Chicken, Pineapple & Mango Salad
When I serve a whole chicken, I always end up with half a chicken breast that I don't know what to do with. Three of us at home are red meat eaters and only one is a white meat eater. That means, we fight over the thighs and wings and we have so much white meat left. But being a Mom, I cannot fight with the kids on who gets the thighs, can I?
It's a perennial problem that I have to live with. I usually roast the chicken with simple and mild tasting ingredients so that lost half chicken breast ends up in a better dish. Let me see. I have shared with you some recipes using leftover chicken in the past like the Chicken With Mandarin, Cointreau & Thyme or the Mezze Penne Rigate with Tomato Chicken Sauce. Both are very good and since I dug them out from the chest of archives, I would earmark them for the next chicken dinners at home.
I think you already know that summer, real cooking and I don't stay on the same wavelength. And I have a feeling that I am not the only one who calls it quits in the kitchen at this time of the year. Even my mother-in-law and her sisters who were all born attached to the kitchen abandon their posts in this period. The only time my mother-in-law turns on the fire is when my children are over at her place. A nonna's kitchen is still unbeatable in the Italian culture. For these little ones' sake, I also give them more than a dish of salad. Who's ever heard of a child eating lettuce voluntarily anyway?
This month's issue of La Cucina Italiana covered a lot of ideas for salads and I have been trying their recipes ever since I brought it home. It's my new best friend now. This is one of the recipes that my husband and I tried and tested. There are some alterations to the original recipe that I ought to mention. I used mangoes instead of peaches, either of the two, I think the salad comes out delicious! Instead of using boiled chicken, which I never liked anyway, I used the leftover oven-roasted chicken. When I do this again and I don't have leftover chicken, I will grill the chicken on a griddle instead of boiling it, but it's your call. Just put some peppercorns, salt, a bay leaf and some parsley in the water to spice up the taste. Thinking of just adding color by garnishing it with red currants, they actually went well with the salad. The acidity of the berries blended well with the other fruits.
I hope you are enjoying your summer holiday!
Chicken, Pineapple & Mango Salad
Ingredients:Serves 2
- 180 grams chicken, white meat
- 50 grams fresh pineapple, diced
- 50 grams fresh mango, diced
- 1/8 cup white wine
- 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
- red currants
- parsley, chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Dash of chili sauce or Tabasco
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Handful of baby lettuce
- Over medium heat, on a hot griddle sprinkled with salt, grill both sides of the chicken until cooked through. When they are cooked, shred them then set aside.
- Over medium heat, in a saucepan, put the pineapple and mangoes, extra virgin olive oil, wine and vinegar. Bring to a boil then simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off the fire and let it cool.
- Drain the excess liquid from the fruits lightly then mix them with the chicken.
- Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, chili sauce, salt and pepper.
- Garnish with the chopped parsley.
- Serve on a bed of lettuce.
