Leftover roast chicken calls for this winner of a crunchy, punchy, briny mustardy chicken salad, best eaten piled onto my favourite crackers or stuffed into a lettuce leaf for lunch.
For any of you who don’t share my obsession with having leftovers in the fridge ready to make into another meal on a whim, please do not be breeze past this recipe. Simply pick up a juicy rotisserie chicken on your way home today and turn it into this salad for lunch tomorrow. You will not be sorry.
A little note on this salad: Not all chicken salads need a creamy mayo dressing. I reserve the creamy companions for my tuna or egg salads and prefer this with a clean, sharp mustardy vinaigrette (just like the one I shared a few weeks ago and linked here). If creaminess is a must for you, feel free to make a mayo or greek yoghurt version, but might I encourage you to take the opportunity here for me to liberate you from mayo and indulge in a lighter, punchier dressing option.
Chicken Salad (hold the mayo)
2-3
servings15
minutesIngredients
1/2 leftover roast chicken or shop bought rotisserie chicken
2 tbsp golden raisins
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 spring onions
2-3 celery stalks
4-5 radish or breakfast radish
8-10 castelvivo olives (or any green olive of choice)
1 tbsp capers, drained
1 tbsp (or more) chopped each celery leaves (if they are still attached to your stalks), dil, tarragon, parsley, basil or any combination of fresh soft herbs of your choice
Lemon zest (optional but I think its great here)
A good sprinkling of Malden salt
A good pour of The Best Mustard Vinaigrette
Directions
- In the bottom of your bowl, douse the golden raisins in vinegar to give them a chance to plump up. Slice the spring onions, green and white parts and add them to the vinegary raisins and allow them to pickle while you chop the remaining ingredients.
- Slice the celery stalks, reserving any leaves you might be lucky to have on your bunch because they are fantastic here. I like to slice in half lengthways and then across on the diagonal – this give a perfect bite size piece, keeping the crunch but not too overpowering.
- For the radishes I also like to keep them small chunk size because slicing just isn’t right here.
- Remove any stones from your olives and roughly chop or just bash with the back of your knife. Drain and roughly chop the capers and add everything to the bowl with the raisins and spring onions.
- Chop your soft herbs and any reserved celery leaves. I think tarragon is an essential here because it compliments the chicken and mustard beautifully, but choose whichever greens you like. Don’t be shy, add as much as you like as they really make up the salad bit of this dish.
- Shred your leftover chicken. I like to use my hands here. I also like to keep this chunky and not mushy – this is not a tuna salad. A little lemon zest here alongside the obligatory extra pinch of salt is a great addition if you have a lemon to hand
- Dress generously with Mustard vinaigrette and serve straight out of the bowl or pile onto a plate of leaves or crackers and dive in.
- Pack up the leftovers for lunch tomorrow you can thank me later
Recipe Video
Have you made this dish?
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