New Year’s resolve to eat a bit more like a caveman (translate healthier with a decided bent toward paleo) in 2015 has been bolstered around our camp by some rather sobering recent news. (Shit happens, but that’s another story for perhaps yet another day.)
Decided benefits to eating healthier happen to include She Who Must Be Obeyed and I truthfully feeling better than we have in years and the pounds have been peeling off consistently.
Staring at a roast chicken ready to bone and trim last weekend I had a flash back to a tropically inspired curry chicken salad we first had with friends from SLC while up for a family float and fish on the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho a few years back.
Remembered details were sketchy but sweet curry punctuated with grapes and mango came to mind, with a bit of savory onion and crunchy celery thrown in for good measure.
The damned recipe was no where to be found, though with a bit of luck the nudge to look in trip journals from those years popped to mind, and sure enough, there tucked away was the barely legible recipe for this Tropical Curry Chicken Salad.
This is of course a basic framework to build from; chicken salads really clamor for a ‘use what you’ve got approach’ – we often throw a handful of other stuff in here, like a can of slivered water chestnuts, a drained jar of pimento or a chopped bell pepper.
The curry adds a nice spin different from most chicken salads though pending how hot be your curry you may want to add a touch of more piquant heat; the honey and fruit tone things down in a balanced way.
Another one that very well may end up in your regular rotation.
1 1/2 lb boneless chicken, roasted, grilled or poached; cooled and chopped
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp. curry powder
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tbsp. honey
1/2 to 1 tsp. chile flakes
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 cup crisp celery, chopped
1 firm (but ripe!) mango or peach, peeled, pitted, and chopped
1 cup red or green seedless grapes, halved (you may want more)Optional: 1/2 cup of chopped roasted salted cashews
Chicken wisdom – whatever approach you choose for the chicken here, make sure it’s just cooked and not dried out. Poaching makes for an uber-tender and juicy chicken breast, though we usually grill these or roast a second chicken when cooking one for dinner.
Spice it up. In a large bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, yogurt, curry powder, lime juice, honey, chile flakes, ground ginger, salt and pepper.
Stir it together. Now stir in the chicken, onion, celery, mango and grapes; top with the cashews just before serving or they can get a bit soggy. Wrap it, sandwich it, or eat off a bed of lettuce – this one is good any way you want to go.
Enjoy.
