise

1 cup cheese, diced (I like the Eden cheese Brand)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Steps:

Cook the macaroni pasta according to the package instruction. 

Once cooked, rinse it with cold water, drain and set it aside. 

Boil the chicken, drain and shred it to small pieces then set aside. 

Cut carrots into small cubes, boil, drain and set aside.  

Prepare the other ingredients, strain nata de coco and kaong and 

pineapple chunks for half an hour or until 

almost all liquid has been separated. 

Slice the pineapple if you find the chunks big. 

Cut the cheese into cubes. 

Finely chop the onions.   

In a large mixing bowl, mix the macaroni, chicken, 

carrots, nata de coco, kaong, pineapple, raisins, 

cheese, onion and pickles. 

Pour the mayonnaise, cream, condensed milk, 

a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper and 

combine them together and mix thoroughly. 

Cover the mixing bowl with a cling plastic

 wrap and refrigerate for an hour. 

Serve!