If you look back and see how many posts I’ve done (114), it would be a fair guess that great-grandma’s recipes come up in a fair number of conversations. Continue reading “New Favorite Hot Chicken Salad”
New Favorite Hot Chicken Salad
Hot Chicken Salad
We had friends over for games the other night. I made great-grandma’s recipe for whiskey slush (recipe to come later). This led into a conversation about this blog and why I started it. I commented about making my children try all of the recipes (not whiskey slush) and how sad it is that we don’t continue to make some of the recipes, but some of the recipes, like egg foo yung, should just be left in the past. “Why doesn’t anyone eat Hot Chicken Salad any more?” John lamented. Our friends turned to look at him. “What is that? I mean, I know all of those words and what they mean, but what is hot chicken salad?” “Is there macaroni in it?” another friend asked. “Nope. It’s all chicken and mayo and celery and onions and peppers all cooked up together with stuff on top. Well, one recipe is. I have something like 4 of them and I’ve only made two at this point.” So in honor of my friends, old and new and a long, complicated story of friendship beginning in 1986, I present to you the first of 4 recipes of hot chicken salad.
This hot chicken salad is nostalgic in flavor and presentation. The potato chips and swiss cheese on top screams “your grandma made this.” She probably did, depending on the age of your grandma. This is the sort of food that would’ve been served in elementary school cafeterias while I was growing up. It probably made its way onto the buffet table at church potlucks in towns all over America. Diners would put this on their menu as as a daily special. It’s like the chicken equivalent of a tuna melt. 
This is the innocent food of a time we think of as simpler than the times we have now. In some ways, maybe it was. When life gets complicated and you want to go back to grandma’s house and just forget that you have to deal with the real world, go grab a rotisserie chicken and make some hot chicken salad. It isn’t going to help you get that promotion at work. It won’t do your housekeeping. It won’t pay a single one of your bills. But it might remind you of a time when you didn’t need to worry about any of those things, either. 
Chicken New Boston
I Googled Chicken Old Boston just to see if there was a reason that this recipe was called Chicken New Boston. Even searching for Chicken New Boston yielded nothing on the first search page. So this recipe may be new information for everyone.
So what do we think of when we think of Boston? Some people think of sports (we try not to acknowledge those teams). Some people have the experience of Matt Damon’s Boston or the Boston of the New Kids on the Block. There is the Boston of baked bean fame and the Boston of the Tea Party. Boston clam chowder. Ivy League Colleges covered in actual ivy. Then there is the Boston in Cheers. Let’s talk about that Boston because we’ve been watching that on Netflix sometimes and it helps make my metaphor better.
You know how on Cheers there are the people like Norm and Cliff? They are that gritty side of Boston. The working class people from working class neighborhoods. Old Boston, if you will. If you were to imagine dinner at their houses, you’d imagine a roast that has been simmering all day. Maybe a nice plate of spaghetti. Food that is practical more than pretty. Food that will keep you going in cold weather.
And then there is Diane. There is no way she would sully her insides with that sort of food. She’s lofty and above it all. She represents that other part of Boston. The part of Boston that embraces new food and new culture. Chicken New Boston is something that Diane may whip up in her kitchen while wearing a ruffled apron. 
I did not wear a ruffled apron while making this dish. I think I was barefoot…
Chicken New Boston is a breaded chicken in a creamy sauce with mushrooms, artichokes and sherry. Conceptually, it’s delicious. Realistically, I had a hard time keeping the cornflakes on the chicken. It might just be a me thing. The sauce was amazing (even with the cream o’soup). It’s the sort of sauce that you’d want to mop up with bread or eat on top of noodles. It’s sophisticated enough to make me feel like I should’ve put on my pearls. 
“Japanese” Chicken
It’s probably good that I got bifocals the last time I went to the eye doctor. Looking at this recipe, I swear I read “Japanese Chicken” and since it was on the same page as the Egg Foo Yung, I decided that we could have an Asian night and I would cook both of t recipes. While looking at the recipe, I couldn’t figure out why it was called Japanese chicken when there was nothing Japanese about the ingredients. When did they start using tarragon in traditional Japanese cooking? But this was Iowa and well before I was born, maybe tarragon was exotic? I also had a hard time realizing that “Pour over chicken” was not “Parmesan Chicken.” Perhaps it was the handwriting? Right before I went to cook this recipe, I realized that “Japanese” actually said “Popover”. That gave me a lot of answers.
But there were still more questions. Like whether the chicken should be raw or cooked? I took a guess. I think I guessed wrong, but considering the information I was working with, it was certainly not as bad as it could’ve been.
We had gone to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Botanical Gardens and the kids had all gotten a coupon for a free junior cone of custard for completing the scavenger hunt, so we did backwards dinner where we ate dessert first. I believe that things work out the way they should most of the time. Because we had bellies full of custard, no one was hungry immediately upon getting home. So it was less important that dinner took over a half hour longer than estimated.
As a warning to anyone that may try this, raw, still slightly frozen chicken thighs on the bone do not cook completely at 350° for 50 minutes. This information will come in handy for all sorts of things, so remember it. However, if after 60 minutes, you turn the oven up to 450° and cook them for another 15 minutes or so, the pink goes away.
Another note, raw, bone in chicken produces a lot of juice. This will make the popover part of the dish turn into something that somewhat resembles a dumpling. Only the top of the popover is that delicious, light airy substance that we love to fill with homemade jam. (Not in this dish, but in general).
I think done correctly, using pre-cooked chicken, B/S chicken breasts, or some sort of shredded chicken, this would be a really nice sort of fun meal. Like a pot pie…oh, like a potpie…That is a brilliant idea for someone’s upcoming birthday.
After this meal, I think I owe my family one of my normal meals with a delicious cake or great dessert. Even if the main courses are crap, Great-Grandma made great cakes and desserts.
The Recipe:
Popover Chicken
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 t salt
1 T oil
1 T chopped Tarragon
Beat first 4 ingredients together for 1 1/2 minutes. Add oil. Beat 30 seconds more. (Do NOT overbeat)
Pour over chicken in a casserole. (Maybe this meant a chicken casserole, not just a casserole dish?) Bake 50-60 minutes at 350° or til done.
For other great casserole ideas, check out Sausage and Bean Casserole, Tuna Burger Casserole, and Hot Chicken Salad.
