I hope that everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Ours was jammed packed with guests, Mike’s birthday, a new batch of beer (we’re attempting a clone brew of Harpoon IPA), and Arrested Development of course!
I didn’t have nearly as much time to prepare for our AD feast as I would have liked, but managed to pull a few things together at the last-minute; chicken fingers with Spicy Club Sauce, curly fries, candy beans, juice boxes, frozen bananas and Mike’s birthday Carrot Cake. It was a random smorgasbord of stuff that I typically wouldn’t feed people, but I made an exception for a-nu-start to a show we’ve been eagerly awaiting since it was abruptly canceled so long ago.
I’ve made this chicken salad twice now, and just love the flavors; it is way more interesting than the plain old chicken salad I grew up on. I highly recommend poaching the chicken using the method below. It produces super moist chicken, and you can cook down the broth for use in other dishes!
Cranberry-Shallot Chicken Salad
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Makes 4 to 6 servings I used this method to poach my chicken, starting with about 3 pounds of bone-in breasts which ended up being about 1 3/4 pounds of chicken after it was de-boned. Change this up to suite your tastes; we didn’t want nuts in ours so I omitted them. I used white balsamic vinegar. 4 cups cubed (1/2 inch) cooked chicken (about 1 3/4 lb) 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional) 1/2 cup celery diced into small bits, about 1 to 2 ribs 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot or 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion 1 to 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon or parsley 2/3 to 3/4 cup mayonnaise 3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar, champagne or white wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepperToss all ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined. I like to let mine sit in the fridge for an hour or two before eating so the flavors a chance to mingle.
Store in airtight container for up to two days.
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