Today is my 30th birthday. My birthday this year is especially exciting because it marks the end of my twenties and start of my thirties. I spent some time reflecting on all of the milestones from my twenties. Thinking back, I still can’t believe how many adventures I packed into a decade. I’ve been able to live in three different states in the Midwest (Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio) and met some of the most wonderful and genuine people in all of the places I’ve lived. This year, with everything going on in the world, I celebrated my birthday with Kevin at home. We have been spending a lot of time at home rotating among working, sleeping, cooking, eating, reading, writing, and watching television. When the weather is nice outside, we sometimes go for a short, brisk walk. Most of the time, when I have some free time, I turn to the kitchen to experiment with cooking up new dishes. For my birthday this year, Kevin and I celebrated with a simple meal filled with some veggie pot pies, layered fruit smoothies, and spicy chicken salad. Chicken salad is one of my favorite dishes to whip up for a simple, flavor packed lunch. I typically make it when I roast a whole chicken in the oven. Kevin and I would enjoy some of the roasted chicken for dinner, shred the remaining chicken meat to use for chicken salad, and reserve the rest of the bones from the chicken to make stock. This way, I can ensure no parts of the chicken would go to waste. My go-to chicken salad is usually either traditional chicken salad or curried chicken salad. A couple weeks ago, I made the most splendid spicy chicken salad entirely by accident. I had roasted a whole chicken the day before, prepared some stock, and made some chicken salad. The next day, after letting the chicken salad rest in the refrigerator overnight, I served up a large scoop of chicken salad for lunch with some arugula and crusty bread. The chicken salad was wonderful on its own, but I wanted a spicy kick, so I drizzled on some sriracha. The moment I bit into the chicken salad, I knew I created a magical combination of flavors. The sriracha added the perfect kick to the chicken salad without being overly spicy. The mayo mellowed out the heat from the sriracha. The end result was the perfect combination of textures and flavors. Yesterday, I was craving chicken salad again. Instead of using a whole roasted chicken, I just roasted some chicken breasts in the oven. While the chicken breasts were cooling, I chopped up the rest of the veggies, tossed in the dried cranberries, mixed everything together, and chilled the chicken salad in the refrigerator until the next day. I like to prepare chicken salad at least one day in advance to allow the flavors within the chicken salad to deepen. With the chicken salad chilling in the refrigerator overnight, I just needed to prepare some veggie pot pies and fruit smoothies this morning for our celebratory brunch. Everything came together quickly in the morning. Kevin and I spent the rest of the morning enjoying a wonderful meal as we reminisced on our favorite moments from the last decade.
For the spicy chicken salad:
· 2 large chicken breasts, sliced in half
· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· ¼ cup mayonnaise
· 1 tablespoon sriracha
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 3 ounces dried cranberries
· 3 stalks scallions, thinly sliced
· 2 stalks celery, diced
· 2-3 ounces baby arugula, for serving
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F.
2) On a baking sheet, add the chicken breasts. Drizzle on the tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle on the kosher salt and black pepper.
3) Once the oven is ready, place the baking sheet in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Let the chicken breasts cool.
4) In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sriracha, kosher salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. Add in the dried cranberries, sliced scallions, and diced celery.
5) Cut the chicken breasts into strips. Slice up the strips into cubes. Add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the mayonnaise mixture, cranberries, scallions, and celery. Fold all of the ingredients together. Chill the spicy chicken salad in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
6) To serve, arrange a handful of baby arugula onto a bowl. Top with scoops of spicy chicken salad.
I just had to snap a photo of the meal right before serving.
Takeaways: Chicken salad is really one of those dishes where the longer it sits in the refrigerator, the better the flavors are. I find letting the chicken salad chill in the refrigerator for two days in advance of serving to be the magic number for making the most splendid chicken salad. After two days, the dried cranberries in the chicken salad plumps up and adds the perfect sweetness to the chicken salad.