Everyday Cooking Adventures' Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich

My mom makes the world’s best curried chicken salad. It involves starting the night before and adding a secret vegetable ingredient. Hint it is white and looks like broccoli. 🙂 I’ve been wanting to try to make it for a long time now and after finally setting my mind to make it, I reviewed the recipe. This is my shortened version.

©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

I’ve been poaching chicken a lot lately, a healthier version to cooking chicken that frying it up and here again I do it with a basic boneless, skinless chicken breast. In under 20 minutes you have a cooked chicken piece that you can do endless things with. If you want, this recipe can be made almost entirely in advance and just combined at the last minute before needed. This would be great for a tea party or luncheon.

You can serve it as a salad alone or scooped into a large lettuce leaf to make it a littler prettier. Or even scooped into a half an avocado. Or you can serve it as I did here as a sandwich. The zesty mayo is wonderfully creamy, the chicken is tender, and the bell pepper and nuts add a great complement of crunchiness. Here’s my Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich:

Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

Curried Chicken Salad (Sandwich)

Recipe by: Everyday Cooking Adventures, 2014

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Ground black pepper and kosher salt
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
a handful of chopped cauliflower
1/4 cup mayo
1 Tbsp. mild curry powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 red bell pepper, diced or 1 medium stalk celery, diced
1/4 cup pecan or walnut chips (or coarsely chopped)
4 slices light rye bread or 2 croissants

Directions:
1. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken breast with ground black pepper and a dash of salt. Place chicken and cauliflower in a small to medium saucepan. Pour water in to just cover. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let simmer, covered, for 18 minutes (14 minutes if using chicken tenders).
2. Pour out the cooking liquid and place chicken on a cutting board. Slice against the grain or shred using two forks. Set chicken to cool in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes or overnight.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the mayo, curry powder and salt until combined. If serving later, refrigerate the curry mayo until needed (up to a day later). If serving immediately, add the bell pepper or celery and nuts to the curry mayo and lightly stir to combine. Remove chicken from the refrigerator and dice into chunks. Add to the mayo. Stir to combine.
4. Serve the salad as is alongside baguette slices or a green salad. To make sandwiches, toast the rye bread or warm the croissants in a 250ºF oven for 5 minutes. Spread the chicken curry salad on one slice of each piece of bread and top with the other slice of bread or top of the croissant. Enjoy!