Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Honey Curried Chicken Salad




I just love curry! Don’t you? It’s been another hectic week here for me so meal preparation had to be quick and made on the run! Here’s a really light and very tasty chicken salad with honey and curry. After you make this original salad, you can then add it to cold cooked macaroni’s or served more simply on a bed of arugula and spring greens salad, or a simply great sandwich. You may add or omit whatever you prefer to this dish such as raisins, grapes, apples, or jicama. I like to also add slivered almonds whenever I make it, which is pretty often around here.
This recipe is not set in stone, but really more of a mix and taste test. The two ingredients I always play around with are the honey and curry. So I find myself mixing the dressing and letting it sit for a while and then going back and testing to see if it needs a little more. It usually doesn’t amount to a lot, but just a little, and I do like to make this salad up a day ahead of when I am planning to serve it.
You can use any cooked chicken you have on hand, but I prefer to poach fresh pieces the day I am making this salad and use both chicken breasts and boneless thighs.




2 – 3 lbs chicken pieces
½ fresh lemon
½ bunch of cilantro, chopped
sea salt & ground pepper

Preparing the chicken:

Half fill a medium saucepan with water and place the chicken pieces, cilantro and a good amount of pepper and salt along with the juice of half a lemon. Cover and bring to a gentle boil— then reduce to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is tender cooked through..about 35-40 minutes. Remove the chicken once cooked and set aside on a plate to cool. Once cool enough to handle, shred it or cut the meat into bite size pieces. As the chicken is simmering and then cooling, prepare the dressing.

Honey Curry Dressing

1 cup mayonaise
2 ½ tsp dried curry ** to start
2 TBLS wildflower honey
a pinch of sea salt & ground pepper
approx 2 TBL chopped cilantro & 2 TBLS chopped parsley
Mix up all and set it aside to meld. This is the part I always end up playing with, so once it’s set a bit, feel free to add more curry or honey to suit your individual taste. We love the flavor of curry, so if anything, I usually add more bringing the curry up to just about 3 tsps.

The rest of the ingredients are:

1 small stalk celery, diced very fine
2 - 3 carrots, peeled, julienned or sliced thin
a handful of golden raisins
a small bunch of seedless red grapes, sliced
slivered almonds

Take the shredded chicken, sliced carrots, diced celery, seedless grapes and raisins, place in a bowl and add dressing to it. Blend together well and top with slivered almonds. You may make it as dry or as moist as you like. Cover and refrigerate a couple of hours before serving. As it is, this is a yummy salad served on breads or over some greens..but oftentimes I like to add assorted macaroni’s too! Enjoy!

I'm hoping things will slow down soon, trade show behind me now, I was so surprised to receive a Sisterhood Award from fellow blogger Linda of Ciao Ciao Linda whose blog I visit daily.




Thanks so much Linda, I feel so honored to receive this! And it couldn't have arrived at a nicer time ;). It's meant to be shared with other female bloggers, so I'll be passing this on soon to some of my favorite spots I routinely visit.

6 comments:

Karen said...

I love chicken salad with grapes... it seems to really liven up the salad. This sounds good, Jady... as do all of your recipes! Whenever I try to poach chicken to use in a recipe like this it turns out too dry. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I usually make chicken salad with leftover roasted chicken or the roasted chicks from the store.

YankeeSoaper said...

Thank you Karen. Try slow poaching this way, using enough liquids to cover the chicken, this should help.If you boil it, chicken will be tough.

Anonymous said...

This looks yummy, Jady :)
Glad you have time to put your feet up and maybe enjoy Spring. xox

YankeeSoaper said...

Thanks Maryann.. I am so looking forward to playing in the garden this year.:)

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter, Jady :)
hugs and kisses,
Maryann

Chef Chuck said...

Yumm, This sounds really good, The whole blend makes me hungry!
Happy Easter!