Thursday, July 10, 2008

Rotisserie Chicken 4 Ways. Part One: Chicken Salad

Sometimes last year, I gave some ideas to a friend on different ways in utilizing chicken rotisserie. Yeap, those ready-made chicken from deli! I wouldn't say that she loves cooking, she is alright with cooking, I guess. The kick though is that she can't stand cutting up chicken! Huh. I don't know whether this is a common dislike, or it's just my luck having not one, but THREE friends who can't stand cutting chicken.

Anyhoo, so we were talking recently and long story short, she thinks I should post on some of these tips. She just passed on these ideas/recipes to another friend of hers, a super budget-queen personality (who is working on her blog about budget-living) and of course, the friend instantly think 'a great way to stretch rottiserie chicken (which is pretty inexpensive when it can be done more than million ways).'

Well, so I went to my neighborhood deli, grabbed 1 whole rotisserie chicken. So many ways of doing it. But I thought I will do it in different posts.

This time around, 1 chicken 4 ways.

First, I cut out the breast part, then cut them up to chunks; half for chicken salad and the other half as topping for flat-bread pizza.

Thighs and legs, shred it up; half for chicken verde tacos, and half as filling for cold egg-rolls or chicken soup.

The wings, err...I munch on 'em!!


Chicken Salad:
- Half portion of cut up chunks chicken
- 1/2 cup of olives, chopped
- 1/2 cup of grapes, quartered or halved
- 1/4 cup of celery, chopped
- 1/4 cup of walnuts, chopped
- 1/8 cup of vidalia onions, chopped
- 1/2 to 1 tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup of jicama, chopped (optional)
- handful of parsley and dill (optional), chopped finely
- 1 tbs of mayo
- 1 tsp of spicy hot mustard
- 1 tsp of honey
- 1/2 tsp of paprika
- pepperoncini (optional)
- salt and pepper

How:
- Toss and mix everything together well. It can be served chilled or at room temperature. Most of the ingredients can be substituted or left out, according to individual. Dried cranberries or raisins, slivered almonds, coarsely chopped strawberry, etc.

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