These are the ramblings of a self-described wheat, grain and gluten-free “gourmet girl” that loves to cook and eat good food. I love creating and sharing recipes and photographing “beautiful food”. In July 2012, I eliminated wheat, grains and added sugar from my diet and rediscovered real, whole fresh foods again and effortlessly lost 65+ pounds. Join me in my wheat, grain and gluten-free journey. See how easy it is to enjoy grain free gourmet, one meal at a time! Welcome to my blog. Enjoy!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Chicken Salad -- Piccata Style
This evening I made a quick, simple and delicious variation of chicken salad. One of my favorite dishes is Chicken Piccata. For those of you that don't know what it is, it's basically a chicken cutlet, typically breaded, and sauteed in butter with lemon juice and capers. The lemon and capers are what give it its distinct "twang"...a melange of the tartness of the lemon and the saltiness and slight bite of the capers (which are pickled in vinegar). Capers are little olive green colored beads that are smaller than peas, and slightly larger than a peppercorn. Back to my chicken salad. I had leftover cooked chicken breast in the fridge that I diced (about 3 cups). I placed the diced chicken in a medium bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, I mixed my "piccata dressing". I used a rounded (slightly heaping) 1/4 cup of olive oil mayonnaise (you could substitute home made mayo instead). I placed the mayonnaise in the smaller bowl, added about 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice, the zest of 1/2 of a lemon, 2 heaping teaspoons of capers, and 1 to 2 teaspoons of the vinegar from the jar of capers and mixed everything together. The lemon juice and vinegar thin the mayo and make it go further. If you don't want to add the vinegar, you can omit it...but I liked the addition. Since capers are already salty, I did not add additional salt, but some might prefer adding a bit of sea salt (taste the dressing to adjust seasoning to taste). I folded the dressing mixture into the diced chicken breast and served it in little romaine boats from the small heads of artisan romaine I buy at Costco. It turned out absolutely delicious and had all the delicious flavors I love so much in Chicken Piccata...only this was a cool chicken salad version that didn't heat up the kitchen or require any additional cooking since I had leftover cooked chicken breast. There are at least a million ways you can eat deliciously without wheat...and I intend to try as many ways as I can! ;-) I snapped a few photos for you to see below. Enjoy!
Your salad sounds terrific - what a great idea! And look at those cute little tomatoes. Your meals are always so appealingly presented.
ReplyDeleteI have never tried capers but this sounds very good.
ReplyDeleteI made your parmesan mashed cauliflower tonight and my husband commented that it tasted better than anything he has eaten recently. I have to admit, it was VERY good! Thanks so much for sharing your recipes and ideas with us. I can't wait to see what you post each day. You have put some interest back into our meals!
Thanks so much, Kath! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi SLB -- believe it or not, I had not eaten them before this past year. My hubby liked them, but I refused to even try them...and once I did I liked them a lot -- it adds an awesome flavor to veal or chicken piccata. They are slightly vinegary (similar to a pickle) and salty. I enjoyed them in the chicken salad, too. Thank you for your kind words, too! :-)
ReplyDeletehi 1st of all let me say THANK YOU....for this blog thanks for sharing. im new to being wheat free and its been hard finding resources that are wheat free, however their are lots of gluten free resources.so... my question is have you ever tried this recipe with greek/yogurt instead of mayo. i really wanna try this recipe but i dont eat mayo. thanks in advance and keep up the good work!!
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Fierelytalented! I have not tried it with greek yogurt in place of the mayo, but I think it would be good. I would season/spice up the yogurt a bit to balance some of the tang of it -- I'm thinking a little sea salt, pepper...or few drops of sriarcha...or maybe a squeeze of lemon and some fresh herbs and/or garlic, similar to tzatziki if you've ever had that. I bet it would be good! Hope that helps and thanks for your kind words! :-)
ReplyDelete