Welcome to Part III – what to do with the cooked chicken. Our job is to rehydrate it, change the way it looks, and, at times, hide it using dough, eggs, mayonnaise, or sauce. I have found that making up fancy names for the dish not only adds flair, but will help your family know what to ask for next time. Unless otherwise stated these recipes serve 4-6 people. (Note: Though we use the word chicken – each recipe works just as well with meat or turkey.)
1. Salads
Chicken Salad A Ingredients
4 quarters of cooked or baked chicken ½ an onion ½ cup cooked carrots 4 pickles 4 tbsp. mayonnaise Salt & pepper to taste 4 tbsp. pickle juice or vinegar 1 tbsp. sugar (optional) Parsley for decoration
Remove chicken from the bones and cut into small cubes. Place in a large bowl. Cut carrots, onions, and pickles into small pieces and add to chicken. Add the mayonnaise and seasoning and mix well. Serve decorated with parsley and carrot slices on top.
Variations- Add ½ cup peas or ½ cup corn or 2 hard boiled eggs chopped. Add mayonnaise as needed.
Chicken Salad B Ingredients
3 cups cooked chicken, cubed 1 ½ cups raisins or dried cranberries 3 celery stalks, chopped ½ cup apple peeled and diced 2/3 cup mayonnaise 2 tbsp. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar Salt and pepper to taste ½ cup any nuts or sunflower seeds Lettuce
In a large bowl mix mayonnaise, salt, pepper and lemon juice Add chicken, raisins apples, and celery. Mix well. Before serving, mix in nuts and serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.
Lima Bean Chicken Salad
3-4 cups cooked chicken, coarsely diced 1 onion, chopped 1 can lima beans (drained) 4 cooked potatoes, sliced 2 tomatoes, sliced 1 tsp. sugar 1 can corn, drained 4 tbsp. oil 3-4 cups chicken soup 2 tsp. crushed garlic Salt, pepper to taste 4-5 tbsp. chopped parsley
Bring chicken soup to a boil. Add sugar, garlic, 1tsp of salt and a dash of pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Add all ingredients (reserve 3 tbsp parsley for garnish), cook for another minute and shut the heat. Taste, correct seasoning. Serve hot or cold.
2. Blintzes
This is such a delicious dish; no one will know its made from leftovers.
Ingredients for blintzes
4 cups flour 4 cups water 6 eggs 2 tbsp. oil Salt and pepper Oil to coat pan when frying
Put flour in a bowl and add water, eggs, oil, and spices. Mix well with a metal whisk. The consistency should be like buttermilk. Fill a ladleful of batter and pour in only enough to coat the bottom of a heated and greased frying pan. Tilt the batter in the frying pan until the blintz is as thin as possible. Flip over when the surface looks dry. Fry for an additional minute, then slide out onto a plate. Sometimes the first 2-3 blintzes will not come out perfect, that’s because the frying pan is not hot enough, don’t be discouraged just continue. In between blintzes use a piece of paper towel to dip in oil and grease the frying pan.
Yields about 3 dozen blintzes.
Tip: For Pesach use the same batter substituting potato starch for flour. These blintzes can be cut thin and used as noodles for the soup or served with the following filling.
Ingredients for chicken filling
6 chicken quarters (preferably bottoms) 2 cups drained fried onions. Salt and pepper, to taste.
Strip chicken off the bone and cut into very small pieces. (You can use a food processor for a few seconds, but it tastes better cut with a knife.) Make sure any bits of bone are removed. Add in the fried onions and seasoning. Mix and taste.
Put about 4 tbsp of the mixture near one edge of each blintz. Fold over both sides and roll lengthwise, to the other edge. Line up in a 9 x 13 pan.
Ingredient for sauce
4 tbsp flour 6 tbsp oil 4 tbsp mushroom soup mix Salt pepper to taste 4 cups cold water
Before starting, prepare the water and keep it near the stove. In a pot, mix first four ingredients very well. Turn heat to high and keep stirring until mixture turns light brown. Make sure it’s not too dark. (If you burn it, start all over again.) Once it’s the right color pour in all the water and keep mixing until fully incorporated and there are no lumps. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until thick sauce forms. Pour over blintzes. At this point you can put the pan in the freezer to reheat later or place in 250° until thoroughly heated and ready to serve.