Home > Article
VOL. 38 | NO. 15 | Friday, April 11, 2014
Deconstructing a great chicken salad
Not long ago, I made an emergency trip to Grand Junction, Colo., where my younger sister lives, to comfort her and her family during a surgery she was having.
It was a planned surgery, but things didn’t go as planned, and times were rough for a bit. But she’s through the difficult time now and is recuperating just fine.
While I was there, I didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about food, and mostly ate whatever was convenient. The hotel at which I was staying had a wonderful little bistro where I’d stop in on the way up to my room in the evening and grab something to eat.
One of the things I grabbed was a fantastic little grilled chicken salad with all kinds of little unordinary things tossed in. It was a winner, so that’s what I’m sharing today.
April is a fun food month. The biggest reason is because of Easter.
Easter usually means family and friends getting together for a large, happy family meal.
And it’s always double fun because it’s usually warmer, sunny weather.
Grilled Chicken and Quinoa Salad
2-3 grilled chicken breasts, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 cup of quinoa, cooked and chilled
1/3 cup of dried cranberries
Oranges, desired amount, cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup of green onions, chopped
Crispy rice, desired amount
Spinach, rinsed and drained
Red wine vinaigrette
To plate, place the spinach in a salad bowl, then add chicken. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients over the top. Toss gently and drizzle with vinaigrette.
As you can see, there are a few things you need to do before you can put this salad together. First, you need to grill some chicken breasts. Or, you can make this with some leftover grilled chicken breasts.
Next: prepare the quinoa. That’s not difficult – it’s like making rice. You just need to make it ahead of time. Again – it would be a good way to use leftover quinoa.
For the crispy rice – again, use leftovers if you have them. Crispy rice is easy to make, though. All you have to do is to make some rice as directed on the package, let it hang out in the refrigerator for a day or two so most of the moisture evaporates, fry it in some peanut oil, and drain it on a paper towel. Easy! The main thing is that the rice has to be somewhat dried out for it to turn out really crispy.
Passover also is celebrated in April. The eight-day festival is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan on the Jewish calendar.
It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. And, by following the rituals of Passover, the Jewish people have the ability to relive and experience the true freedom their ancestors gained.
But that isn’t all that’s celebrated in April. Here are a few more things that make April a month of celebration:
April 1 – April Fool’s Day
April 2 – Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
April 3 – Chocolate Mousse Day (Yummy!)
April 4 – Cordon Bleu Day
April 5 – Caramel Day
April 7 – Coffee Cake Day
April 12 – Grilled Cheese Day
April 13 – Peach Cobbler Day
April 16 – Baked Ham with Pineapple Day
April 17 – Cheese Ball Day
April 20 – Pineapple Upside Down Day
April 23 – Picnic Day
April 26 – Pretzel Day
April 30 – Oatmeal Cookie Day
I don’t know about you, but I see several reasons to toss the diet and eat. Which is why I’m giving you a salad recipe.
There are a few days in between the National Food Days in April that don’t have a celebration food. Maybe on those days we should redeem ourselves by eating a salad.
Here’s the recipe for the salad in Grand Junction. I don’t remember the name of it. I just wrote down the ingredients I saw. I’ll call it Grilled Chicken with Quinoa Salad.