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Jr League Chicken Salad
looking for REGIONAL recipes (trying to make this travel related somehow). I just read not to use dark meat chicken and Miracle Whip. Any other good suggestions, recipes?
In particular, I'm looking for a chicken salad recipe with grapes and slivered almonds. |
The recipes are only travel related if you report back about the great chicken salad you had ON your TRAVELs.
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If you get on Epicurious.com, and search for chicken salad with grapes and almonds, you will get some of the recipes from Gourmet and Bon Apetit. Definitely do not use dark meat, and if you use Miracle Whip. it will change the taste.
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If you TRAVEL to Denver, the Denver Junior League cookbook has a great recipe for chicken salad that uses grapes, water chestnuts, a bit of candied ginger, chicken breast meat, pecans (I guess you could substitute almonds), soy sauce, curry powder, and other tasty ingredients. It's a great salad, in the wonderful Colorado Cache cookbook, p. 84. (If you're really interested and can't find it, I could type it up for you.)
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Wolfgang Puck makes a chicken salad to die for. Has no relationship to the chicken salad that I've seen at other establishments. I know it had the almonds and some crunchy noodles.
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I just looked it up on google. I was wrong. It is similar to Maureen B's, but more Asian. It is incredibly good.
Not almonds, but candied cashews. And it's called Chinois Chicken Salad- with Marinated Chicken Breast/Mixed Greens,Candied Cashews, and Crispy WonTons. |
Yes, type away MaureenB. Thank You!
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Substitute turkey and you've got a WASP Third Day After Thanksgiving special. Delicious and sure beats another evening of open-faced turkey sandwiches...! In your TRAVELS you will surely find a deli that serves this salad with either chicken or turkey.
JJ5, Wolfie's "Chinois Chicken Salad" is his take on that California lunch eatery favorite, the chopped Chinese chicken salad (chicken, lettuce and shredded cabbage, fried wonton noodles, ginger-based rice vinaigrette). His innovation is to go all-cabbage and use a classic dijon vinaigrette. His local Express eateries don't put almonds in any more (nut allergy fears?). |
Here you go, Honey!
Gently boil/simmer some split bone-in chicken breasts. Dark meat is for paella and gumbo, putting it in chicken salad is just tacky. Take it out when it's done. As soon as it's cool enough not to burn your hands, pull out the bones and skin and other nasty bits. Salt the chicken now. Chop it very fine or put it in the food processor, but not too long, you don't want chicken PASTE. Add DUKES mayonaise. Dukes reduced fat is an acceptable substitute. Nothing else is. Stir it in. It will combine so much nicer when the chicken is warm. Now all you have to do is add whatever you want in your salad. Finely diced celery is more or less mandatory. Onion is optional, as are sweet pickle relish (called picklelily by that Yankee I brought home), sliced almonds, green pepper, walnuts, halved grapes. Add some more mayo until it all sticks together. Some people add hard boiled eggs, bless their hearts, but that's just awful. |
Hi starrsville, my SIL use to make a great chicken salad that was so easy to prepare.
She mixed cooked white chopped chicken meat into BestFood Mayonaisse (Hellman's on the eastcoast) that had some curry mixed into the mayonaisse along with a bit of fresh lemon juice. She added grapes, water chestnuts, chopped celery to the chicken mixture. She cut off the top of tomatoes, scooped out the seeds and inside and filled the tomatoes with the chicken mixture. Butter lettuce on the plates with stuffed tomato on top of the lettuce. Sometimes she added chopped apples to the chicken mixture, but not always. I liked it best with the apples. Our family doesn' tend to write down receipes but the chicken mixture can be tasted as you prepare it and you can add whatever else you would like such as salt, pepper, whatever. Enjoy! |
I had a recipe that I always took ON MY TRAVELS but can't remember exactly what I put in it. I think it was just chicken, Hellman's, garlic salt, slivered almonds and grapes. I've put a call out to friends trying to see if I'm missing anything. Was hoping my Fodor's friends were familiar with it or something similar.
But, the WP recipe sounds delish! Thanks all. |
I traveled to my mailbox to pick up my Cooking Light magazine. I made the most delicious curry chicken salad with apples and plump golden and red raisins. Yum.
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Starrsville,
I have a recipe that includes all of the ingredients you mentioned, with the addition of chopped celery, dried thyme and garlic powder. The Hellman's is a MUST and I usually add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the mayo. I've also used sliced almonds (lightly toasted) in place of the slivered almonds...it's just a more gentle bite :-) ! I am a chicken salad fiend :-) ! Hope this helps ! Marion |
I love to order chicken salad for lunch when I am TRAVELING, so when I come home, I like to recreate it.
For the juiciest white-meat chicken, poach boneless chicken breasts in water with celery, onion, salt, pepper, parsley and a splash or two of white wine. Bring to a boil, and then take off the heat. When the pot is cooled, the chicken will be cooked through, but not overcooked and dry. (Save the broth to use another time!) Chop the chicken breasts into small chunks, add your favorite mayo (I like Hellman's), slivered almonds, grapes that are halved, thyme, a sprinkle of garlic powder, salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. I do also really like chicken salad with curry, but that's another recipe! |
Marion - we were posting at the same time! I agree about toasting the almonds. It adds another whole level of flavor. I'm getting hungry!!
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I just opened my Rochester NY junior league cookbook and the page with the chicken salad is MISSING! What the heck...I'll try to get it from a friend. It's called Fruited Chicken Salad and I recall that it is really good.
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1scs1 :-),
You saved me from my follow-up post about how to properly poach the chicken breasts. Although I take it one more compulsive step, by poaching split breasts, on the bone with the skin. Same poaching method, and a little more work but the skin and the bones insure a more moist meat:-) Lordy, we're all about to be bounced from this board :D ! Marion |
Just curious, what is it about dark meat that's bad? Do you think it's bad, just in chicken salad, or bad, in general?
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Geez, you people are making me hungry! Some great recipes!
I often buy a large package of chicken breasts when they're on sale, poach them and freeze them in recipe size bags. I've found that skin-on, bone-in definitely makes for juicier meat. And better broth to be frozen for another use. I tried a recipe last summer that called for smoked turkey breast but would surely work with chicken. It was from a fund-raising cook book with recipes from Dayton-Hudson employees from all over the country. Does that sort of relate to travel?? Smoked Turkey with Jarlsberg Salad 3/4 lb smoked turkey breast 2 1/8 lb Jarlsberg cheese 1/4 lb. red seedless grapes 1/4 stalk celery, chopped Dressing: 3/4 cup mayo 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar 2 teaspoons crushed green peppercorns Cut turkey and cheese into julienne strips 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. In large bowl, combine turkey, cheese, grapes and celery. In small bowl, combine dressing ingredients; add to turkey mixture. Mix well. 6 to 8 servings. It was quite tasty! But I'm wondering whether the amount on the Jarlsberg isn't a misprint. I know I didn't put in anywhere near that much. I'm guessing it's supposed to be 1/8 pound and that the 2 is because it's the 2nd ingredient (probably copied from a recipe that numbered the ingredients). |
Marion, you were posting as I was writing! See you already covered the skin and bones thing!
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I do agree about the bone-in chicken breasts. Sometimes I'm just lazy about the bones - especially if there has been a really good sale on boneless chicken breasts!!
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i was wondering the same thing about dark meat. i usually only eat white meat but i just purchsed some thighs to make the chicken salad in the back of the red hat book and it specifically said thighs- it's down south- could it be a southern thing? sounded good
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When I'm feeling lazy (often !) I've used Rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Great flavor and very moist meat.
I don't think there's anything wrong with thighs or dark meat, it certainly is moist. I think it's more of a visual thing...especially with the grapes. I think thighs would work well in a curried salad with raisins and currrants and coconut and pineapple...I'll stop now :D ! Marion |
Who's having chicken salad for dinner tonight??????!!!!!!
LOL :) It is too late for me to get it going but I want to make for the weekend! Thanks for the redcipes... |
Best chicken salad ever came from San Francisco -- with chicken breast (actually, I think we used a cooked kosher deli turkey breast chunk), a bit of crumbled crispy bacon (see below before you have a treif attack), chopped red onion, a chopped Roma tomato or two, frozen small green peas (uncooked) and however much diced avocado your conscience permits. Bound with Hellman's. No other mayo (except your own home made). Salt and pepper. Over good greens. We later made it kosher by substituting frizzled turkey pastrami for the bacon, which was a close enough match.
Dark meat actually has more flavor, is more tender, and is more forgiving when poaching. Breasts are usually easier to cube into tidy chunks, however. With the poaching method above, you will never have an overcooked chicken breast! B/ |
<b>Public Service Announcement</b> for people living in the western US: Hellman's is the East Coast label brand for Best Foods Mayonnaise. You can still make "good" chicken salad...!! ;)
And egg salad (shades of "What's Up, Tiger Lily"!!.... "An egg salad so delicious you'll plotz.").... |
First of all a disclaimer...I am soooo not southern, lol! Many years ago when we were newly stationed in SE GA, I made a chicken ceasar salad for an luncheon for our Officers Wives Club. Our very southern Captains wife took one look at it, and with that very polite southern accent asked me "Is that California cuisine?", lol! So, I guess I never would have been considered for the Junior League!
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Starrs--A friend from Madison, GA makes the best chicken salad--it's been at the last few showers we've given and is always a hit. Her chicken salad is a chunky kind w/Hellman's...She boils/poaches breasts w/carrots, celery, onions, garlic S&P....she then dices the chicken and adds halved grapes, almonds (I think the roasted sweet ones that come in a bag from the produce section), finely chopped celery, a little garlic powder and adjusts the S&P. I've made and must say it's delish.
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Okay, OWJ. I'm going to make that one. Forgot the celery but will see if my mom has any in her fridge. Thanks all!
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PS - I'm just a few miles from Madison, so if you are down this way give me a shout!
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mms, I hope you learned your lesson. Any dish taken to a "social" in the south MUST include lots of mayonnaise. And any dish taken to a "social" in the midwest MUST include a can of soup. (Unless it's a dessert, then it MUST include Cool Whip.)
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hi starrsville, again I defer to The Southern Living Cookbook..my favorite. There's a recipe in there for mandarin chicken salad...it includes all the things you and others have mentioned, plus mandarin oranges...
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Patrick, you are dead on about the midwest "musts"!!! My 15 year old son LOOOOOOVES family reunions and church pitch-ins despite the number of grey hairs and lack of hot chicks due to the mayo and Cool Whip dishes! All other dishes include cheese...
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The East Coast isn't the only one whose got Hellman's. We've got it here in Texas!
And if you ever do TRAVEL through the Lone Star State, our chicken salad is made with mesquite-smoked chicken -- sure gives the chicken salad a great flavor. Patrick, you're so right about the midwest and their soup and Cool Whip dishes. I went to a funeral and everything -- I mean every main dish had soup and the desserts all had Cool Whip. Amazing. I'd never seen anything like it before..or since! Even the salad bar at the hotel had all mayo-based salads - not a green leaf or fresh veggie in sight. Happy TRAVELS y'all! |
Patrick--LOL! Yes, I learned very fast!
A good friend years ago gave me a ton of recipes when DH and I were first married. I think she felt sorry for me that I couldn't cook. Anyway, all her recipes include cans of soup...and yes, she is from ND, lol! |
Thank you everyone for the chicken salad varieties. I'm going to try several. I use that same poaching method for several dishes and LOVE the broth for so many other bases. Once in a while I do them very fast in a pressure cooker, with hardly a pop of the indicator on top (and taken right off the burner) and they turn out exceptionally tender and moist.
So true about the IL area anyway- canned soup and cool whip, BUT NOT IN OUR HOUSE. Also there has continually existed an entire Velveeta culture here. I bet I have seen at least 5 versions of the Velveeta, Ritz Crackers, Broccoli, Butter Casserole on every major occasion of my acquaintances' lives that I have attended. That is OUTSIDE my family. The only cans we ever opened had tomatoes in them. Even our olives and all else we used came in jars, not cans. While others ate bologna and peanut butter sandwiches, I had home made Italian bread, with olive oil and parmesano under a broiler for lunch. REALLY! Almost every day I walked home and had a hot lunch and there were no cans involved. I brought in an anchovy salad in H.S. one time and grossed all the cotton bread people out. Until I was 6 we owned a small cornor produce store and a butcher shop next door to it. And in that store we also sold chittl'ens and pickles in barrels (separate of course). One of my first two memories is going to get cans of Italian tomatoes in the back storage (by the pictures)for my Nana to fill a customer's order. I was 3 and she insisted I could read. She couldn't read in English and only very slowly in Italian. I roamed all over the store; it was an entirely different sort of world. Where I lived (several miles away) outside of the store, it was about 95% Irish until I was 14 or 15. Canned fruit, canned soup was standard fare in everyone else's cooking. There was NO cool whip or canned anything in my house and most of the pasta was from scratch. My aunt's ravioli are still (she's 91)unbelieveable. We cooked every vegtable my Grandfather was selling. I knew at least 4 ways to make artichokes before I was 10. Guess whose house always had LOTS of extra kids from the other houses every night! Oh food memories are some of the best memories! I can never think of canned soup without thinking of my girlfriend Maureen H. and her mother's roast beef gravy. Ugh! I was polite, but never let it touch my meat if I could possibly help it. |
Best-Ever Chicken Salad
2 whole chicken breasts (4 halves), boiled, all skin and fat removed 1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds 1/4 cup celery, in thick (1/8 slices) 1 whole Vidalia onion, diced 1/3 cup white wine (any kind you like) 6 hard boiled eggs, cut in sagittal slices and then halved again mayonaise, salt, pepper and celery seed to taste tart red seedless grapes (optional)halved, about a half to 3/4 cup Cut up the chicken into one inch pieces and combine in a bowl with the wine, tossing the chicken in the liquid. Do not drain. Season with salt and pepper to taste Combine chicken, eggs, celery, and onion, and then add enough REAL mayonaise, by tablespoons, to bind the ingredients together. Add almonds and grapes and toss lightly, then shake celery seed (no kidding, this is the **secret** ingredient) over the entire bowl, until it looks lightly peppered with the seed. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. If you don't drink wine, you can substitute lemon juice, but use only 1/4 cup instead. |
JJ5, can I come live with you?
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kswl, I made it. It already tastes better than the version I made years ago. I bet it's going to be great after it "sets" in the fridge overnight! Thanks a lot. I'll report back in after tomorrow's picnic.
bamakelly's corn casserole is going to yet another party on Saturday. |
This is one of the best threads y'all have started, fantastico!
Can someone suggest THE "BESTEST" Asian/Chinese/Thai and/or Oriental Chicken salad? I've had them from Safeway and I'm sure y'all have better ideas and recipes. Oh, how do I make the Chow Mein Noodles that are used in many of these recipes? Gracias! |
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