The chicken salad itself is easy to put together, especially if you use an already roasted chicken like we did! First, whisk together the softened cream cheese, mayo, curry powder and salt (we left the salt out because we used rotisserie chicken which can be salty itself).
Then, stir in the chicken, pineapple (with juice) and cranberries. That's it...that's the basic chicken salad and it's so good. Dean doesn't like fruit in his salad but he liked this. The crushed pineapple makes it moist but not overwhelmingly fruity.
The next steps are what make this salad a stand out. The final presentation looks difficult, but it really wasn't at all. Line an 8 inch cake pan with plastice wrap and spoon the chicken salad in (we doubled the recipe, so opted to use a round casserole dish for the added height). Chill overnight.
To display, put your cake stand upside-down on top of the chicken salad and turn it over and the salad will easily come out. Remove the plastic wrap (which will now be on top). This step was the most intimidating - but it comes out so easy.
Use your hands to pat the chopped almonds all around the sides (not on top)- similar to coconut on a cake. This step is messy, but once the sides are adequately covered, place the cake dish over the sink or on top of a cookie sheet, and simply wipe around the edge of the cake stand with a paper towel to remove the excess almonds.
Garnish with peaches, berries and various herbs and VOILA!
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonaise
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (8oz) can crushed pineapple
2/3 cup orange-flavored sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup chopped roasted, salted almonds
To transport, Kate put 2 toothpicks on top and covered it with plastic wrap and it traveled like a dream.
Have fun,
1 comments:
I'm a big fan of this dish, it has the right amount of curry -- not too much, not too little. Also a big fan of the cranberries. Now if I could just find someone to make it for me!!!
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