Chicken Salad Recipe

[maytagbear]

My current chicken salad.....

half chicken breasts, half thighs. Roasted in a slow oven, no higher than 325F. When at room temperature, I remove the skin (My Registered Dietician says that it is OK to cook skin-on, but to remove it before eating.) Hand shred.

Mild onion- Vidalia/Walla Walla/Texas 1015/Bermuda.

Pineapple chunks (fresh, or juice pack) or halved seedless grapes.

Celery to taste-sometimes a lot, sometimes just one stalk/rib.

Coarsely chopped/broken pecans or walnuts.

Sometimes, I will leave out the pineapple or grapes, and dress the salad with pesto mayonnaise.

Sometimes, I will go the other way, and add curry and chutney, and make a version of Coronation Chicken.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[mrb627]

Recipe

I decided to give the recipe I posted above a try.
Here is the chicken poaching away in the crock pot.
One hour to go.

Malcolm

 

[westie2]

Here is my favorite we have good friends from England and they got us hooked on it.
Coronation Chicken Salad
1. 1 tablespoon canola oil
2. 1 medium onion, chopped
3. 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
4. 1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
5. 1/2 cup red wine
6. 1 bay leaf
7. Pinch each of thyme and oregano
8. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
9. 1/2 cup mayonnaise
10. 1 tablespoon strained apricot jam
11. 6 cups shredded cooked chicken
12. 1/4 cup currants (optional)
13. Salt and freshly ground pepper
14. 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1. Heat the oil in a medium nonreactive saucepan. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, then the wine, 1/2 cup of water and the bay leaf and bring to a boil. Add the thyme, oregano and 1/2 tablespoon of the lemon juice and cook until thickened and reduced by three-quarters, about 6 minutes. Strain the sauce into a large bowl, pressing hard on the solids; let cool.
2. Add the mayonnaise, jam and remaining 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice to the sauce. Fold in the chicken and currants and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until chilled for up to 1 day. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tim (wayupnorth):

Please don't think I "boil" chicken. I poach it, which is a totally different kettle of boneless, skinless breasts.

Poaching involves keeping the liquid at a very low, slow, feeble bubble, not even a simmer. Poaching relaxes the fibers of the meat; boiling causes them to contract.

Poaching gives a very "plush" texture to the chicken. I only do it in good-quality chicken stock, to restore some of the flavor so much of today's chicken lacks.

The oven-roasting method was popularized by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, authors of The Joy of Cooking. At the time the technique was set forth in Joy, chicken was not the pappy, cottony battery-raised "product" it is today, so you got a flavorful result. Today, I don't see it working that well unless free-range chickens are used. Not everyone can afford those, and there are huge swaths of the U.S. where they're not readily available. My city, Waterloo, IA, doesn't even have a Whole Paycheck - er, Whole Foods.

 

[jeffg]

I've never been able to tell much of a difference between poached or boiled chicken in a salad. The best ones I've ever had have been made with broiled or baked or rotisseried chicken... e.g. if you're ever in Santa Cruz County, try the Chestnut Chicken Salad at Ben Lomond Market's deli. We used to drive an hour every week to get some. The chicken is cooked outside the store each morning on large charcoal grills. Just out of this world.

 

[danemodsandy]

Jeff:

Are you doing your own poaching? And is the heat very low?

If you're seeing even a simmer, you're going to have a different result than true poaching. It can be a little difficult to get the right heat for poaching, especially on electric ranges. Before I got my present GE range with Sensi-Temp, I had to use a Flame Tamer to get the heat just right.

 

[jeffg]

Sandy, the first time we had BLM's chicken salad my other half and I agreed there was no point in making it at home anymore. But now that we're out of the county we'll give poaching another shot.

 

[mrb627]

Poaching in Your Crock

I find that the Crock-Pot handles slow poaching of chicken better than anything else I have tried. Start on high for an hour, then switch to low for 4 to 6 hours.

Malcolm

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Yep, a slower boiling "poaching" gives a softer texture to the meat, we all know that in "wet" cooked meat preparations like pot roasts, stews/goulash when cooked on heat too high tends to get hard and or with gummy texture kinda shoe flange, in chicken salads this is even more important when you're going to use big chunks of chicken and or diced... Some people poach or simmer in water only, personally I find that a stock or seasoned liquid of course gives more flavour, another "secret" to get softer and savoury meat is to let cool the chicken in tlhe liquid, it someway allows the liquid to penetrate and "season" further the meat....

 

[norgeway]

I Agree..

I always use the crock pot for chicken that im going to use in either chicken salad or casserole.

 

[maytagbear]

I just don't

....have the patience to poach. When I slow-roast, I have something else in the oven at the same time, like apples or potatoes, or a casserole......gotten to the point where I don't like to turn on the oven for just one dish at a time.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[mrb627]

Mixed And Batched

I finished preparing the recipe I posted above and while the quantities were not followed to the letter, all the ingredients except for the sugar were included.

It's pretty good. Think I'll keep that recipe till another comes along...

(We'll see if I feel the same about it after a week of lunches )

Malcolm

 

[davey7]

Curry...

My mom's (and mine) go to recipe is adding curry and almond slivers - she adds raisins and pineapple, which I usually skip. Mmmmm...