Chicken Salad

My mother and father make the best chicken salad. It’s a joint effort; my dad assembles the ingredients, while my mom makes the dressing. It’s not exactly your standard chicken salad. They like to include chopped apple, for a sweet note, and also chopped green olives, for their tangy saltiness.
They’ll use leftover chicken from a roast chicken, or their favorite baked chicken dish, and even include some of the crispy skin. You could also just poach some boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs in salted water for this salad.
The “secret sauce” so to speak, of this chicken salad, is the tablespoon of plum preserves my mom adds to the mayo-based dressing. You could use any berry jelly or jam, but as we always have a lot of plum jam on hand (due to several plum trees), that’s what mom reaches for first. Mom balances out the sweetness from the dab of jam with a bit of lemon juice. The result is just wonderful.

Chicken Salad Recipe

 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Yield: Serves 4

You can use any leftover cooked chicken meat for this salad, with or without the skin. Or you can poach some boneless skinless chicken breasts in salted water for this salad.

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb (2-3 cups) of cooked chicken meat*, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 4-6 green olives, pitted and minced
• 1/4 cup of chopped red onion
• 1/2 to a whole apple, cored and chopped
• 1/3 head of iceberg head lettuce, sliced and chopped

Dressing:

• 5 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp plum preserves, or any sweet berry preserve (or a lesser amount of honey)
• 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

*To poach chicken for this recipe, start with a pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into large (2 to 3-inch) pieces. Bring a 2 quart pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil. Add the chicken to the boiling water, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let the chicken pieces sit in the hot water for 15 minutes, then drain the water and chop the chicken pieces into smaller pieces for the salad.

Read More: Chicken Salad

Chipotle Salsa Baked Chicken

In this recipe we are making a simple salsa with fire roasted tomatoes, onions, lime juice, and chipotles packed in adobo, coating chicken breasts with the sauce, topping them with melty jack cheese, and baking them in the oven in a casserole dish. So easy! And so versatile.

First, chiles in adobo last a long time in the fridge, many months once you’ve opened the can, so you don’t have to stress about using them up right away. Second, this dish has lots of sauce, which tastes great with rice, pasta, tortillas, even chips. Third, it makes great leftovers.
This chicken bake is very similar to my salsa verde baked chicken, but with a smokey chipotle salsa instead. It’s a little on the acidic side with the lime juice and adobo, and tastes great with avocados to cut the acid and the heat.
While I usually serve it with rice, it’s also surprisingly good with penne pasta. In fact I could see making this again as a pasta casserole, just chop up the chicken to bite sized pieces, toss with cooked pasta and the salsa, sprinkle with cheese and bake until the chicken is cooked through.

Chipotle Salsa Baked Chicken Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Yield: Serves 6

This casserole produces a lot of sauce! Use it to spoon over rice or pasta, or for dipping tortilla chips.

Ingredients:

• 1 15-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes (or canned whole or crushed tomatoes if fire roasted are not available)
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup, packed, chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 chipotle chili peppers in adobo, plus 1 teaspoon adobo sauce (less or more to taste)
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs), trimmed of excess fat, cut into 3-inch wide pieces
• 4 ounces grated or sliced Monterey jack cheese

Serve with or over

• Avocados
• More chopped cilantro
• Sour cream
• Corn or flour tortillas
• Rice
• Pasta

Read More: Chipotle Salsa Baked Chicken

Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms and Shallots

Chicken and mushrooms naturally love each other, especially with a creamy sauce. This recipe is quick and easy, and uses just a little bit of cream to pull everything together. Most of the flavor comes from the chicken and mushrooms themselves, with help from shallots and tarragon.

Pro tip: tarragon loves both chicken and mushrooms. You want to add a special note to your chicken dish? Add tarragon. Want a mushroom soup recipe that will have your friends begging for the recipe? Add tarragon. Just don’t add too much. A little is all you’ll need.


In this recipe we are browning the chicken thighs skin side down first, then finishing their cooking in the oven. Chicken thighs release a lot of fat, even if you’ve trimmed the excess at the start. Cooking the thighs this way allows you to monitor the amount of fat you want in the finished dish.

While the chicken pieces are cooking in the oven, we get rid of most of the rendered fat in the pan, and cook the mushrooms and shallots in the remaining pan drippings. We add some stock, some white wine, let it boil down a bit, and swirl in some cream. When the chicken is done, so is the sauce. Easy!

Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms and Shallots Recipe

 

Prep time : 5 minutes
Cook time : 25 minutes
Yield: Serves : 3 to 4

Be prepared for a little bit of splattering from browning the chicken. To avoid this you can dredge the chicken pieces first in a little flour. I wanted a gluten-free chicken dish so am not taking that step.
You can make this dish with skin-on chicken breasts, they will take less time to cook in the oven than thighs.
Even if you don't eat the skin, please cook the chicken with the skin on in this recipe. The skin protects the chicken from drying out.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 pounds skin-on, bone-in thicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound cremini or button mushrooms (plus a couple sliced shiitake mushrooms if available for extra mushroom flavor)
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots
• 3/4 teaspoon dried tarragon (or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Read More: Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms and Shallots