Stupendous Chicken Salad

I had a bowl full of cold shredded roast chicken meat in the fridge from Monday night just begging to be used up so i decided to make a chicken salad for lunch today. I wanted a chunky monkey of a chicken salad as I didn't have any bread to serve it with so I needed to make it a whole filling meal to satisfy G, who's appetite knows no bounds these days.

This is what I used...

A quarter of a broccoli (steamed in the microwave - just put a little water in a bowl, put your broccoli in, cover with wrap and zap for about a minute, then dunk it in an ice bath to seal in that lovely green colour before you chop it up)...

Chopped spring onions...

Two sticks of celery, chopped into small cubes...

Two baby potatoes, boiled till just cooked and cubed...

A handful of grapes, halved...

Two hard boiled eggs, chopped roughly...and

Two cups of shredded roast chicken meat...

Undressed...


Then you put your creative cook's hat on and mix up a yummy dressing!

I used...

1/3 cup heavy cream...

1/4 cup of Japanese mayonnaise...

A dash of smoked paprika...

A sprinkling of Japanese magic salt ( yes, I buy strange things when I'm on holiday)

A few drops of Tabasco...

A generous squeeze of lemon juice...

A heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard

A sprinkling of salt and pepper...

And half a teaspoon of brown sugar...

Mix, mix, mix, pour over the salad, stir and stick it in the fridge to marinade for an hour or so to let all those good flavours sink in.

Dressing...

Then just before you serve it you do this...

*Whack!*

Sprinkle the cracker crumblies on top, add some Parmesan shavings and you have yourself a stupendous chicken salad lunch! :)

Dressed!

Roast Chicken Dinner - Asian Australian Style

Dinner: Roast Chicken with gravy, stir fried bok choy with dried prawn and garlic and rice.

This is my version of a classic roast chicken dinner. Instead of sides like potatoes or buttered carrots, I serve it with rice, stir fried vegetables and a healthy serving of tasty gravy...a homage to my asian australian upbringing :)

For the chicken, I make a herb and garlic butter rub by basically chopping up fresh herbs, grating a couple of garlic cloves, salt, pepper and squishing the whole thing together with my hands then jam the blob of herby butter into the chicken between the breast and the skin, Jamie Oliver style. I then stuff some more fresh herbs, crushed garlic cloves and half a lemon into the chicken cavity, smear the rest of the herb butter all over the chicken, sprinkle with paprika, salt, pepper and dried thyme and bung the whole thing in the oven at 220C for about 1hr 10 minutes. If the breast starts to brown too fast, cover the chicken loosely with tin foil to stop it burning.

For the gravy, I pour off most of the oil from the roasting pan, reserving 1 tablespoon of oil which I mix with 2 teaspoons of flour. I put the roasting pan on the hob and add 1/2 cup of white wine (I didn't use the wine tonight actually and it still came out fine) and cook the liquid down, scraping up all the sticky bits at the bottom of the pan with a spatula. After about 4 minutes I then add in a cup of chicken stock and cook for another 5 minutes, then I add the flour/oil paste which thickens the gravy up nicely. Strain and serve!

The chicken started seriously smoking up in the oven and the house was smelling like a rotisserie so I had to turn the aircon off and open up the windows....my hair still smells like roast chicken juices and G who is now sitting next to me on the couch just gave a sigh and said " Very....smells of chicken..." lol