creamy sesame chicken salad
no mayo (true blasphemy), an eBay find for you, feeling studious
I’m about to be a student again. You know this! But before it all begins (Monday, gulp), I’m gonna teach you something great. You’re the students now. Luckily, unlike me, you’re not going to have to buy some truly ridiculously priced casebooks, and instead you can just read this newsletter. A good deal, for you.
So, it’s about time you learned how to poach a chicken breast so that it’s not a dry, lifeless heap. No choking on stringy chicken here, folks! The best part of learning how to effectively poach a chicken breast is opening the whole damn door to chicken salad, all day, every day.
Here’s where it gets fun - this is a no-mayo chicken salad. If you’ve ever met me in real life, you know I like mayo, unabashedly. What’s not to like? Every once in a while, though, I want to reach for my pint of chicken salad and not eat a small pile of mayo with it. Sue me! Or wait…. I’m learning how to sue you? Regardless, the conclusion is a chicken salad without mayo. Perfect for traveling - school lunches anyone? Am I supposed to get a lunchbox?
The thing about this specific chicken salad it that it is so creamy, so rich, and so flavorful that E legitimately did not believe that I didn’t add mayo (my track record of mayo adoration wasn’t helping me here either). It happens to be fully dairy free (yes I know mayo doesn’t have dairy in it, do YOU know that mayo doesn’t have dairy in it?), and while there’s obviously perfectly poached chicken in this, it would be tasty with chickpeas if you’d like a vegetarian/vegan option.
creamy sesame chicken salad
serves 4
You may think that this is too much salt in with the chicken. I can promise you’re not about to eat it all, it’s just seasoning the water that the chicken is cooking in, ensuring flavorful meat. It’s like seasoning pasta water! Kindly, get over it!
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs)
4 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
2/3 cup tahini (120g)
1 tablespoon maple syrup (20g)
2 tablespoons dijon mustard (30g)
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard (15g) - can sub more dijon if that’s all you’ve got
3 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 teaspoons of your favorite vinegar (10g)
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley or other soft herb
1/2 serrano or jalepeno, thinly sliced (leave out if you don’t like spice)
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 english cucumber, finely diced
directions
Poach and shred the chicken: In a large pot, add your three chicken breasts, 4 1/2 tablespoons of kosher salt and 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. As soon as the surface bubbles, flip the breasts over, cover the pot and remove from the heat. Let sit, checking the breasts with a thermometer to see when they’re done (this can vary a lot depending on the size of your breasts, water temp, etc.) Usually takes around 4-10 minutes. When the thermometer registers 150F* in the thickest part of the breast, remove and let rest for 5 minutes to redistribute the juices. Slice or shred as you’d like for your chicken salad. I do big shreds.
Make the sauce: Mix the tahini, maple syrup, dijon and wholegrain mustards, garlic, vinegar, and 1/4 cup water in a large bowl until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper (don’t skimp out - seasoning your food well is what will make it taste professional).
Add it all up: Add the parsley, serrano, red onion, cucumber and shredded chicken to the bowl with your tahini sauce. Toss to combine and season to taste with any additional salt, pepper or vinegar. Can be eaten immediately, is also ridiculously good cold. I serve with crispy lettuces and buttered toast.
*If you’re at all worried about cooking chicken to 150F - food safety is a factor of time and temperature. I personally think that this chicken is at 150F long enough (only about 2 and a half minutes for a chicken breast) to be the exact same as if it just glanced past 165F. Don’t trust me? Here’s this. Trust the science (I’m looking at you, Mom!).
side notes
Little restaurant review coming at ya: Bungalow by Middle Brow. A natural winery, a brewery (nommed for a james b for outstanding wine & other beverages program), a bakery by morning, and a sourdough pizza place by night. The environment was warmly electric, the servers were friendly, and despite the menu being on a QR code (a personal pet peeve), the effervescent Michigan-farmed wine and funky, unfiltered Mexican lagers won me over. Their ‘big salad’ was crammed with produce that tasted as if I had plucked it out of the bed myself, with perfectly pickled wax beans, corn, and summer squash. It was bright with meyer lemon and showered with manchego, which never hurts.
We opted for the sausage and green olive (green olives on pizza 4ever) and the mushroom. While the mushroom could have used a pinch of salt, the crust was absolutely absurd and had me promptly forgetting about the seasoning while I chewed on what my parents call “pizza bones”. No bones to pick here. Check it out.
p.s
I’m an absolute fiend for eBay. You can find everything you want, and since I’m patrolling it constantly, I’m going to start sending excellent deals your way. Here’s something cool that I personally don’t need to buy because I already own a few wine glasses with a colored glass component. But you might not? And you might want to?
Okay, that’s it, see you later alligator!