Chicken salad with celery, apple and walnuts
A filling salad for lunch or a party table: chicken poached gently in stock so it stays juicy, crisp celery, a tart apple and toasted walnuts in a light dressing of mayonnaise with yogurt, lemon and mustard. Everything cut into the same dice, served on lettuce leaves. If you have chicken left from yesterday's soup, you can skip the poaching.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Chicken poaching 30 min
- Chopping and dressing 15 min
- Resting 30 min
Step by step
0 / 6 donePoach the chicken gently
Put the breasts in a pot, cover with cold water to 2 cm above the meat, add the bay leaf, allspice and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a bare shiver of a simmer and cook 15 minutes. Take off the heat and leave the meat in the liquid 10 minutes. Cut into the thickest breast: the meat should be white with no pink juices. Then lift out and cool.
Ingredients: 500 g chicken breast · 1 pcs bay leaf · 2 pcs allspice berries · 3 pcs celery stalks · 1 pcs apple · 50 g walnuts · 30 g raisins · ½ pcs lettuce · ½ bunch chives
TipA hard boil turns breast into dry fibres. Barely trembling water and finishing off the heat give juicy meat that cuts into clean cubes.
Water barely trembling, a quarter hour, then ten minutes off the heatDice the chicken
Cut the cooled breast into 1.5 cm cubes. Cubes, not shredded fibres: the salad should be distinct pieces that hold the dressing.
Even cubes of a centimetre and a halfCelery and apple
Pull the tough strings off the celery with a peeler, slice thinly. Peel the apple, dice like the chicken and splash with lemon juice at once. If using raisins, cover with boiling water for 5 minutes and drain.
TipCelery strings are like threads between your teeth. Thirty seconds with a peeler and the celery is only crisp, without that effect.
Celery without strings, apple in lemonToast the walnuts
Toast the walnuts in a dry pan 3 minutes, stirring, until fragrant. Cool and chop coarsely. Toasting deepens the flavour of the walnuts and softens their bitter edge.
Three minutes in a dry panMake the dressing
Whisk the mayonnaise with the yogurt, mustard, the rest of the lemon juice, salt and pepper until smooth. It should be well seasoned and tangy, because the chicken and celery are mild.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp mayonnaise · 3 tbsp natural yogurt · 1 tsp mustard · ½ pcs lemon, juice · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Mayonnaise, yogurt, mustard, lemonToss and serve
Combine the chicken, celery, apple, raisins and half the walnuts with the dressing. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Serve on lettuce leaves, topped with the rest of the walnuts and chives. Keeps 2 days chilled; add the lettuce just before serving.
On lettuce, walnuts and chives on top
Before you start
From soup chicken
400 g skinless meat from yesterday's chicken soup instead of poaching breasts. A salad in a quarter of an hour, and no half-eaten soup chicken left in the pot.
With grapes
A handful of halved grapes instead of the raisins: a version familiar from American chicken salads, sweeter and juicier.
For sandwiches
Dice the chicken and celery finer, dress with yogurt and mustard only. On sandwich bread with lettuce it makes a great lunch for work.
