Curry Chicken Salad

[Suvir Saran]

Please share t he recipe with us.. I am sure all of us will be learning a great new one. Please Jaymes!

[Jaymes]

Please share t he recipe with us..  I am sure all of us will be learning a great new one.  Please Jaymes!

I'll have to dig the thing out.... May be packed away somewhere in the mound of boxes from my last move, but I'll try. Might take a while, though. I ain't the most organized girl in class.

[bellaS.F.]

Not at all along the same lines as the salads mentioned, but very good... we like the Curried Rice Salad from Joyce Goldstein's - Back to Square One (what can I say, I still can't figure out how to underline, I just get the U next to what I highlighted). We often throw some pulled/shredded pieces of roasted chicken into it. If you are going to make it ahead of time, I would wait till serving to throw in the roasted pistachios. They lose their crunch after a while. I tend to have extra pistachios and sliced scallions for people to be able put on top of each serving.

[Fat Guy]

Okay, I've finally secured my mother's recipe. It was actually pretty interesting to see the primary source document. It seems that the underlying recipe began as something in a Ladies' Home Journal-type cookbook with the evocative description: "This salad is bright yellow and nearly addictive." Virtually every step of the recipe was over time crossed out by my mother and replaced with her own instructions -- sometimes in two or three revisions.

Anyway, the way it stands now:

For the chicken:

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

Rich chicken stock to cover

1 Bay leaf

A palm-full of whole peppercorns

1 tbsp salt

You put all this stuff together and poach the chicken until it's cooked but not rubbery, and after you let it cool you chop it into bite-sized pieces (like the size of big croutons).

For the salad:

1/2 of a 9oz. bottle of mango chutney

1 finely chopped small onion

1 can sliced water chestnuts

1 tsp salt

1 cup homemade mayonnaise

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1 tsp ground cumin

A liberal application of fresh-ground white pepper

Mix it all up in a bowl.

What you get out of this is a chicken salad that is, well, bright yellow and nearly addictive.

My mother has also experimented with using various fruit preserves in lieu of the chutney. For example she has made a rendition with apricot jam.

That's all I know, I think.

[Suvir Saran]

That was a great recipe you posted FG! Thanks for sharing it with us.

It sounds amazing. Wow!

Lots of black peppercorn in the recipe. Telling of your mothers good taste. Black pepper was once the most prized spice in the world.

Apricot preserve sound great. In fact in Himachal Pradesh in India, they use apricots with chicken. In fact even in Kashmir they use apricot with chicken and lamb. It is fascinating to read your mother pair similarly.

[Blue Heron]

Steven S. - thanks so much for coming through with your mom's recipe!

Thanks also to everyone for the recipes and all the tips. I'll make some and let you know how they turn out.

And Jaymes - if you ever come across that box that has the recipe for the Pineapple Boat Chicken Curry Salad, it won't be too late to post it! That reminds me, I've made some pretty fruit salads and served them in Pineapple Boats - it looks really neat.

[Fat Guy]

Incidentally, my mother's strategy for a summer salad meal -- six or seven different salads along the lines of curried chicken, wild rice, cabbage, potato, etc. -- is to make each salad and dump it into large heavy-duty Zip-Loc bags. If you leave the salads in their mixing bowls, you'll eat up all your refrigerator space and you'll use up your best bowls quickly. The Zip-Loc method allows you to cram a seemingly infinite amount of stuff into the fridge and you can save all your bowls for use as serving pieces. Keep topping off the bowls with the salads from the bags, because once a bowl gets down to about half-full most of the guests stop eating from it.

[Sandra Levine]

How does this turn bright yellow? I expected curry powder or saffron or turmeric. It sounds good, but yellow? Really?

[Suvir Saran]

Homemade mayo and mango chutney... maybe those two can make the salad yellow.

[Fat Guy]

I'd have to guess that the yellow is basically the diluted version of the orange-ish color of the chutney. Try mixing mango chutney into anything white and you'll probably get something in the yellow range. Remember also that most commercial mango chutneys have spices in them already, some of which might be included in a typical prepackaged curry spice blend. I'm sure if you used blueberry jam you'd get something completely different looking! The mayo has mustard as an ingredient. Might the cumin also contribute?

[Suvir Saran]

I think it is the mayo and the chutney. Cumin has little if any color. It would add some brown specks if toasted. But that would be the only color it could ever add.

[Fat Guy]

I'll test the recipe one of these days and add the ingredients to smaller batches in various sequences in order to isolate the primary source of the yellow.

[Blue Heron]

I read something interesting that James Beard wrote in regards to making curry mayonnaise... He said to 1 C. of mayonnaise, add 1 1/2 tsp. curry powder (or more to taste) that has been simmered in 1 T. butter for 2 or 3 minutes and cooled. He adds "never add raw curry to dressings." Does that mean he thinks one should never add raw curry powder, or is there another type of raw curry to which he could be referring?

[Suvir Saran]

Blue Heron,

At the Indian forum we have discussed the reason why spices are never added raw in several threads.

The main reason is that spices do not release their flavor unless exposed to heat. With the exposure to heat they release their inert flavor and it is this flavor that can make things flavorful and also add the essential properties of those spices. Raw spices certainly have taste and flavor, but not always the most pleasant or even easy. Some raw spices can induce nausea. Fenugreek being one of them.

And it just happens that fenugreek is one of the essential ingredients in the making of curry powder.

Not all maufacturers of curry powder go through the extra step of dry roasting each spice and then grinding them into a powder.

James Beard was smarter than most of us and thus suggested making that extra effort. It also will ensure that you get the most subtle flavoring of the spices that you add to a dish by the addition of curry powder. Raw curry powder certainly has flavor, but is far less complex and subtle than fried or roasted curry powder.

I am always amazed at things people tell me about James Beard. His ways never cease to impress me. I have learned so much by reading his works and also by friendship with those that were close to him.

[Suvir Saran]

Blue Heron, he was refering to Curry Powder as we all know it today.

[Blue Heron]

Blue Heron,

Some raw spices can induce nausea.  Fenugreek being one of them.  

And it just happens that fenugreek is one of the essential ingredients in the making of curry powder.

Not all maufacturers of curry powder go through the extra step of dry roasting each spice and then grinding them into a powder.  

Yikes! That's a good piece of info to know... thanks!

[Suvir Saran]

Blue Heron,

Some raw spices can induce nausea.  Fenugreek being one of them.  

Yikes! That's a good piece of info to know... thanks!

But it is all old wives tales that we rely on here. These are stories or facts... call them whatever you may choose to... but most Indians grow up hearing about these and thus when we cook, it is natural for us to take such intricacies in our stride.

And it is sad that many ethnic chefs do not elaborate on these little details. For they take them as being so basic. But to those foreign to that culture, these basics are far from basic.

Do browse the Indian forum. You will find lots of such details there... and also if you ever have questions about spices, post them there... maybe with the collective knowledge that forum has from those in the know about these foreign spices, you may find more information than you ever thought possible about these little ingredients. In their small form, they carry much potency.

[Jaymes]

The current thread on chicken salads reminded me of this one.

Several absolutely wonderful recipes here, and with summer coming, thought I'd bump it up.

[Miriam Kresh]

A favorite hot-weather lunch in our house is curried turkey salad, made in much the same way as the chicken salads described above.

One turkey breast, poached in water with some white wine, bay leaves, a few peppercorns, one sliced onion and three or four garlic cloves, peeled and sliced into halves horizontally. A little salt in the broth as well. As soon as the turkey is tender, with no pink color left in the center, remove it from the broth. (Strain and use the broth for cooking the rice to accompany the curry).Allow the meat to cool.

Cut the meat into chunks of the size you feel comfortable eating. Some like it diced, some like in pieces about the size of a walnut. 'Tis up to you. Put the turkey pieces in a large bowl.

1/2-1 cup of good-quality mayonnaise, depending again on personal preference. You can always spoon more into the salad if you started out too stingy. Mix 2 tsp. of fresh, fragrant curry powder into the mayonnaise, and add the curried mayo to the turkey pieces. Again, more or less curry, as taste dictates. James Beard's suggestion to first simmer the curry in butter (margerine for this kosher cook) sounds cogent; I'll try that next time.

Now. Chop 1 sweet red pepper, and a little yellow or green bell pepper if you want, about 1/4 cup celery stalks, 1 unpeeled Granny Smith apple, 1/4 cup spring onions, 1/4 cup walnuts or peanuts or cashews. Measure out 1/4 cup black raisins. Mix each ingredient, one by one, into the curried turkey. It will be colorful and fragrant and very, very good to eat. Serve cold (needn't be said, but I said it).

Have ready little plates of chutney, different kinds if possible (one sweeter and one hotter), grated coconut, more chopped nuts, more diced spring onions, more raisins. You can obviously leave out any of the sweet/crunchy ingredients and simply place them in these small plates as additional goodies for people to choose from.

Serve with hot rice and a simple vinaigrette-dressed leafy salad. Suggested drinks: lemonade and very cold beer. White or rose wines, of course, if desired, but cold beer for me is the best.

Miriam

Edited May 22, 2006 by Miriam Kresh (log)