Redressed Chicken Salad

I don't buy chicken often but when I do it's typically for company and even then, I buy it whole and use every last scrap of it to make it worth while just like my great-grandmother did during the depression. A free range chicken here is about $12-14 so it makes sense to make use of as much of it as you can. With that being said, here's what we did with our feathered friend last night.

I quartered it, and boiled the breasts, the back and wings in water with some onion, black peppercorns and carrots. The thighs and legs, I put in a freezer bag to jerk on the grill another time.

I removed all the meat from the breasts, wings an back and chopped into 1/2" pieces. I boiled the broth another 20 min to reduce it some, chilled it, separated the broth from the fat and then froze for a yummy stew in the upcoming weeks.

The cubed chicken, I added to a bowl along with crisp steamed green beans cut to 1/2" pieces, slivered almonds, craisins, and shredded radishes.

I made a dressing from olive oil, wine vinegar, apricot jam and dijon mustard and tossed over the top. We served the salad on croissants with Arugala and Nina's famous baked tomatoes and it was delicious. It served 4 adults and 2 kids and we have the rest of the chicken in the freezer to contribute to two more meals down the road!

Come to find out, the recipe I used was something I scratched down on a note card forever ago, but after having Googled the recipe, I found that it came from Martha Stewart and I prepped it in a different way altogether. All that to say there are some other ways to serve this. So here is the link to the original recipe.

If you were to boil the chicken instead of sauteing it, and served it on something other than croissants, it actually makes for a pretty healthy dinner. Sorry I didn't manage a picture. I thought it might be awkward with company watching...