It’s Chicken Salad Weather

So, yesterday I made some

And let me say, it is DELICIOUS.

I usually put a whole chicken in a big pot of water (sometimes I add the usual suspect savories if I want to save the broth). This time I couldn’t find the right size of a whole chicken–they were either too big or too small–so I used chicken parts. There was one part with the breast, but the other part was the drumstick and thigh. Basically I think chicken breasts–especially the boned and skinless versions– taste like dry paper, so I almost always lean towards the dark meats. But chicken salad needs SOME white meat, thus the use of the whole chicken when one can.

While the chicken parts were cooking, I set up the veggies: grated carrot, peeled and chopped cucumber, a bit of sweet raw onion diced, and celery diced. I had half of a yellow bell pepper, so I added it too. (Green pepper would be too strong for this salad I think.)

I was already hungry, so I set up a bed of lettuce, raddichio, and some of the roasted broccoli I made the other day on my plate. I have fallen in love with the baby red lettuce leaves in the stores now–the claim is that they have more iron than baby spinach, but that claim needs to be researched.

The chicken parts took about 30 minutes to cook, so I went outside to gather up fresh herbs for my mayo and then made it. LOOK at that beautiful color–due to beautiful egg yolks from local eggs.

Making homemade HEALTHY mayo is dead easy–and if you want to keep some for a few days, just add a bit of whey from your yogurt to preserve it. THIS mayo is super healthy, with its fresh eggs, good olive oil, the garlic, etc. Vitamin E, which makes beautiful skin abounds, and the egg yolks bring choline in to play.

Put two eggs, a tablespoon of good mustard, a tablespoon of something acid (lemon juice is lovely, but any vinegar will do too), and salt to taste into a blender. I added a garlic clove roughly chopped too. Have a bottle of a light olive oil ready to pour into the top of the bender. Turn the blender to a slow setting, start it, and start adding the olive oil in a thin stream. When the mixture has “made” and isn’t absorbing any more oil, stop. Your mayo is done.

If you want to add herbs, which I did, add them after the mayo is made and process it once more until the herbs are mixed in. I used fresh basil, thyme, a leaf or two of oregano (it is strong), and some Italian parsley with the leaves taken off the stems.

Ah, the chicken is done. After it has cooled enough to touch, take the meat off the bones and discard the bones and the skin. I use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut up the meat because that is what my Georgia grandmother taught me.

Pour the mayo over you chicken and veggies–using as much as you like. I like a lot, and the meat will absorb a lot of the mayo when the salad is stored.

Here’s my lunch. Chicken salad is super rich, so I wound up saving about a third of this salad to add to my supper portion–where I’d also have a big bowl of fresh berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) drizzled with maple syrup.

The rest of my salad went into this bowl and is covered by this very nifty top. I love these tops and have written about them in an earlier post. NO PLASTIC here today.

I am only missing some of those tiny green peas I love and can buy frozen at Whole Foods. On the next trip that way, I’ll stock up with a few packages.