Friday, October 1, 2010

Chicken Scrap Salad - Simple Saturday

This is the most tender, sweetest Chicken Salad ever, and it's made with forgotten chicken.
Chicken Scrap Salad
I don't wanna bring up the economy, but...you know what I'm saying. These days, a gal's gotta make a dollar stretch. So when you find a great price on a whole organic free range chicken and you bring it home and cover it in herbs and cook it to a golden brown crispy table center piece, you and everyone else at your house will be so grateful.
And, when you finish there will be nothing left, but this:
But, at my mom's house (and her mother before her, etc) - that's another meal! It's not over til it looks like this:
In the words of the fun and fabulous late-great singer, Louis Prima - "The closer to the bone, the sweeter is the meat".

When you roast a chicken - throw the neck, and extra parts onto the pan also. When you've cut away the serving pieces - save the rest, and along with the neck parts; Pull and pick every morsel of cooked chicken that is left hanging to the flavorful bone.
There will be enough to make chicken salad sandwiches for work or school or eating in the kitchen while you do the dishes (not that I ever do that.) You can still use the bones for making stock, too.

This recipe is simple, and it reminds me of church picnics in the south, but also my favorite counter sandwiches at a north east deli. It has a clever addition of boiled egg. My mom swears by it (not really, she would NEVER swear.)

RECIPE: CHICKEN SCRAP SALAD (adapted from Rosa Shambley)

2 cups of leftover dark meat chicken and pulled chicken from the bones, neck and ribs

2 Tbls (or to taste) Mayonaise

1/4 cup Sweet pickle relish

2 boiled eggs (chopped fine)

salt/pepper to taste

*optional - celery salt, paprika and tarragon to taste


Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings and chill.
**For a good way to Jazz this salad up and make it party-presentable, stay tuned to my next post; Challenge #3 of the Foodbuzz Next Food Blogger Star. I made it to number three, thanks to your generosity and votes! Yay! So check back on Monday, Oct. 4th!***

Until then, Enjoy this YouTube of Louis Prima singing:

6 comments:

Radha Delamarter said...

Cathy, I love how you bring so many elements into sharing your recipes: humor, delightful visuals, great music references, and personal history! This is reminiscent of looking through an old family cookbook, stuffed with pictures, anecdotes and food drippings. You are truly the Renaissance chef.

Mary @Delightful Bitefuls said...

What a brilliant idea! Thank you for sharing :)

Great blog; so happy I found you!

Mary xo
Delightful Bitefuls

abbey said...

This is how we always do things in my house too. We usually boil the carcass with the scrap meat attached for soup...the meat falls off and you can turn it into whatever soup you're in the mood for! And if we don't get to it soon, I just freeze the carcass in a zip bag until I'm ready for soup! Thanks for sharing your lovely chicken salad idea!

chow and chatter said...

great salad and waste not want not lol

Eileen said...

Funniest thing.. We did the same thing with the left over chicken from our dinner party. I love chicken salad. Mighty fine!

Unknown said...

This is such a smart recipe, I'll probably end up doing this in the future.