One thing I do know, however, is the chicken salad. The recipe I'm sharing today is one that started as a seedling in my cooking consciousness late last summer when my boyfriend and I picked up a couple of chicken salad wraps to take to the beach. They were filled with fresh greens and a chicken salad that contained dried cranberries, of all things. It made sense as soon as I bit into the bright, sweet berries, hidden amongst the chicken chunks- after all, the chicken is a cousin of the turkey, and who doesn't love turkey and cranberry sauce! I forgot about the wraps for a time, until a conversation with my sister when she started talking about something she called a Waldorf Salad that she had been making recently. It was basically a chicken salad, with various things that she finds about her pantry tossed in, but always including dried cranberries. Salivary glands awoken, I hung up the phone, gathered ingredients, and set to work.
When constructing recipes, I always try and include elements that I know will provide the best and most vital nutrients, and, perhaps more importantly, make sure each of them contributes an exciting flavor or texture. With that in mind, I included, of course, the dried cranberries and added walnuts, celery and onions. The onion family contains some of the most potent and efficient antioxidants as well as various substances that serve to detoxify the body. As for cranberries, well, I don't think anyone has escaped reading at least one article about the many vitamins and nutrients found in this little berry. On top of all of that, cranberries actually physically absorb the free radicals we encounter in our every day lives (those nasty little particles that charge about and damage our cells, either aging them or harming their DNA). The walnuts were for crunch and those delightfully creamy and essential fatty acids.
Starting tomorrow I go on a service that cares for cardiac patients. They are some of the sickest patients in the hospital, suffering from problems with their hearts or the vasculature associated with the heart, acquired either at birth or sometime after. Most of them have recently undergone corrective or palliative surgeries and require very close care and monitoring to make sure everything is in the correct working order to maintain proper heart rhythm, blood pressure and a host of other things. The schedule is further intensified by being on overnight call every fourth day. Calls are thirty hour shifts that run the gamut from quiet to frightening ill patients that may code or spike a phantom fever at any moment in the night.
This recipe is going to be one of my staples during such a busy and exhausting month. It is nutritious, crunchy, creamy, sweet with a little spicy kick from the onion. More than all of that, it reminds me of days at the beach with my boyfriend and of my sister, so creative and fun in the kitchen. I hope you enjoy it one of these warm, sunny days as well. I don't have a picture to put up of the salad, but I do have one that I hope makes you all feel as summery as it makes me. Plus, it has a pelican flying in the background- a bird that never fails to make my heart soar with the sense that anything is possible and everything is calm in the world.
Crazy for Cranberries Chicken Salad
2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
coarse kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/3 - 1/2 cup dried cranberries (I lean toward 1/2 cup, it depends on how much you like them- aim to get 1 or 2 with each bite)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup mayonaise
To serve: 6 inch whole wheat wraps and romaine lettuce, or a fresh salad of mixed greens if you prefer
Preheat the oven to 375. Place the chicken breasts in a baking pans, side by side, and sprinkle with about 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper. Bake until thoroughly cooked and the edges are slightly browned, about 45 minutes. Chill completely in the fridge. Once chilled, chop the chicken into cubes and place in a mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients except the ones for serving. Mix thoroughly. Allow to chill about a 1/2 hour so the flavors can mingle.
I like to serve this in whole wheat wraps with romaine lettuce, but my sister often just places a scoop atop a fresh salad of mixed greens. This will keep in the fridge for up to three days, tightly covered. It makes 3-4 wraps depending on the size of the chicken breasts. I suggest eating them on the beach, if one happens to be nearby.
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