Monday, August 16, 2010

Clean Chicken Salad? Yes! Yes! Yes!





Chicken salad is a favorite take-along for our picnic baskets and here's a cleaned-up version that we recently tested among a houseful of guests.  The dish earned it's place as a guest-worthy offering and though it is a little high on the fat front, virtually all of the typical mayo has been replaced with heart-healthy, flavorful, extra virgin olive oil.  Some other pleasing additions to this batch was ribbons on nasturtium, which I often see growing in planters and borders at homes where the inhabitants had no idea their flowers/leaves were even edible. 

INGREDIENTS:

5 cups chicken, boiled on the bone the shredded and deboned (meat from one roaster)
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons real mayonnaise
1 teaspoon prepared dijon wine mustard
1/2 teaspoon celery seed, ground fine
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons fresh chives
1/4 cup nasturtium leaves, cut into thin strips or ribbons (may substitute watercress)
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped


1 - Cut chicken into pieces or buy chicken pieces, remove skin but keep on bone and boil until meet is cooked through.  Remove from liquid to cool and set aside cooking liquid (this can be saved for flavoring pasta or grains later). 

2 - Shred chicken into large bowl removing any bones and cartilidge.

3 - Add all ingredients except eggs and combine thoroughly; though messy I find this is done best with hands (wear gloves if you prefer).

4 - Add eggs last and place mixture into fidge to cool for at least 2 hours before serving atop your favorite bread.  Pictured above on Sesame Ezekiel bread. 


Recipe makes 12 servings, each approximately 2/3 of a cup.

Nutritional Info Per Serving, without bread:



*Nutritional data calculated using ingredient compilation program and is deemed close but not exact.


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