It’s not often that I feel so passionately about chicken salad. I’m not big on heavy mayo or excessive dressing. When confronted with a choice: egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad and cheese & veggie I’ll take the cheese and veg. The mere thought of egg salad makes me queasy. Somewhere, in the depths of my sub-consiousness, it is forever associated with throwing up and other general feelings of intestinal disturbance.
I don’t trust sandwiches in general, unless I’ve made it myself or I’m somewhere fancy and it involves freshly baked bread, goat cheese, fresh herbs and roasted red peppers
And then I met THIS PARTICULAR chicken salad sandwich.
I made it yesterday for the second time, the second of many more to come.
Fortunately, both times I made it, there no one was present to see me eat it the way I did? standing with the bowl and a spoon over the kitchen sink. It’s embarrassing to think about how I stood there shoveling it in – not unlike a starving aardvark at an all-you-can-eat termite bar.
This recipe comes from the new Crazy Plates cookbook called “Eat, Shrink and Be Merry” which so far has proven to be a really great source for stuck-in-a-ruts like myself.
As I mentioned, I’m not usually the kind of gal who goes for this weird mishmash of mayo, chopped meat and celery, but particular recipe stands head and shoulders above all others. This one, my friends, has crunch. And crunch is good.
The recipe is called Chicken Coup. The first time I made it I made the “full size” version of the recipe, which probably makes enough for eight sandwiches. I ate it all, aside from half a sandwich I made for Sarah (who liked it at first and then changed her mind). The second time I scaled it way down, using about a quarter of the chicken required and half the rest. There was ultimately more veg than chicken, but I like it that way.
I won’t tap it all out here, but I’ll mention that the dressing is mayo, sour cream, honey mustard (and o.j. but I left that out) and S & P. The salad itself is made from chopped cooked chicken, apple, celery, green onion, cranberries, and toasted pecans. Oh yeah. It rocked. It was indeed a coup.
Remind me to tell you later about the applesauce gingerbread cake I made last night. Yum.
