photo by: John Young

Curried Chicken Salad Over Microgreens

A roasted chicken is a thing of beauty. It is so simple to prepare and can provide several meals for a small family with minimal fuss. Also, there is the added bonus of a carcass for later stock-making.

I roast a chicken several times a month and usually serve it as-is the first night, and then use the meat in different incarnations as the week wears on. Tacos, casseroles and salads all come together quickly with leftover chicken and are much nicer than other quick weeknight meals that might use prepackaged ingredients.

This week, I used the last of my roasted chicken to make chicken salad. Chicken salad is wonderful because it is sort of a “kitchen sink” meal that can make use of all manner of odds and ends that need to be used up.
I love to put curry on chicken salad and really rev up the flavor. Other key components of a good chicken salad, for me, are “the crunch” and “the sweet.”

Sometimes the crunch comes from celery or other vegetables, and usually the sweet comes from apples or dried cranberries, but for this week’s dish I changed it up and used water chestnuts and almonds alongside sweet purple grapes for a really interesting and easy meal.

Usually I serve chicken salad over a bed of lettuce to keep the carb count low, but this time I was lucky to have been given some lovely microgreens from Shane Barnard, a local organic grower.

The greens I used for this were a combination of peas, radishes, sunflowers and cress. They bring an extra-fresh flavor and good texture to an otherwise creamy dish, and provide a super-pack of vitamins over their full-grown parents.

Curried Chicken Salad Over Microgreens

Ingredients

3 cups diced chicken

2 teaspoons yellow curry

1/4 cup sliced water chestnuts

1/2 cup grapes, halved

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup olive oil mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

Dash of garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Just stir all of the ingredients together. Chill overnight if you have the time; it will marry the flavors and result in a much tastier dish.

Serve over a blend of microgreens for extra health benefits.