Day: June 16, 2022

Turkey Tracks: June 16, 2022

Chicken Salad Bliss!

I started thinking about chicken salad yesterday while weeding in the garden.

I had just bought that morning a whole chicken that I was going to roast today.

But then the idea of chicken salad started roaming around in my head.

So, this morning I started making…chicken salad.

First, the chicken went into a pot deep enough to cover the chicken with water. And I threw in some hunks of celery, carrots, and onion. And, some salt. When the pot water came to a soft boil, I turned down the heat and cooked the chicken at a soft boil for 35 minutes.

Then I turned it off and went to Fresh Off the Farm for some soy-free eggs (Misty Farms, local peeps) and fresh celery. I should have added in some Italian parsley, but I didn’t think of that while in the store. I can also add some if I want. Or I could add some of those little green peas I seem to be craving.

When I came home, I strained off the now-cooler broth and put it in a freezer container for a soup down the road. And when the chicken cooled a bit more, I took the meat off the bones with my hands—as I wanted a shredded look, not a chopped look.

Home-made mayo is dead easy to make in a blender. Break two eggs into the bottom of the blender, add about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of good mustard (or some acid like lemon juice or white vinegar), salt, whatever herbs you might like to add and turn on the blender. From the top, drizzle a really good olive oil in a stream into the mixture and stop when the mass congeals. It takes a little over a cup of olive oil—but how much can depend on how big the egg yolks are, among other things.

I cut some celery and onion fine and grated some carrot—amounts here depend on your own tastes, including the amounts of salt and mayo. (If you want less mayo in the salad than you made, stir in a little whey from your yogurt as it will ferment the mayo and preserve it.)

And here’s my salad—the parsley would have given it more color.

Along the way I blanched some collard leaves for 5 minutes in slowly boiling water and laid them into a bread dish, separated by paper towels. I used to take out the central stems, but I don’t any more.

Use the collard leaves as healthy, nutritious wraps.

And voila, here’s LUNCH.

You could slice the finished wraps into bit-size pieces if you want to do that.

And now I can’t wait until dinner time.

The wind is high as a storm is blowing in—and so far I’ve avoided going out to weed as I’ve been happily busy in the kitchen.

But now…