Since we made home chicken stock last week and saved the larger pieces
of chicken meat for chicken salad, the larger subject of chicken, egg and
tuna salads seems appropriate. Salad spreads are every day dishes,
made to taste, so measurements need not be precise here. Variants
are endless, especially if the salad is plated on lettuce. The essentials
are mayo, sour cream, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and freshly ground
pepper.
Tips:
· Substitute sour cream for half of the mayo called
for in all salad spread recipes.
The dressing will be less heavy, less oily and a
little lighter in calories and fat.
· Make the dressing separate from the filling.
That way you can mix the ingredients
easier, focus on the dressing and get the seasoning
precisely right by altering
the essentials. Then add the filling to the
dressing. Taste again and adjust the
seasoning. Usually all that is needed is more
salt.
· Here is a better way to hard boil eggs, cool and
peel them:
o Place eggs in a roomy saucepan and cover
with 1-inch of cold water
o Bring to boil (BTB) over high heat.
Simmer for 30 seconds.
o Remove pan from heat, cover and let set
12 minutes
o Transfer the hot eggs to another saucepan
with ice water in it
o Let the eggs cool in the ice water bath
for 5 minutes
o Drain off the ice and water, but leave the
eggs in the pan
o Shake the pan vigorously to crack the eggs
o Peel eggs under running water
EGG, CHICKEN OR TUNA SALAD
Yield: 2 sandwiches or 2 small plated servings
See Abbreviations, if needed
Rules:
· Use about ¼ cup of dressing for 1 cup of
filling
· 1 cup of filling = 2 sandwiches or 2 small plated
servings
· 4 large eggs = 1 cup
For the filling:
· 4
large eggs, hard boiled, peeled and diced, or
· 1 C chicken, poached,
pulled or cut into bit size, or
· 1 C canned tuna,
drained and broken up into bit size pieces
For the dressing:
· 2 T mayonnaise
· 2 T sour cream
· 1t
lemon juice
· 1-2t Dijon mustard
· 1 T minced
red onion (optional)
· 1 T minced
fresh parsley leaves (optional)
· S/P to taste
1. Prepare the filling and set aside
2. In a small SSB, mix all the dressing ingredients together
and season to taste
3. Add the filling to the dressing, mix thoroughly and adjust
the seasoning
4. Serve at ambient temperature as a sandwich spread or plated
on lettuce
Variants:
· James Beard liked to add minced celery and halved
grapes to plated chicken and
egg salads and then top with capers and black olives
as garnish
· Basil goes well with chicken and egg
· Substitute buttermilk for the sour cream and add
chives and bacon
· Add chipotle sauce to heat up chicken or egg
· Make a club salad by adding avocado, tomato and
bacon
· A teaspoon of curry goes great with egg salad.
Then add some cilantro
· Horseradish works well with chicken and tuna
