In addition to being very tasty, this salad allows us to kill two birds with one stone, since we can take advantage of some leftover roast chicken that we have in the fridge. This was not my case at the time of taking the photos, so, as you will see later, I used a cooked chicken hindquarters. Either option is good for make salad with apple and chicken.
And what dressing goes well with the recipe? Here we have several possibilities. I have chosen one honey mustard vinaigrette, two flavors that not only combine wonderfully with each other, but also with the rest of the ingredients. It is a dressing that brings a lot of grace to the salad without being too caloric. However, if you want the salad to be more robust, you can choose a good homemade mayonnaise or a yogurt sauce.
Having said all this, I’m going to tell you how to make apple chicken salad with honey vinaigrette. As always I tell you in my salad recipes, what I give you is an idea, a combination of ingredients that seems right to me. From there you can adapt it to your tastes and make the variations you want.
Ingredients for making chicken and apple salad. Quantities for 2 servings
- – SALAD –
- Lettuce (approximately 200 g)
- 1 large chicken hind quarter (or leftover rotisserie chicken)
- 1 apple
- 70g shelled walnuts
- 70 g of raisins
- — VINAIGRETTE —
- 75 ml extra virgin olive oil (8 tablespoons more or less)
- 3 or 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- Salt
How to make apple chicken salad
Prepare the chicken to make the salad
- If you are going to use any rest of chicken you have in the fridge, chop it and reserve it.
- If, as was my case, parts from scratch to make the salad, start with cook the chicken for 25 minutes about.
- You can cook it with just water and salt, but if you add some vegetables you will get an ideal chicken broth to use in other recipes. I put some leek leaves that I had in the freezer, a carrot, half an onion, half a sprig of celery and a bay leaf.
- When the chicken is ready let it cool down a bit and crumble it. Booking.
Finish preparing the chicken salad
- While the chicken is cooking and cooling, you can take the opportunity to prepare the vinaigrette. To do this, mix all its ingredients until they emulsify.
- Secondly, wash and chop the lettuce. It is important to drain it very well so that it does not add excess moisture to the salad. I use one of those gadgets that is used for centrifuging and I like the result it gives.
- Peel and cut the apple in regular buckets. Chop the walnuts.
- Place the lettuce in a large container, add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Make sure the chicken is completely cool before adding it.
- Finally, dress your chicken and apple salad with the vinaigrette. The ideal is to dress the salad at the time of serving it. If there is going to be a time between when you prepare it and consume it, keep both preparations in the fridge.
Tips for Making Chicken Apple Salad
This salad is so easy to make that there is little advice I can give you. However, there are some tricks that can be used to make both this and other salads.
- If you are not going to serve the salad immediately, I recommend sprinkle the apple pieces with lemon juice so they don’t get dark. If you are going to eat the salad as soon as you prepare it, this step is not necessary.
- Are your lettuce leaves a bit wilted? To make them smooth and crisp again soak them in ice water for a couple of minutes. You will see how they seem to “revive”. Of course, this trick only works if the lettuce is somewhat droopy, not if it is already past.
- It is normal for raisins to be somewhat hard if we have bought them for a long time. If this has happened to you, soak the raisins in warm water for 5 minutes or so. In this way they will soften and their texture will be more pleasant.
Variations to make chicken apple salad
- Can you do the chicken breast salad? Yes, you can, although you should keep in mind that the breast is drier than the thigh or thigh part.
- You can also use chicken breast fillets. In this case, I would brown them in the pan instead of cooking them.
- Use the variety of apple that you like the mostalthough I recommend one that has an acid touch like the Granny Smith or the Pink Lady.
- This chicken and apple salad, which is quite reminiscent of the waldorf saladit would also be very rich with a little finely chopped celery.
