Leftover Roast Chicken (or Turkey) & Bread Salad
T
he working title for this page was "Chicken Salad." This, of course, conjures up images of little bits of chicken swimming in mayonnaise with a lot of celery. Just not right. This is our riff on the quite excellent Zuni Cafe (San Francisco) Roast Chicken and Bread Salad, so the name you now see. Our first recipe for this site was Roast Chicken which we cook every few weeks for Friday night dinner. We always buy a chicken large enough to have leftovers to make this salad which we typically eat the next Monday night. OK, maybe we're in a rut, but good is just good.Another great thing is that if you are facing the task of "what to do with all that Thanksgiving leftover turkey" just substitute in and you are good to go.
As you might guess, we think it is absolutely delicious. It is most definitely a 'dinner salad'.
This is an example of taking a recipe and making it your own. There's not much that's new under the sun and recipes are certainly no exception. (Sure once in a while you hear about cronuts and the like, never would have thought of that.) Then there are the times that a good recipe is very good, but is better (so far as your own tastes are concerned) with your own tweaks. This isn't hard, it isn't complicated, it is about your own taste. Really you can take a recipe and make it your own!
As we mentioned, the basis of this recipe comes from the Zuni Cafe. It is part of their recipe for roast chicken. The whole thing is available is many places across the web, but we are happy to say that we own the cookbook and highly recommend it if for nothing more than that exact recipe. It's where we learned about 'dry brining'. (See our Roast Chicken instructions.)
For us, the changes come under the heading:
"More is More"
& Don't Sweat the Details
The Bread
The original recipe called for a "generous 8 ounces slightly stale open-crumbed, chewy, peasant-style bread (not sourdough)". What we like is the "Seeduction Bread" they sell at Whole Foods. Over time, the price of a loaf kept going up. Then around here, at least, it disappeared. We heard tell a lot of people complained. Then it was back and the price was lower. Then Amazon bought Whole Foods and the price was lower still (though not exactly cheap). Then the price went up. Amazon knows when they have you hooked. The seeds are nice but what we really like is the slightly sweet "molassesy" flavor that seems to go really well with the rest of our recipe. The loaf is about 24 ounces and we find that breaking into three parts gives us enough for three dinners (for 2). Oddly enough and not at all related, that's exactly how much the original recipe calls for. There are several copycat recipes for this bread out there on the web. If you can't do Seeduction bread or it just isn't your thing, go with what the original recipe calls for.
Currants
The original recipe calls for 1 TB currants. When we first made the recipe we searched out currants. They look like small raisins, cost more and usually come in a box. What is a raisin? A dried grape. In this case what we call currants are dried Black Corinth grapes, i.e, they're raisins! They are also known as Zante currants, Corinth raisins, or Corinthian raisins.
One day when we were at a friend's winery, the winemaker ran in with a handful of very small grapes. He said they might make his best Cabernet ever. The small berries would yield very little, but very intense juice and a great Cab. Similarly the smaller currants are sweeter.
But, one day when our box of currants was gone and we didn't want to go to the market, we used regular raisins from the huge stash we'd gotten at Costco. Worked just fine and we haven't looked back. And we use a whole lot more than the recipe called for, anyhow. We hope the Zuni people will forgive our excesses.
Pine Nuts
They can be expensive, but come under the category of very much worth it. We're partial to the Trader Joe's toasted version. The original recipe calls for 2 TB. We like at least a third of a cup.
Toasting gives them more flavor and can be tricky. If you decide to toast raw ones yourself (whether in the oven or in a dry skillet) don't walk away. They burn quickly. Better yet, we suggest this brilliant method from Good Eats guru Alton Brown:
Pine Nuts Toasted in the Microwave
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tsp kosher salt
Put the pine nuts in a small sieve and rinse with water. Add the salt and mix. Place in a small paper bag, folding the top over so it is closed. Microwave on high for 60 seconds. Your microwave will undoubltedbly be different than ours. If they aren't done, microwave again in 30 second increments until they are done. For us 2 minutes was about right.
You might be tempted to forego the salt. In the interests of science we tried. At the 3 minute mark we decided it probably would get toasted eventually but we figured it was just taking too long as well. The salt clearly accelerates the heating process. We also tried using half the salt. It didn't seem as effective but again, with enough iterations, it might have gotten to a proper point. So if you are flush with untoasted pinenuts are fans of experimentation, go for it. Just do it slowly. At some point it will burn.
And actually, you can put the toasted nuts back in a sieve and rinse off the salt with water. Pine nuts are often used in pesto which will call for salt. Take that into account and you'll be all set.
Scallions
As far as we're concerned, scallions are green onions. We know people who would not make the recipe unless they could find "scallions". And that is a point we'd like to make. When you don't have the exact ingredient, please do experiment with something else. Might even be better (possibly cheaper). We like to use a little more than the 4 scallions the original recipe calls for. (Of course, green onions can be large or small, making the amount variable at best. We like to get big thick ones, so adjust accordingly; besides required quantities for these ingredients are very loose!)
By the way, this is really quite interesting. If you have green onions with their roots, you can cut the green onion near the bottom (say leave at least 1/4" of the white part along with the roots) and plant it in the ground. It actually will grow an entire new green onion. (You can also do it in water.)
Stock
The whole point of this recipe is to use the leftovers from the very big roast chicken we make on Fridays for our salad dinner on the next Monday. Which means there is a very good chance you already have what you need to make stock and, as it happens, our recipe for that is on the roast chicken page. But we also have been known to either use or supplement with the Trader Joe's "chicken flavored savory broth" (shown in the picture up above that has the big bottle of red wine vinegar). We are big fans of gravy with our roast chicken. We always save a little to add to the stock in this recipe. That way you also get a lot of the roast chicken herbs and spices (mostly rosemary) to kick up the flavor of the salad. The original recipe calls for stock or lightly salted water. We say, stick with the stock.
Greens
The original recipe says: arugula, frisée, or red mustard greens. For us, there is no choice. Only use mustard greens. Where we shop there is only one choice, a bunch of mustard greens and that's what we get. They are at our Whole Foods about half the time and at the local large market that caters to various ethnic populations about 99% of the time (and half the price). The original recipe also calls for "a few handfuls". What does that mean? Who knows, but we use the entire bunch for two of us. We have also noticed that the size of a bunch varies during the year. We suggest that a bunch should be 12 to 16 ounces.
See the pictures for the general size of a bunch.
Yes, in case you were wondering, mustard greens seeds are used to make the ubiquitous condiment: mustard. The greens have a peppery quality. Sometimes you will find that they are called American Mustard Greens or Curly Mustard Greens. They are part of the Brassicaceae family which also includes Kale, Cabbages, Horseradish, Arugula and a whole bunch more.
We do this recipe a lot and got stuck when our normal outlets said they didn't have any mustard greens. We started calling around and nobody had mustard greens! Well, at one point one market said so and we went there. They were mistaken. We weren't happy. Finally we called the local Vons market (aka Safeway, aka Cerberus Capital Management which also owns Albertsons). They said they had 'curly mustard'. We didn't really understand, wondering if they were trying to differentiate from Asian mustard greens (which don't really work in this salad). But off we went and what they meant is shown in the picture. Couldn't find them in the regular produce section and asked. Produce person pointed to a refrigerator case on the wall where we finally found bags of washed, pre-cut mustard greens, labeled curly mustard. Well, they weren't as good as a fresh bunch, but we had our roast chicken leftovers and we weren't going to not go for it, so in a pinch it worked. It actually ended up being slightly cheaper as a half bag was plenty. But do try to get the fresh bunch.
Roast Chicken Leftovers
We usually buy a 6 lb chicken for our Friday night dinner. Since we also have mashed potatoes and sautéed snow or snap peas, there is going to be a lot of leftovers. Usually about a pound once taken off the bone. More than enough for 2 people in this big salad recipe. We like the chicken to be at room temperature or just slightly above when we put it on the salad, but if it has just come out of the fridge, a nice trick it to put it on a plate and cover with lettuce (to provide some coverage and moisture), then microwave at a low power for a short period.
The Recipe
- Mustard greens, bunch. We suggest at least 12 oz to a pound depending on what you like.
- 3 oz. currants or raisins (see above)
- 3 oz red wine vinegar
- olive oil
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard optional
- Few drops Nam Pla (fish sauce), optional (for umami)
- 8 ounces slightly stale open-crumbed, chewy, peasant-style bread, we prefer Seeduction Bread (see above) cut/torn into about 1/2" cubes (larger if you like, besides you don't have to and mostly can't be exact)
- 4 large cloves garlic, smashed and chopped or otherwise chopped into small pieces.
- 4-6 green onions (or to taste), chopped into about 1/4" pieces, all the white, some of the green
- Pine nuts, toasted, 1/3 cup give or take
- Black Pepper, preferably from a pepper mill
- OPTIONAL but a nice thing if you can: Some leftover gravy and/or chicken broth (see above). About 1 TB if thick or concentrated (such as the Trader Joe's where you can use 1 packet), a few TB if thin.
- Leftover roast chicken or turkey, 12oz to 16oz, or whatever you like to eat. We like our own roast chicken which was cooked with lots of rosemary. Tear into bite size pieces. In a pinch, get a rotisserie chicken from the market (but watch out, they can be very salty so cut down on any other salt you might use).
- Walnut oil (or other 'specialty' oil of your liking, such as hazelnut, etc. Maybe even avocado?)
- Large grained salt such as Sea salt or Kosher Salt, optional
Pull the leaves of the mustard greens off the stalks, discarding the stalks. Wash the leaves in a salad spinner and dry. (We usually store them wrapped in paper towels in the fridge earlier in the day.)
Lightly spray or brush the bread cubes with some olive oil, then lightly toast under the broiler. Be careful not to overdo it! Alternatively, forget the oil and bake the cubes in a 350 degree oven until lightly brown (that's what we do, there will be plenty more oil later so who needs it here?). We usually do this earlier in the day.
If using, add the optional nam pla, the optional leftover roast chicken gravy (or chicken stock), and the optional Dijon mustard to the raisin mixture. (See above.) Our leftover gravy is refrigerated so we might have to warm the mixture up just a bit to get it to incorporate. We do it in the microwave. But you don't want it to be hot when you put it into the salad.
In a smallish frying pan, sauté the garlic and green onions in olive oil. How much? We use 2-5 TB depending on how many greens there are. Use what you like, but don't go overboard, you don't want the greens swimming in oil. Allow to cool somewhat, you don't want it hot when you put it into the salad
Tear the mustard greens into smallish pieces and place in a large bowl. Add the green onion mixture and mix the salad with your hands. Add the raisin vinegar mixture and mix again.
Add the pine nuts and the bread cubes and mix again.
Grind black pepper over the salad and mix again.
Divide the salad mixture onto (in our case 2) plates. Top with the leftover chicken.
Drizzle the walnut oil over the salad.
If using, lightly sprinkle the salt over the salad.
Enjoy!
Wine Pairing
Cheers!
Here is a summary of the recipe in a .pdf you can print