For Alice

This entry is for Alice - my little cousin. She is my cousin Nicci's daughter and also blogs. I won't give the address of her blog, since she is keeping it anonymous - a very good idea for a teenager. In one of her entries, she mentioned bringing friends home and having a spat about every aspect of pizza choice. While this is part of the fun for a teen, I thought I would give Alice (and everyone else interested) an idea for easy entertaining. Next time you bring friends home and want to feed them, Alice, try this recipe for chicken salad.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHICKEN SALAD
You'll need
2 large, plump chicken breasts, skin removed. Keep it on the bone for the initial cooking.
1 can of chicken stock
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
3 whole black peppercorns
Handful of parsley, leaves for salad and stalks for cooking
1 onion for cooking and 1 small red onion for the salad
2 celery sticks, including leaves, 1 for cooking and 1 for salad
1 cup grapes or ½ cup raisins
1 small apple – I prefer a green apple, or firm red apple
¼ cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup mayonnaise or ½ cup mayo and ½ cup greek yoghurt
1 large pickle

Here's what you do to cook the chicken:
Put the chicken, chicken stock, bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, and parsley stalks in a pot. Chop one onion and one celery stick and the celery leaves roughly and add to the pot. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to gently simmer until the chicken is tender and its juices run clear. Be careful to not overcook. You don't want dry, rubbery chicken. Leave the chicken in the pot to cool down in the cooking liquid.

You can see that this part you can do ahead of time. You can also use left over chicken, although I don't suppose there will ever be two to three cups of leftover chicken in your house. Of course, you can also use a rotisserie chicken from the store.

MAKE THE SALAD
To make the salad, take the cold chicken out of the liquid and gently wipe it down with a paper towel. You don't want too much liquid in the salad. Take off the bones and discard. You can use the cooking liquid for a soup base or a gravy base if you want.

Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes and add to a bowl for mixing. Peel the red onion. I like the color of a red onion, but you can use any onion you have on hand. Cut in half and slice very thinly. Add to chicken. Trim the celery stick and slice very thinly. Add to chicken. The onion and celery add good flavor and some crunch.

Rinse the grapes and cut into halves. I rather like to use dark grapes for color, but you can use any grapes you have. If you do not have fresh grapes, just use raisins. Add the sweet, crunchy fruit to chicken.

Don’t peel the apple. The skin adds color and a lot of nutrients. Half and core the apple, and then slice thinly, or cut into 1 inch cubes if preferred. Slice the pickle very thinly. Add to the salad. You will notice we have highly flavorful chicken, and we have added color and crunch with the other ingredients.

Make a dressing according to your taste. I like the tang of mayonnaise, but if you are careful about adding fat, you can mix it with Greek yoghurt. If you like a more complex dressing, you can always add mustard too. I like it simple.

SIDE BAR: MAKING GREEK YOGHURT
For those who can't lay your hands on Greek yoghurt, you can easily make it yourself. It is just plain yoghurt that has been drained of excess liquid, so it is thick and creamy. To make your Greek yoghurt replacement, line a sieve with cheesecloth and pour a container full of plain yoghurt into it. You can control the fat content by using full fat, low fat, or no fat yoghurt. Put in the fridge overnight, or for at least three hours. Squeeze out the excess fluid and you are left with a creamy, cottage cheese like substance. Yummy!

BACK TO THE SALAD
Mix in enough dressing to coat all the ingredients and bind the salad together. Taste the salad and adjust salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until you need it.

This is a very versatile recipe. You can serve it on lettuce leaves on pretty plates for a full meal salad with really good bread and butter.

Or you can make a sandwich. Butter the bread you will use. Layer on a thin slice of onion, a nice thick slice of tomato and a heaping scoop of chicken salad.

Or you can fill little phyllo pastry cups with the chicken salad for appetizers. Other ideas for appetizers are:
- little toast triangles with chicken salad topping
- flapjacks (or dollar size pancakes) with salad topping
- crostini (french bread cut on the bias, rubbed with garlic and olive oil, and toasted in the oven) with salad topping.

I hope this helps, Alice, to impress your friends.

SUGGESTION:
I'm sure your Mom would love an elegant chicken salad lunch as a surprise one day :)