Curry Chicken Salad

This is, with out a doubt, the best chicken salad I've ever made. (It's also the only time I recall making something with saffron that tasted like saffron, and tasted good!) Its subtle, but full flavored. The first flavor you get is chicken, then just enough curry to know its there, followed by nutty almond, cut occasionally by a burst of sweet raisin, with on unexpected finish of saffron. These starring ingredients wouldn't work without the foundation of complex vegetal flavor: the peppers adding sweetness, the onion: bite, and the celery: freshness. I was pleasantly surprised by the great texture of this salad. The veggies happily play a supporting roll, unnoticeable except to give some structure.

I think some of the keys to its nuanced flavor are, first: the curry powder. While no universal recipe exists, there are two obviously different categories: British/Indian and Jamaican styles. I say style, because Curry Powder is a western invention. In India they generally use fresh ground aromatics and spices for their sauces. Curry powder was brought to the UK and then to the Caribbean, where it was further altered to suit local tastes and ingredients (most notably allspice). In the past I had used a Jamaican style curry powder, (which I do use in my Curry Tuna Salad). This time I used an Indian variety, (Maharajah Curry Powder from Penzy Spices), that had one unique addition: saffron, which turned out to go beautifully with the second star of this dish and my favorite element in the salad; roasted almonds. The combo was a huge success. The floral nature of Indian curry powder and saffron was perfectly balanced by the rich, toasted, nutty flavor. (A similar effect could be achieved by adding a couple of threads of saffron to your favorite Indian curry powder blend.)

I know most people don't own saffron, but haven't you always wanted a reason to buy some?


the recipe:

1 1/2 cups shredded poached chicken
2 tbsp. onion, minced
1 sm. stalk celery, sliced
1/3 orange or red bell pepper, small diced
2 tbsp. raisins
2 tbsp. roasted almonds, chopped
1/2-2/3 cup mayonnaise
1-2 tsp. Indian curry powder
2-3 threads saffron
fresh ground black pepper
salt

In small bowl, add saffron to curry powder and crush thoroughly with the back of a spoon, (or crush with mortar and pestle.) In Larger bowl, Mix chicken, onion, celery, pepper, raisins, and mayonnaise (you may need more or less mayonnaise depending on the moistness of your chicken). Season with salt and pepper, and gradually add your curry powder blend until you can clearly identify your chicken salad as curry, but no more. Let rest for ten minutes or more for flavors to marry. Stir in almonds, taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve on soft dense wheat bread with green leaf lettuce. Makes two sandwiches.

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

Medicate the delicious way, no side effects! It's nearly spring, and everybody I know has a cold. With the exception of me and my mom of course. I never get sick, (yes, I know, I'm asking for it) and Moms never ever get sick, they don't have the time. But the boys are sick, especially my Dad, so I am making him Chicken Noodle Soup; The unadulterated classic.

















Channel your inner depression-era homemaker and spend half a day in the kitchen, you'll have the satisfaction of one of the world's great comfort foods, and if you play it right, you'll have the makings of many additional meals for pennies. Comfort, and money are hard enough to come by these days, I say, take it where you can get it.

One chicken and a few common veggies, gives you a giant pot of soup, moist poached chicken, and a jug of homemade stock. Also, I wrote this post, did three loads of laundry, ironed, cleaned and listened to 4 episodes of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR, Not bad for half a days work.

















the ingredients:

1 whole chicken(about 4-5 lbs)
4 lg carrots
4 stalks celery
1 lg onion
6 cloves garlic
2 dried bay leaves
1 tbsp. dried thyme
5 black pepper corns
1 tsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. vegetable oil(or chicken fat)
2 tsp. sugar
2 cups egg noodles
fresh ground black pepper
salt

the process:

Rinse chicken, inside and out, and cover with cold water in a seven quart stock pot. Clean and peel your carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and add the scraps to the stockpot. Add herbs and spices, cover and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, skim foam off surface, and reduce heat as low as possible, cover and simmer for an hour and twenty minutes, skimming surface periodically.

Remove chicken to a platter and strain stock through a wet paper towel lined sieve. Add stock back to pot. When cool enough to touch, remove chicken from carcass and reserve. At this point you have clear chicken stock and poached chicken. (This a useful process to keep in mind for times when you aren't making soup and want chicken for chicken salad or chicken/stock to use in recipes. You can also use this stock for the recipe, and have a lighter cleaner looking and tasting soup. Just make a separate, additional batch of darker stock from the bones.)

You can make a richer stock by adding the bones and scraps back to the stock pot. Add enough additional cold water to fill your stock pot and a tiny splash of vinegar, (which helps to extract the flavor and vitamins from the inside of the bones.) Bring to a boil and skim surface. (skim the fat from the surface along with the foam, don't worry you will end up with plenty of yummy fat in the finished soup) Reduce heat to low and simmer for about another hour, skimming surface as needed.

If you want to make a really dark stock, it is worth the extra effort to roast the carcass for a while in the oven before making a stock out of it. (If you are going to save the bones for another day, you might as well do this.) I usually like my Chicken Noodle Soup rich but not too intense, and so use the lighter bone infused stock. If I'm not making this soup, which I prefer a little on the light side, I often make the dark and rich roasted chicken stock. If I'm making a more Asian style soup or one with delicately flavored ingredients, I use the clear stock.


















Slice 2 carrots and 2 stalks celery into approx 1 cm. thick slices. Mince remaining carrots and celery, and dice onion. Heat 3 tbsp. oil in dutch oven over med. heat. Add minced and diced veggies and 1 tsp. salt, saute until brown, about 15 minutes. Scrape the bottom occasionally and lower heat if necessary in order to get an even deep brown, without burnt edges, which don't dissolve into the broth in later steps. Don't rush this step, this is where you start to layer on some serious flavor.

















Deglaze the pan with about 4 quarts of your homemade chicken stock. Add the sugar and a few large pinches of salt, just enough to help you gauge the flavor of your stock. If it seems weak, boil it down a bit to concentrate the flavor. Salt and pepper to taste then add your sliced veggies. Once veggies are soft, about 15 minutes, taste again and add salt as needed. Add noodles and about 2 cups shredded poached chicken; simmer about 10 minutes. Skim surface, adjust seasoning, and serve in warm bowls. Add some fresh crusty bread and call it lunch, eat three bowls and call it dinner.



tips:

Skim when ever possible, you'll get a clear and clean tasting broth.

Salt as you go along not all at the end, you want the ingredients to be flavored through, not just the broth.

Don't rush, soup is all about the layering of flavors.