I love mayo-based salads like tuna, pasta, chicken salads. So, while making a chicken salad a few weeks ago, I decided to try something different. Normally, I use split-chicken breasts...the bone-in kind. I season and bake them until they are nice and juicy. After they cool, I remove the meat from the bone and chop it them adding the usual suspects like celery seed or chopped celery; same for parsley, onions and garlic. I also add sweet relish (I prefer sweet than dill), chopped hard boiled eggs, salt, pepper, mayo, mustard...usually dried and a little something tangy like sour cream/buttermilk/salad dressing with one of the 2 adding it. The last part is a secret...
This time, boneless chicken breasts were on sale pretty cheap and I decided to use those instead. Since they were boneless they would not get the same extra flavor that bones provide. After seasoning them and sauteeing them, I let them cool and chopped them. That's when an idea struck! I'm a big fan of sauces and I just HATE to waste the flavorful fond that is left in a pan after a fry or saute. So, I adding a bit of water and scraped up the bits and let it reduce to a bit of sauce. I poured it over the still warm chopped chicken and stirred, hoping to get the little bit of "sauce" to soak into the chicken for a bit of extra flavor.
I added my usual suspects for chicken salad and let Lealer taste it. She went back for seconds and thirds!
It truly bumped up the flavor! Try it!
