Shared Recipe. Ann’s Quick Chicken Salad

Don’t know what to do with the left over roast chicken from last night’s dinner? Here’s a simple solution: Quick Chicken Salad.

Time and again when I don’t have enough time to make dinner, I head to my local deli or the supermarket to buy a whole roast chicken. When I have leftovers, I make this chicken salad for a sandwich lunch the next day.

Since the holidays are approaching, keep this simple recipe in mind. This may come in handy since you may already have the ingredients in your pantry.

How to Make Grilled Chicken with Mandarin Salad

I was thinking of what to prepare for dinner last night while doing the groceries. The fresh chicken breast caught my attention and the light bulb in my head immediately lit-up. Grilling the chicken is the thing that I have in mind and the only challenge left is to have a unique salad idea to compliment the chicken.

Based on experience, I had 2 facts about Grilled Chicken that I used as a basis in selecting the salad ingredients.

1. It goes well with fruits
2. It easily absorbs sauce.

It just happened that I am passing by the canned fruit isle and mandarin orange segments were the first ones that I saw. Since Mandarin orange is a fruit and it contains juice, it can be a perfect candidate. Grilled red bell pepper is the next ingredient to have but I settled on bottled grilled sweet pepper because bell peppers (capsicum) are so expensive at this time (I wonder why). I also got some shallots and parsley for additional spice and aroma.

Asparagus Salad

Here is another addition to our healthy salad recipes: Asparagus Salad. This is a quick and easy salad recipe that needs minimal cooking. Fresh asparagus is blanched then balsamic vinaigrette composed of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic is poured over it.

Blanching the asparagus means boiling it for a few minutes and immersing it in cold water afterwards. This technique cooks the asparagus (or any vegetable for that matter) while maintaining the texture and color. The balsamic vinaigrette on the other hand serves as a salad dressing.

I like this recipe because of its ease and simplicity; I also love the flavor produced by the combination. As for the texture – it is perfect. You can literally hear the crunch in every bite.

Why don’t you give this a try and let me know what you think.

Cucumber Salad

This is an easy and quick Cucumber Salad recipe that makes use of fresh cucumber and a few common ingredients that are readily available in your pantry. This healthy recipe is very easy to follow and won’t take much of your time.

I find Cucumber Salad convenient when there is more than one main course served. It refreshes my palate after every dish making my dining experience more exciting. I also like having this as a side for fried foods (it’s like having atchara around) because it gives life to fried food and also boosts my appetite.

You might remember this salad as something that is sliced thickly and peeled. I too grew up eating this salad prepared in the traditional way and I enjoyed it. After doing a lot of experiment, I found that slicing the cucumber as thin as possible lets the vegetable absorb the vinegar and other ingredients making the taste more lively and superb.

Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad is a famous salad believed to be invented by a restaurateur named Cesar Cardini. This salad uses romaine lettuce tossed topped with garlic croutons, parmesan cheese, and a mixture of olive oil, raw egg yolks, and garlic.

The use of raw eggs has become an issue because of possible salmonella contamination. Coddling the eggs is a good way to ensure that the eggs are safe. This is done by pouring hot water on the egg yolks and letting it sit for a minute. Additional water (room temperature) is added afterwards to neutralize the heat before draining.