We all LOVE a good chicken Salad

My boyfriends’ music group recently performed at an incredible event thrown by his friend (shoutout to Isaac @killthepoet & @anti.mattr over on Instagram) and they had a little practice session at our apartment. Naturally, I had to set up something that has now affectionately come to be known as, “Green Room Vibez”. I made this absolutely marvelous chicken salad that I stuffed into sweet peppers and garnished with blood oranges and mint. This really wowed the performers and the presentation gave the food a much fancier vibe than they are used to, which warmed my little bougie heart. I call this “the chicken salad you make when you want to impress people!” It feeds about 8-12 people at a time (as I did have extra chicken salad left). Consider that you’re serving this as an appetizer/finger-food and the serving size is two peppers.

Now, depending on the season, the garnish will change to incorporate the “flavor of the season”. Since this took place around winter and the baby beginnings of spring, I garnished this with blood orange and mint to create something fresh and inviting. For spring I’d use strawberries, summer I’d use grilled peaches, and so on and so forth. Find what works for your palette, but the chicken salad recipe is all the same!

What You’ll Need:

Serves: 8 – 12

• 2 Whole Chicken Thighs
• 1/2 White Onion
• 1/2 Red Onion
• 2 Celery Ribs
• 1 tbsp Seeded Dijo
• 1/4 cup Mayo
• 1 Blood Orange
• Mint
• Salt & Pepper (to taste)

How to Prepare:

I started out this recipe by generously salting my chicken and letting it rest until it came down to room temperature. The reason why I’m letting it come down to room temperature from right out of the fridge is because it helps with cooking the chicken evenly. This will prevent burning the outside of the chicken before it has thoroughly cooked on the inside. While my chicken is coming down to room temperature, I prep my veggies that are going into my chicken salad. For my celery, I cut it on a bias very thinly. For my red onion, I cut it into a brunoise. Once my chicken comes to temp, I wash off all the salt with filtered water and roast it in the oven with my large chopped up pieces of white onion at 400 degrees until the internal temperature is about 140 degrees or until the skin starts to brown. Once my chicken skin is a nice brown color, I pull it out and boil it along with the onions until it reaches 165 degrees. The reason why I decided to roast the chicken, then boil it is because I wanted to knock out two birds with one stone. I got about a quart of chicken broth out of it and it fully cooked my chicken! If you check my stocks and broths recipe, you’ll see I use a similar method to create a rich stock. Once my chicken is done, I let it rest to cool so I can shred it. While that cools, I grab a medium sized glass bowl and add my celery, purple onion, mayonnaise, and dijon. I then shred the chicken into thin slices and mix it with everything else. Add salt and pepper to your liking and voila! You have a delicious chicken salad. I added this to mini sweet peppers, and was able to fill about 16 of them, with a cup left of chicken salad which could fill an additional 4-6 peppers; depending on how big they are. I used a chiffonade cut for my mint and a supreme cut for my blood orange and placed them daintily on top. And per Raaw Data fashion, served these on a cute pink plate. BOOM! Everyone was instantly impressed. Happy eating!