CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD
MY CULINARY DIARY
CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD
Friday, June 8th, 2012
It is Friday and we have gone through many culinary avenues this week and do not wish to repeat anything, so it is time for Chicken. We both love fried Chicken, but since the weather is warm and I really did not want to start frying anything, we decided on Chicken Salad. Since all we needed for the salad was enough chicken to feed the two of us, I decided on purchasing a chicken breast rather than the whole chicken.
Since it was only a breast that we needed, I decided to splurge and purchase a free range organic chicken breast. The difference in flavor and moistness, between this type of chicken and the normal supermarket ones is astronomical. The organic, free range chicken reminds me of the chickens that we used to get delivered years ago when we lived in Granada Hills. A poultry company called Bob’s Poultry use to deliver Chicken and Eggs directly to our home and there was nothing like those chickens. They were so good! In those days, I had to cook at least 2 Chickens at one time! Later on it was three!
Along with the Chicken Breast I purchased some white corn and an Orange Honey Dew Melon and some Croissants to go with the meal.
To make the Chicken Salad I poached the Chicken Breast in some Madera Wine with fresh Pineapple Sage Leaves, fresh Greek Basil and freshly cut Chives. All the herbs were direct from our garden. I placed the Chicken Breast in the poaching liquid, brought it up to a simmer and cooked them for about 10 minutes and then shut the heat off. You can cut the breasts in half to make sure they are done or you can use a poultry thermometer. One hundred seventy degrees is more than done!
Once the Chicken Breasts cooled off, I sliced them against the grain and then cut the slices into bite-sized pieces. (The pieces were a healthy size, as I didn’t want pate.) I washed and dried some celery ribs and cut them into bite-sized pieces. I cut the celery considerably smaller than the Chicken pieces as celery has a tendency to get stuck in between teeth.
Along with the Celery were some more snipped Chives, Gherkin Pickles which I diced and a Pink Lady Apple, which I quartered, cored and cut up into bite-sized pieces. I leave on the skin, because the color adds a nice contrast to the white Chicken Breast.
To season the Chicken Salad, I added ½ tsp. Salt, ¼ tsp. White Pepper, 1 tsp. Curry Powder and approximately ½ cup of Mayonnaise.
For the complete recipe please see curried-chicken-salad/
Ev husked the Corn and I washed it and made sure all the silks were off. To cook the Corn, I placed it in my steamer with water in the lower portion and steamed the Corn for 1 minute. Young fresh Corn does not need to be cooked for more than 1 minute – all you want to do is to get it hot – young fresh corn even tastes good raw. In fact, I always taste it before cooking it to make sure it is sweet. If it is not sweet you can add 1 Tbsp. Sugar and the Juice of half a Lemon to the Water and then just cook it directly in the water which should not be more than 1 inch deep. Again, do not cook it more than 1-2 minutes unless it is old and tough and in which case you should not even be eating it off the cob.
For our Beverage we had Ginger/Peach Sun Tea brewed in the sun with orange slices and fresh ginger.
Dinner tonight was the Chicken Salad, steamed Corn and warmed Croissants. We decided to keep the Honey Dew for Sunday night when we would again eat the Chicken Salad, since I can never make just enough food for only 2 people.
This was just one variation on Chicken Salad. There are hundreds of ways that you can prepare it. Chicken Salad can be an Hawaiian Variation, Chinese Chicken Salad, Thai Chicken Salad, and on and on. Just use whatever you have on hand and what you think will go well with Chicken. Don’t forget that Chicken Breast has somewhat of a neutral flavor that can be enhanced with most anything! Even nuts and noodles will work in a Chicken Salad!
