Chicken salad + a grape & chicken braise
still going on about chicken
Hello, you fine lil’ being! It’s going to be more not-recipe recipes today!
I couldn’t wax lyrical about chicken, because I think there’s only so much you can say about it. We all know it and love it and crave it from time to time. But (fortunately or unfortunately, for some of you) I am still writing another post about chicken. Because chicken broth (and chicken) is the gift that keeps giving. (I spent the past week being ill and thinking how lovely it must be to have some chicken broth while sweating it out in this 36 degree weather. Mm. Delightful.)
Chicken salad
So, if you poached your chicken breasts like I told ya to. You would have two very lovely hunks of white meat waiting to be shredded into a lovely chicken salad. Apparently lots of people detest white meat, but I think if cooked well it’s delicious. Besides our iconic chicken rice, I have yet to eat much chicken breast that isn’t overcooked and dry and stringy (in close to 30 years of my existence, mind you).
There are tons of recipes for chicken salad out there and after referencing some, I’m here to tell you that chicken salad really is whatever goes to your liking. It’s very important here that I emphasise everything you cook should be to your liking. Ya feel? I ain’t here to tell you how to live your life. But this is what I like in my chicken salad which, of course, I don’t have much pictures of.
What you'll need (this is enough for 4 sandwich portions. If you’re not putting it between buns but having it with maybe lettuce as a salad cup for a main, this will serve 2):
¼ - ½ cup greek yogurt / sour cream / crème frâiche if you’re living the luxe life. You could omit this and use all mayo but why?
¼ - ½ cup mayo - american/kewpie/homemade. Kewpie is more.. flavourful/MSG-fied while american is more neutral, which acts as a more blank canvas that I feel could be better if you want to add more herb-like seasonings e.g thyme, marjoram, celery seed. I could be wrong.
1 - 2 tbsp mustard - dijon/wholegrain/both, whichever you like. I like dijon for heat and wholegrain for texture + acidity.
2 perfectly poached chicken boobies, shredded. Or diced. If you are making this with rotisserie chicken, use the whole thing or whichever parts you desire! Roasted chicken skin is heaven in chicken salad.
An apple or two, julienned. I used a remaining opal apple that I had lying around, but any would work. Something sweeter would be less prominent than a brighter granny smith. Since I am shredding chicken here, not cubing them, I am julienning my apples for similar textures. But if you are cubing them, you can cube your apples or use grapes, halved if you like!
Celery - just one rib. Two, if you love celery. Remember to peel the fibrous parts off by running your peeler down the length of the celery. Either thinly sliced or finely diced.
¼ - ½ cup crunch. For crunch: pecans/walnuts/pine nuts (MAKE SURE YOU TOAST THEM PLEASE). I used some toasted pumpkin seeds here. Seasoned breadcrumbs would be gr8. If you’re using nuts, I would suggest ¼ cup or even less.
Something bright like pickles, chopped coarsely or finely, or pickled jalapeño would be great additions. Add to taste!
To taste: Any other seasoning you like: thyme, celery salt/seed, curry powder etc. But I’m going to let you in on a pantry necessity that seriously just AMPS. EVERYTHING. UP. (egg salad, chicken salad, a regular ham and cheese sandwich): yuzu kosho!!! I love sneaking it into as much as I can and have people go “what is that?”
I am currently begrudgingly going through this red yuzu kosho that I got from japan earlier this year. Ok let me wax lyrical about yuzu kosho for a bit. I think, personally, it is the perfect condiment. It is SO punchy (I love bold flavours), a little goes a long way. It’s spicy, bright, SALTY, über fragrant with yuzu. The tiniest knob on your yakitori skewer or barbecued meat elevates your hot, juicy piece of meat. Yuzu kosho in egg salad (with kewpie, please) provides complexity and brightness, sending one-dimensional egg salads to their graves. Yuzu kosho with kewpie in chicken salad is just.. so fucking delicious, for lack of better words. (sorry, mum) Yuzu kosho in ochazuke, on tamago kake gohan?! Okay you get me?
You can get yuzu kosho from donki. Their house brand is mighty salty but works, and they have another brand that is probably less salty, if memory serves me right (it doesn’t, not much, these days). I would not try the S&B one in a tube, because bias. If you do, let me know! Otherwise, you can look for them in japanese specialty grocery stores like j-mart, or probably shopee.
OK back to chicken salad. Mix all that up, add a little more seasoning if you need. One way to find out if there is too much of something is to add too much of it and then you’ll know and next time you’ll add less. Another way is to add in tiny increments till you hit bullseye.
I MUST EMPHASISE: DO NOT. IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. EVEN IF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE IS ACTUALLY APPROACHING. DRENCH. YOUR. SALADS. IN. DRESSING. God. That is another pet peeve. You know when you go order a salad outside and then they serve you dressing with a side of salad? Nasty stuff. Another pet peeve is when (health-conscious) people ask for dressing on the side, not realising that the beauty of salad is balance and that a good dressing powerfully ties everything together. (Not to worry, I’m not shaming anyone. I used to be a health-conscious person. To be fair, not many people dress salads perfectly so if your justification for dressing on the side is because you don’t trust anyone, you go glen coco!) So please, err on the side of caution with your mayo and/or greek yogurt. You can always add more but you can’t subtract!!
Well that’s that for a chicken salad. On to something more interesting.
Chicken with grapes!
I never, would think to pair grapes with chicken. But hey, it’s a thing. A REAL good thing. This, my friends, was a deeeeelightful dish. Depending on the wine you use, it’s almost like a faux coq au vin, but sweeter with the addition of grapes, but without the 12-24 hour marination of chicken in wine etc etc.
Also, did you know that grapes are seasonal? Maybe a dumb thing to find out but growing up in import paradise, Singapore, grapes were always on the supermarket shelves. So it never struck me that they were seasonal. Good grapes, though, are seasonal. My favourite is probably the Autumn Crisp. And every other sweet, exceedingly crunchy type. When the skin just snaps under your teeth, giving way to crunchy flesh.. that’s my type of heaven in a bite. I despise grapes that look deceivingly good. DESPISE.
So the other day I bought a box of black sapphire grapes, or whatever their name is, which I did not really fancy. I had planned to use them on focaccia, but they were too disappointing. And the stars aligned because I also had chicken waiting to be used. This dish, minus the pre-salting of chicken (which I find very ESSENTIAL), took under an hour with very little prep time, which I’m sure you will all be glad to hear.
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The not-recipe recipe
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