Summers are hot, days are long and you want your time in the kitchen to be short. Whether you have a roasted chicken left over from Friday night Shabbat dinner or you pop into the grocery store after an afternoon at the pool and pick up a rotisserie chicken, this cherry curry chicken salad will have you craving more. This recipe is also a nice way to combine the leftovers from a classic Shabbat chicken dinner with some Indian flavor. I find on hot summer days we eat less meat so making something with the leftovers is key. You can set aside some of this mixture before adding the curry powder, if you like a more mild flavor. Enjoy this chicken salad on a weekend picnic or at the beach!
Ingredients:
- ½ roasted chicken, about two cups chopped
- 1 cup sweet cherries, pitted
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- ¼ – ½ cup sliced green garlic or scallions
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- Salt and pepper
Directions:
1. You can use whatever chicken is leftover and then adjust how much of each additional ingredient you have. You will want about two cups of chicken. I remove the skin and chop the chicken breast into cubes. I will then do the same with the wing and thigh meat.
2. If you have a cherry pitter, pit the cherries and then slice them in quarters. If not, you can just slice the cherries around the pit into quarters. I cut just to one side of the pit then pop the pit out and slice the cherry.
3. For green garlic, trim the end by the bulb and then slice the garlic thinly up to the green grassy part. For scallions, you can cut all the way up through the greens. I tend to use a little less if I am doing the green garlic as it is more potent than the scallions. Thoroughly wash the cilantro as it can be gritty. Then, chop up the leaves and stems.
4. Toss the mayonnaise with the chicken. I like to use just a thin coating of mayonnaise, but feel free to add more if you like your chicken salad creamy. Then, add in the scallions and chopped cherries. Sprinkle in a generous pinch of salt and several grinds of pepper.
5. For those who don’t like curry, you can take out a portion of the chicken salad now. With the remaining chicken salad, toss in the curry powder (adjust to ½ tablespoon if you took out a lot of the chicken salad to leave plain).
6. Serve on lettuce cups, endive cups or radicchio cups if you want a light, gluten-free lunch or dinner. Serve it with bread for a hearty sandwich.
Leah is a Boston-based freelance writer and blogger at Leah’s Life: Pearls & Oysters. She writes about food, lifestyle, travel and style. Her life includes the tedium of day to day, the big thoughts, and little smiles that come out of such a life. It includes the places she goes with her family and the journeys they have. It includes dancing, singing, laughing, crying, eating, drinking, traveling far and exploring close to home.
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