I am normally not a fan of macaroni salad because it’s smothered/swimming in mayo with not many flavors present. PW uses only 1/2 cup mayo, red wine vinegar & some pickle juice so in addition to the ‘additions’, it’s pretty tasty. In the comments*, some folks complained about not enough dressing, but there was plenty enough for my tastes.
I used jarred red roasted peppers & had to guess how many to add - put in about a cup of them diced, then added maybe another half a cup. I used sweet gherkins & that small burst of sweet is really nice. Give it a try!
*I like reading the comments as there is generally something useful to be found, but what drives me crazy is when people say “great recipe, but I substituted x & x & x and did blah blah blah with the dressing”. So in other words, you changed just about everything except the macaroni ... & some people even change that!
I like reading the comments, too, and as you’ve said, sometimes people substitute so many ingredients that it’s not the same recipe at all!
We recently got rave reviews over chicken salad sandwiches that we made for an outdoor free concert last weekend. Hubby smoked the chicken over pecan wood for our dinner the night before, then shredded the (intended) leftovers into bite sized pieces for me to use in the sandwiches. I added chopped celery, a wee bit of minced onions, hand chopped pecans so they weren’t too chopped, red grapes cut into quarters or smaller, mayo, seasoned salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic powder. The longer it melds, the better it is.
I made a dozen sandwiches on brioche buns, and there was only one left at the end of the night. There were 7 of us to feed. Even my neighbor, who is a fine griller/smoker himself, complimented my husband on the subtle smokiness of the chicken breasts. Fortunately, there was enough left to have it one more time for dinner last night.
We mentioned it to our son, and i could hear him drooling over the phone. I have a feeling we will make it for him when he comes in a couple of weeks. He doesn’t have a grill (lives in an apartment) so I’m pretty sure we can make it again for him. It’s always an enjoyable sandwich, and not the usual chicken salad.