Curry Chicken Salad is a refreshing and light salad that’s full of surprises. The spiciness of the curry is dispersed by the burst of sweetness from the crunchy, organic red grapes but only briefly. As the curry continues lingering on each morsel of moist chicken and crunchy celery, your taste buds will be surprised again by another burst of sweetness from the red onions. This dish is punctuated with surprises.
This recipe is a hit with young and old alike. It’s a recipe inspired by my friend Laureen. It’s on the menu every year when we camp out at the Creation Festival. Our group of about 30 teens this year enjoyed it as much as the as the adults in the group. There was not one bite left!
I adapted this recipe to serve my family of three at home. I’ve piggy-backed this recipe onto some leftover roast chicken from the night before. Yesterday I served the roast chicken for dinner, and today I’ve added fresh ingredients to the chicken to create Curry Chicken Salad. Tomorrow’s dinner will be a third meal from the roast chicken, Lemon Chicken Soup with Quinoa, which will be a future post.
The curry for this recipe is Indian curry purchased from the Indian grocery store. Some grocery stores may carry it in its ethnic food department. Curry is rich in tumeric, which contains curcumin, an antiinflamatory.
I shredded the left over chicken breast from last night’s dinner. I chopped one stalk of celery and a quarter of a red onion.
Reserve some of the onion and celery for garnishing. Combine the chicken, celery, and onions in a bowl.
In a second bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon of curry to 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and stir. Taste the mixture and adjust the proportions to suit your taste. I prefer the curry more on the subtle side with just enough of the curry flavor so it won’t overpower the other ingredients.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Although pepper is already an ingredient in the curry, more should be added to the salad. The tumeric that is an ingredient in the curry is better absorbed in combination with black pepper. The black pepper multiples the absorption of the tumeric by two thousand. Without the black pepper, tumeric will not pass through the intestinal track.
Tumeric gives curry its yellow color. Tumeric is an antiinflammatory and contains curcumin. Curcumin helps stimulate apoptosis in cancer cells and inhibits angiogenesis. (Anti Cancer:A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD)
Cut grapes in half. Reserve a few grapes for garnishing. Add cut grapes. Gently toss and coat everything with the curry mayonnaise dressing.
Just one more time, sample the salad and make the final adjustments to the mayonnaise and curry, salt and pepper. Lightly toss again.
Garnish with the celery, onions, and grapes.
Curry Chicken Salad
Serves 3
Ingredients
shredded range-free organic chicken breast (1/2 the breast)
1 stalk organic celery, chopped
1/4 organic red onion if medium or 1 small onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Indian curry
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons of omega 3 mayonnaise
organic red grapes
This recipe requires the tasting and the adjusting of the ingredients as you assemble the salad. Be creative!
1. Reserve some celery and onions.
2. Combine chicken, celery, and onions in a bowl.
3. In a second bowl, mix curry and mayonnaise. Taste. Adjust the proportions of curry to mayonnaise. Start out with the recommended amount of curry and mayonnaise. Work up gradually to suit your taste.
4. Add salt and fresh ground pepper. Toss and taste. Start with the recommended amount of salt and pepper and adjust to your taste.
5. Cut grapes in half. Reserve a few grape for garnishing. Add cut grapes to the salad. Gently toss and coat with curry mayonnaise dressing.
6. One more time, sample the salad and adjust the curry, mayonnaise, salt , and pepper. Lightly toss again.
7. Garnish with reserved celery, onions, and red grapes.
Enjoy!
Modifications and suggestions: Protein types can use the dark meat of the chicken and add less celery, onions, and grapes; carb types can add more of the celery, onions, and grapes. Canned chicken can be used if you don’t have left over chicken and you want a quick, non-cooked meal.
Visit the Nourishing Gourmet for more frugal recipes during Pennywise Platter Thursday.
Copyright 2009 by Nurturing Wisdom
[…] Wisdom Curry Chicken Salad is a meal piggy backed onto some leftover roast chicken from the night before. Yesterday I served […]
yum, looks like a great summer dish!
Hi, Emily!
This dish is truly a wonderful summer dish. It’s quick, simple, and no cooking!
I hope you try it. Let me know how you like it.
Thank you for visiting.
Just made this (quadrupled) and added some whole grain penne. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi, Emily!
I’m glad you enjoyed the Curry Chicken Salad, The addition of whole grain penne sounds delicious.
I love it when others can create a new dish from a one of my recipes.
I never roast chicken but I wanted to try this recipe, and I ended up finding out that I can roast a delicious chicken. I then quadrupled the recipe to use both breasts, and I now have several delicious meals.
Hi, John!
How great that you went to all the trouble to roast a chicken to try this recipe! I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the curry chicken salad.
There are so many different meals you can make from one chicken. You can also freeze the extra chicken to use later. Make sure you save the chicken bones for chicken broth. Sometimes I save the bones in a Pyrex dish and freeze them until I have enough bones to make the broth.
I’ll have my recipe for chicken lemon soup posted in the future in which the chicken bones will come in handy.
Emily (a few comments earlier) has added whole grain penne as a variation on the Chicken Curry Salad.
John, thanks again for trying another one of my recipes.