Monday, January 26th, 2015

Another kind of chicken salad…

IMG_4106 So clearly I’ve got chicken on the brain lately, because I’m cooking and eating it for pretty much every meal. It’s a full on craving, and cravings are interesting, aren’t they? Why are there certain ingredients we just need in our bodies all of the sudden? I’ve had spates where all I wanted was turkey sandwiches; then another time it was an addition to smoked salmon for breakfast, lunch and dinner; and more recently citrus (fresh pink grapefruit in the morning, tangerines for snacks, cara cara and fennel salads…). I’m sure there’s some science behind these craving-mineral or vitamin deficiencies perhaps (yes, I play a doctor on tv), but right now it’s all about poultry so why not share that craving with you?

My last post was about assembling a classic chicken salad sandwich using the wonderful organic birds my supermarket is now offering. Today I’m featuring a different kind of chicken salad: Using your leftovers to make a hearty lunch salad. Any roast chicken will do for this, but I’m in love with a recipe from My Paris Kitchen, a newish cookbook from the Paris-based food writer David Lebovitz. The recipe is for Poulet a la Moutarde, or Mustard Chicken, and it’s a classic French dish for braising chicken thighs or parts with wine and flavoring it with a combination of dijon mustard, bacon, thyme, creme fraiche…resulting in a tender and intoxicating bird.

For dinner we eat the warm chicken over buttered noodles and then any leftovers go over a salad, like the one pictured above: Baby spinach, feta, sliced radish (another ongoing craving), a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar-shallots-maple syrup, a nice hunk of bread, and of course the chicken. It’s so simple, so satisfying. I might make it again today.