Chicken salad
Description
Perfect for everyday meals. The "Delight" chicken salad is served chilled as an appetizer or as a main course for lunch or dinner. Enjoy this tasty and easy-to-make dish. Garnish optionally and serve.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Take fresh chicken fillet, thoroughly rinse it under cold running water, dry with paper kitchen towels, place on a cutting board, remove the film and cartilage, cut into 2–4 pieces, and put them into a deep saucepan. Pour clean water over the meat, enough to cover it by 5–7 centimeters, and place over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium. Skim off the grayish-white foam—the coagulated protein—from the surface of the simmering liquid. Add salt to taste, a bay leaf, and whole black peppercorns to the saucepan, then cook the fillet under a covered lid for 20–25 minutes until fully done. Then, using a table fork, transfer the cooked pieces to a clean plate and let them cool down to room temperature.
- 2
Step 2
Then place the chicken eggs into a small saucepan. Pour in cold water until it completely covers the eggs and reaches 3–4 centimeters above them. Add two tablespoons of salt and two tablespoons of 9% vinegar. After the water comes to a boil, cook the eggs over medium heat for 10–11 minutes until hard-boiled. Once cooked, transfer them with a slotted spoon into a bowl of ice water and let them cool completely.
- 3
Step 3
Meanwhile, peel the onion and trim the roots off each mushroom. Then wash the vegetables, dry them, place them one by one on a cutting board, and chop. Cut the onion into small cubes no larger than 1 centimeter, or into quarters or half-rings 4–5 millimeters thick. Slice the mushrooms into 5-millimeter thick pieces and immediately proceed to the next step.
- 4
Step 4
Place a frying pan over medium heat and pour in vegetable oil. After a few minutes, add the onion and sauté for 2–3 minutes until soft and lightly golden. Then add the mushrooms, season with salt to taste, thoroughly mix the ingredients with a wooden spatula, and cook together for 13–15 minutes until the vegetables are nicely browned. After that, remove the pan from the heat and let the contents cool down to room temperature.
- 5
Step 5
After some time, peel the eggs, rinse them, dry, separate the yolks from the whites, and place them into separate bowls. Grate the white part finely or coarsely, while mashing the yolk into crumbs using a tablespoon.
- 6
Step 6
Transfer the cooled chicken to a clean cutting board and, using a new kitchen knife, cut it into small 1-centimeter cubes. Place the cubes into a clean container. Remove the paraffin coating from the cheese and grate it on a grater as well.
- 7
Step 7
Now visually divide all the ingredients, except the yolks, into two equal parts and layer them in a salad bowl, spreading each layer with mayonnaise. Start with half of the chicken fillet, then add mushrooms sautéed with onions. Next, add egg whites and some cheese. Repeat these layers, then top the assembled salad with mashed yolks. Cover the salad bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2–3 hours to allow the flavors to blend.