Dishing Up: Fennel Apple Chicken Salad

Not your ordinary chicken salad!

Are you on Instagram?

Well if you are, and you follow me, you may remember my first spatchcock. I’ll admit I was a little nervous at first. But guess what? It’s super easy!

Oh, wait – you don’t know what spatchcock is? No, it’s not some sort of strange bird – but it sort of sounds like it doesn’t it? Spatchcocking – or butterflying – is a cooking technique. And you what? It makes a simple, perfectly roasted chicken.

So you’ve probably cooked one or two roasted chickens in your life – or you probably at least have eaten a roasted chicken. Have you ever noticed the breast meat is usually dry? Well there’s a reason for that. Breast meat cooks faster than leg meat. So if you’ve got a whole bird how can you avoid dry breast and achieve cooked leg meat? That’s where spatchcocking the bird comes into play. When you spatchcock or butterfly, you’re removing the spine of the chicken. This allows you to flatten out the chicken in your pan. Why would we want to do that? The legs are now exposed to higher heat which helps them cook faster. So now the leg and breast meat will be done at the same time! No more dry breast meat!

You didn’t know I was going to solve your dry breast meat problems did you? Oh and don’t be intimidated – I know “removing the spine” may sound complicated. But it’s really not. Just use sturdy kitchen shears and place the bird breast side down. Then cut up each side of the spine and remove it. That’s it. (And PS – you’ll be cutting through the rib bones as go). You can keep the backbone in the freezer to make chicken stock later on.

I know – you could just buy a package of chicken breasts or chicken thighs and not have to worry about any of this. But buying a whole chicken is such a value. You can feed a lot of people at one time or if there’s just a couple of people you’ll have leftovers for later. And that’s the case for me. And quite honestly, I really like having those leftovers around – it makes for easy lunches. There’s so much you can do with leftover chicken. Throw it with pasta or a grain, make a sandwich or how about chicken salad? Oh wait how about Fennel Apple Chicken Salad? Yes please!

What do you like to do with leftover chicken?

Fennel Apple Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Salad
1/4 cabbage head, sliced thin
1 fennel bulb, sliced thin
1 apple, sliced thin and soaked in lemon water
2 cups diced chicken
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
Sriracha for topping (optional)
Dressing
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in bowl. Adjust salt and pepper to your taste.
In another bowl, mix all salad ingredients except chicken in a bowl.
Add dressing to salad and stir to combine.
Divide between two bowls, top each with a cup of chicken and finish off with Sriracha (optional).

Notes

I used a mandolin to slice the cabbage and fennel.

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