Chicken Curry Salad

I LOVE Guy's Chicken Curry Salad. He has perfected it over the years.

I closely watched and documented what goes into this delicious chicken salad...

3lbs chicken breasts, cooked, cooled, and diced (see steps below to poach chicken)
1 apple, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, deveined and diced
1/3 C green onion, chopped
1/2 C slivered almonds
1/2 C dried cranberries, chopped
1 C vanilla yogurt
3/4 C mayo (we used Helmans Olive Oil Blend)
1 t 17th Street Magic Dust
2 T yellow curry powder

This recipe changes with the season... sometimes we will add dry cherries or pecans. It will last at least 5 days in the fridge. Sometimes we serve it as a sandwich, with crackers and celery, or with mixed greens like above.
I made a vinaigrette for the greens to add a little zing! with the following:
1/4 C cider vinegar
1/4 C major grey chutney
1 T honey
2 T olive oil
Blend with an emulsion blender and lightly toss with your greens before topping with curry chicken salad!

To Poach Your Chicken Breasts:
Put chicken breasts into a pan or pot. (You can boil the chicken from frozen and it will not affect the texture.)
Cover with water.  Heavily season the water (I added 1 T salt + 1T of indian 5 spice but you could add yellow curry powder, or cumin instead)
Bring to a boil and continue to simmer until fully cooked, about 20 min.
Drain and rinse the chicken breasts. Remove any excess fat. Chop or shred the chicken.

Today we signed up to be part of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) through

Frontwards Farm and today was delivery day! I'm so excited to be eating produce that was picked today only a few miles away that got delivered to my home! I'm not exactly sure what all the greens are, but I will find out!

Menu Planning / Pantry Organization

So, after going to Aldi today without a grocery list, I have an overflowing pantry once again. I know, I know, what was I thinking! I didn't go hungry, so its at least all healthy-ish. I am still going to have to go to a grocery store or maybe just the produce store to finish buying my needed ingredients for this week's menu, but because I fell off the cook-what-you-have-in-the-pantry wagon I am REALLY in the mood to get organized. I've been googling like crazy and have come across a few awesome websites I just had to share!

The art of meal planning has tagged a few excellent articles - I especially like the 50 Tips for Grocery Shopping!

I think I have fallen in love with Menu Plan Monday I really should do this. I cook like this but I don't feel its showy enough to post. Eh, something to consider! I will see if my tastes shadow hers as the summer progresses!

I was looking for a pantry/grocery list and found this website where you can get Free pantry/grocery list in word/excel or PDF versions. I love lists. I stopped myself after I downloaded 6 of them :-)

Now I'm off to actually use them! Dinner tonight is panko breaded baked tilapia with baked Kale chips and slaw.

Creamy Chicken and Green Chili Lasagna

I made this from what I had on hand, so feel free to tweak it to your liking!

3 lbs of Chicken (frozen bag)

1 med onion, diced

4 med carrots, diced

3 small 4oz cans of mild green chilies

2 C frozen corn

3 C low fat sour cream

Chicken bouillon equal to 3 C (optional)

Oregano

Garlic Powder

Corn Tortillas

2 C Shredded cheese (I used Colby jack)

Boil chicken breasts (this is ok to do from frozen) in seasoned water. I added a generous amount of salt, garlic powder, oregano, and a general meat seasoning. This will add a little flavor to the chicken as it cooks. Boil until cooked, no longer pink in the center about 10 min. Dice or shred the chicken, removing any excess fat of course.

While the chicken is boiling, I prepped the veggies and began cooking.

Heat 2-3 T of olive oil in a sauté pan and soften the carrots and onion. Add the diced chicken and cook 5 min or so to combine. Set aside.

In between tasks, arrange 10-15 corn tortillas on a plate and microwave them until just warm, maybe 30 seconds. Quarter the tortillas. Set aside.

You can use the same dirtied pan to prepare the sauce. In a sauté pan, add the green chilies, 4 oz of water (I rinsed out the 3 cans), corn, S&P. Let cook for a few minutes letting the flavors combine.  

Add the sour cream, oregano, garlic powder, and chicken bouillon. (You could sub with 16 oz sour cream + 8 oz chicken broth. I just used what I had on hand.) Stir occasionally over medium heat until it barely comes to a boil. Remove from heat. The sauce will still seem thin. This is ok!

Spray or oil the bottom of a 9x13 or larger baking dish.

Arrange a single layer of tortilla quarters to cover the bottom surface.

Follow with a thin layer of chicken mixture.

Follow with a few ladles of green chili sauce.

Follow with a thin sprinkle of cheese.

Cover with another layer of tortilla quarters.

Repeat layers, using up all the ingredients, trying to finish with sauce and cheese on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 min uncovered. I then turned up the heat to 425 for 5 minutes to get some browned color on the surface. Let rest a few minutes from the oven before serving.

Serves 8.