One of Our Favorite Dishes

After working in the garden yesterday, I spent the afternoon making one of our favorite dishes, chunky chicken salad. I kept the camera close by and took a photo journal as I worked. It's a tasty recipe and one I hope you'll enjoy too.

Chunky Chicken Salad

2 bone-in chicken breasts
4 stalks fresh broccoli
1 carton grape tomatoes
olive oil
salt
pepper

Dressing:
2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup Half & Half
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

The first thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Wash your chicken breasts and place them on the cookie sheet.
Rub with olive oil and then season with salt & pepper.

Roast the chicken breasts between 45-50 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow them to cool.

Now it's time to "shock the broccoli".
Funny term isn't it. But just wait until you see the end result.
I too was shocked at just how nice it looked.



Cut only the flowerets from the stalks and wash them well.
I wash just about everything that can be washed in the food line.
It's better to be safe than sorry.

Next, fill a large pan about 1/2 full of water and bring it to a boil.

Add the broccoli flowerets to the boiling water and boil them for exactly 2 minutes.


While the broccoli is blanching, fill a large bowl about halfway with cold water and add about 2 trays of ice cubes.


Drain the blanched broccoli and place it into the bowl of ice immediately.

This technique is called "shocking" and it allows the broccoli to remain this beautiful bright green.

While the broccoli is cooling in the ice, wash and half the grape tomatoes.


Slicing the tomatoes in half opens their flavor.


Now it's time to put it all together into a container you can store in the refigerator.


Now that the chicken breasts have cooled, peel the skin off, cut the breasts from the bones, cut into 1/2" chunks and add them to the vegetables.


In a separate bowl, whisk or mix together these ingredients...
2 cups of mayonnaise
1 cup of Half & Half
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper


Add the dressing to the chicken & vegetables.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. If you can leave it there overnight, then do that. The flavors will have time to "marry" and the taste is out of this world.
Ray & I eat this along with butter crackers like Ritz.
This recipe makes four servings.
We absolutely love it!