Quick Chicken Salad »
I was poking about for a recipe for chicken salad today. Couldn't find a thing. Don't get me wrong - Google brings out plenty of contenders. But they have macadamia nuts, almonds, red bell pepper, stuffed olives - you get the idea. I just wanted something simple. So I made it myself.
I started by boiling three chicken breasts in a pot with diced onion (a whole small vidalia), some diced celery (a medium-sized stalk, maybe five inches long) and some garlic. Not fancy garlic - it just came right out of the jar. No magic to the amount of chicken - that's just all I had in that bag.
Once this concoction reached a boil, I reduced the temperature until things were just simmering, then let it stew up for about ten minutes, after which I poked it with a fork to see how it was doing. Even a quick dunk like this made the chicken very soft. Surprising, as it started off frozen, right out of the freezer. I said it wasn't anything fancy. I could have easily pulled it apart with my fingers, but it was hot. I chopped it up with a cleaver instead.
I mixed the chopped chicken with the remnants of the onions, celery and garlic, tossed in a bit of curry, a pinch of celery seeds, a couple shakes of ground red pepper, some rosemary, a bit of thyme and a little more garlic (powder this time).
Finally, I added three scoops of mayo, a spoon of sour cream and a squirt of French's mustard. Then I stirred it all up for a couple of minutes. The end result was surprisingly decent. I'd never made chicken salad before, and it turned out okay.
