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- Curried chicken salad
Chicken salad is basically the Jan Brady of sandwiches.
The forgotten middle child...
Never the star item on a sandwich shop menu.
Usually buried somewhere down in the menu, between the egg salad and chopped liver.
Ask a group of people what their favorite sandwich is, zero of them will say chicken salad sandwich.
Can you blame them?
It's not that it tastes bad, it's just kinda forgettable the way it's usually made.
To me, it tastes like a cry for help.
"Please, Chef," chicken salad calls out to me.
"I want to be fun and popular like the the buffalo chicken ranch... Give me a new look. I want someone to finally notice me!"
"I'll see what I can do," I reply.
Where to start?
A few spices would go a long way. (I like toasted Madras curry powder.)
And how about something sweet and tangy?
Chopped pickled red onions will do the trick.
And since we like to emphasize protein here at SIMPL, we're ditching the bread so chicken salad gets all the spotlight for itself.
Paired with some delightful spiced carrots ribbons with jicama and chile oil, this chicken salad finally gets the glow-up it needs.
This carrot salad is different than any carrots you've eaten before, for a few reasons.
They're shaved using a vegetable peeler
The natural carrot flavor is concentrated
It’s sweet, salty, spicy, and crunchy all at once
By tossing with brown sugar and salt, the natural carrot juices are extracted and manually squeezed out.
The resulting carrot ribbons have an enhanced flavor, ready to absorb the sizzling aromatic chile oil that I toss them with.
Curried chicken salad with spiced carrot ribbons and chile oil
I've used this same moisture extracting technique in countless recipes to concentrate the natural flavors of watery vegetables like:
zucchini and yellow squash
cucumbers
cabbage
onions
It’s an easy, no-cook method for transforming sliced vegetables into a blank canvas for bold flavors.
These delicious carrot ribbons are tossed with chopped peanuts, lime juice, cilantro leaves, and sliced jicama round out this colorful side.
It's a perfect complement to this ugly duckling of a dish
(That just turned into a swan.)
Full recipe:
Curried chicken salad with spiced carrot ribbons and chile oil ⬇️
Curried chicken salad with spiced carrot ribbons and chile oil
More high-protein dishes:
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Curried chicken salad with spiced carrot ribbons and chile oil
Makes 5 servings
Cooking time: 1.5 hours
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Ingredients:
1 cup jicama, julienne sliced
1 Tbsp curry powder, lightly toasted in a pan
1/2 small jalapeno, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
Directions
For the pickled red onions:
Bring 1/2 cup brown sugar and the vinegar to a boil with 1/2 cup water in a saucepan. Pour in the sliced onions and return to a boil.
Let it boil for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and pour the pickled onions into a container to cool for 30 minutes.
For the chicken salad:
Drain the liquid from the pickled onions and chop them finely.
Shred the chicken breasts with your hands and place them in a mixing bowl with the toasted curry powder, chopped pickled onions, chopped celery, Tabasco, mayonnaise, and salt to taste.
For the carrot salad:
Peel off the carrot skin and discard. Continue peeling the carrots until they're completely peeled, then place the carrot peels into a mixing bowl.
Toss the peels with 3 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp kosher salt, then let sit for 15 minutes to extract the moisture from the carrots.
Place a clean dish towel on a surface, and transfer the carrot peels onto the towel. Enclose the towel around the carrots, and using your hands, firmly wring out the moisture until the carrots are dry.
Transfer the dry carrots to a mixing bowl and toss with the lime juice and the sliced onions.
For the chile oil:
Heat the oil on medium heat in a saucepan. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and sliced jalapeno, and let them sizzle on medium heat for 1 minute, making sure the ingredients don't burn.
Remove the chile oil from the heat, and pour over the carrot mixture. Let the carrot mixture sit for 15 minutes.
To finish:
Toss the carrot mixture with the chopped peanuts, cilantro, and coconut.
Divide the carrot mixture between 5 meal prep boxes, and place the chicken salad next to it. Store in the refrigerator until you're ready to enjoy this dish chilled.
Curried chicken salad with spiced carrot ribbons and chile oil