Recipe: Splash Chicken Salad... (AKA Chicken Cocktail)
I was going to translate "Salpicón" as "Splash Chicken Salad" because "salpicar" means "to splash" in Spanish but then I checked wordreference and it turns out anglophones think this is a COCKTAIL. Without getting into the hilarious etymology of that word (I suspect somebody came up with it while heavily intoxicated), the reference to parties and alcohol seems cute so I'm going with that.[Read on...]
This is a recipe my maternal grandmother, to whom I suspect we would all have stopped speaking to if not for her cooking, used to make for important celebrations (Pesaj, Rosh Hashana, etc) where all the family was reunited. Since then I have moved continents and have been forced to make it myself, to be perfectly honest, it's a lot of (very easy) work but it's SO worth it. Besides, although it cannot be frozen, it gets tastier every day it's left in the fridge (we never made it past 3). Usually she would freeze all her chicken leftovers for a couple of months and then defrost them, clean the meat out and use that, very ecofriendly and obviously representative of her willpower (i make chicken sandwiches any time i have chicken leftovers).
Chicken Cocktail
3 packages (this is what she told me, you see what I have murdering urges? I use about 500 grams of chicken meat) of chicken breasts fillets or chicken leftovers (about half a chicken).
3 big tomatoes (drop them in boiling water to peel, cut in cubes 1cmx1cm)
1 big onion (big as your fist, after cutting drop in boiling water, after 30 seconds drain)
1 big red pepper (or 2, tbh, in UK sizes)
1 stick of celery of medium size (scrape clean, get rid of the filaments and cut very small)
4 boiled eggs
Cook the chicken in some way, normally if I'm using chicken breasts I do them with a hint of oil in a pan, since they dry in the oven. Start cutting it in pieces of 1 cm x 1 cm approx. Small pieces are important because that way the flavours will mix properly later but if you use any kind of machine be careful, a pulp is useless for this and cooked chicken will become a paste if blended (I am told of mythical machines that actually give you stuff that looks hand-cut except it's all even and such, if yours is like this, obviously go ahead!). Do the same with all ingredients except the eggs and mix them (the amount of celery is to taste).
For the dressing:
Mix ¾ glass of mayonnaise, 2 tbsp of ketchup (or a bit more, in my case, I’m a fan of ketchup), 2 tbsp of lemon juice, 2 tbsp of red vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the dressing into the salad and then chop the boiled eggs and spread a layer on top of it as decoration. Put to fridge, preferably for at a few hours for the dressing to be properly absorbed. Making it a day in advance it's even better.
This is a side-dish but I added up the calories once and it was basically that of chicken salad, combined with some bread it can make a meal (I’d say this recipe is for about 6 main portions or 10 sides).
This is a recipe my maternal grandmother, to whom I suspect we would all have stopped speaking to if not for her cooking, used to make for important celebrations (Pesaj, Rosh Hashana, etc) where all the family was reunited. Since then I have moved continents and have been forced to make it myself, to be perfectly honest, it's a lot of (very easy) work but it's SO worth it. Besides, although it cannot be frozen, it gets tastier every day it's left in the fridge (we never made it past 3). Usually she would freeze all her chicken leftovers for a couple of months and then defrost them, clean the meat out and use that, very ecofriendly and obviously representative of her willpower (i make chicken sandwiches any time i have chicken leftovers).
Chicken Cocktail
3 packages (this is what she told me, you see what I have murdering urges? I use about 500 grams of chicken meat) of chicken breasts fillets or chicken leftovers (about half a chicken).
3 big tomatoes (drop them in boiling water to peel, cut in cubes 1cmx1cm)
1 big onion (big as your fist, after cutting drop in boiling water, after 30 seconds drain)
1 big red pepper (or 2, tbh, in UK sizes)
1 stick of celery of medium size (scrape clean, get rid of the filaments and cut very small)
4 boiled eggs
Cook the chicken in some way, normally if I'm using chicken breasts I do them with a hint of oil in a pan, since they dry in the oven. Start cutting it in pieces of 1 cm x 1 cm approx. Small pieces are important because that way the flavours will mix properly later but if you use any kind of machine be careful, a pulp is useless for this and cooked chicken will become a paste if blended (I am told of mythical machines that actually give you stuff that looks hand-cut except it's all even and such, if yours is like this, obviously go ahead!). Do the same with all ingredients except the eggs and mix them (the amount of celery is to taste).
For the dressing:
Mix ¾ glass of mayonnaise, 2 tbsp of ketchup (or a bit more, in my case, I’m a fan of ketchup), 2 tbsp of lemon juice, 2 tbsp of red vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the dressing into the salad and then chop the boiled eggs and spread a layer on top of it as decoration. Put to fridge, preferably for at a few hours for the dressing to be properly absorbed. Making it a day in advance it's even better.
This is a side-dish but I added up the calories once and it was basically that of chicken salad, combined with some bread it can make a meal (I’d say this recipe is for about 6 main portions or 10 sides).