Smoked chicken is a tasty, ready-to-eat product. Many take it for dinner or for a snack, when there is no time for cooking. It is an independent snack, but the most interesting is revealed in salads. Especially popular are the versions of salads, in which nourishing and spicy smoked chicken is combined with juicy and light vegetables, balancing its taste. Salads with smoked chicken and fresh cucumber have a lot of advantages: they are easy to prepare, without spending much time, they are juicy and not heavy, nourishing and tasty. You can supplement this duet with other vegetables, canned corn or peas, mushrooms and even fruits.
Cooking Features
The main ingredients of smoked chicken and cucumber salads do not require heat treatment, so these snacks are prepared quickly and easily. These products are so well combined with each other that the dish of them is difficult to spoil. However, not all housewives like snacks work equally well, even if they use the same recipe. The secret of success lies in the knowledge of some subtleties:
- The taste of the prepared dish depends directly on the quality of the ingredients. If you purchased a chicken with a flavor, do not try to disguise this smell with spices, sauce and fragrant vegetables. Make a tasty dish of this product will not succeed. Moreover, with him the snack becomes unsafe. Cucumbers are always tastier than unpaved, from their vegetable garden. They have a more pronounced aroma and rich taste.
- Taste a cucumber before putting it in a salad: it happens that the fruit is bitter.
- Do not try to save by adding pieces of chicken fat and skins to the salad. The volume of snacks from this will grow slightly, but the taste will spoil very noticeably. It is best to use chicken breast fillet, skin and bone free.
- If the salad contains boiled, fried or baked products, they should be cooled before mixing with other ingredients. By mixing ingredients of different temperatures, you will significantly shorten the shelf life of the finished dish.
- Puff salads should be cooked 2-3 hours before lunch. In less time products will not have time to soak in the sauce. If it is necessary to speed up this process, mix the ingredients with the sauce before harvesting the salad.
Smoked chicken and fresh cucumber salads are different, often they are prepared not only from a different set of products, but also according to different technologies, so carefully follow the recipes.
Layered salad with smoked chicken, fresh cucumber and mushrooms
Composition:
- smoked chicken fillet - 0, 3 kg;
- fresh cucumbers - 0, 3 kg;
- fresh champignons - 0, 25 kg;
- onions - 100 g;
- vegetable oil - 40 ml;
- chicken egg - 4 pcs .;
- hard cheese - 100 g;
- mayonnaise - how much will go.
Method of preparation:
- Wash mushrooms, pat dry with a napkin, cut into strips.
- Peel the onion, cut it into small pieces.
- Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, put the mushrooms and onions in it. Fry over medium heat until all the liquid released from the mushrooms evaporates. Leave the mushrooms to cool and enjoy other foods.
- Pour eggs with water, adding a little salt to it. Thanks to this trick, they do not burst and will be easy to clean. Boil 10 minutes after boiling. Remove from heat and place under a stream of cold water. Peel the cooled eggs, grind grated.
- Wash cucumbers, wipe with a napkin, cut off the tips. Cut the vegetables into neat straws.
- Clean the chicken fillet from the skin, separate it from the bones and chop finely.
- Mayonnaise pour into a culinary bag or a tight plastic bag. Screw the nozzle with the narrowest hole (or make a hole in the bag using a toothpick). This is necessary in order not to water the sauce too thickly - the salad is already high-calorie.
- Put a detachable baking dish on the dish, put chopped chicken inside it, cover it with a thin mayonnaise net.
- Put the cucumbers in a sauce.
- Place cooled mushrooms on top, pour them with mayonnaise.
- Spread the eggs on top, draw a net with mayonnaise on them, spread the spoon with a spoon so that it covers the top.
- Remove cooking hoop.
- Finely grate the cheese, sprinkle the salad on all sides.
Salad looks tender and airy. Its taste justifies the expectations. This appetizer will decorate the table, covered for any reason.
Kaleidoscope Salad with Smoked Chicken, Fresh Cucumber and Corn
Composition:
- smoked chicken breast - 0, 4 kg;
- fresh cucumber - 0, 3 kg;
- canned corn - 0, 25 kg;
- chicken egg - 3 pcs .;
- canned champignons - 0, 3 kg;
- fresh dill - 50 g;
- mayonnaise - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Separate the chicken fillet from the bones, remove the skin from it. Cut cubes of medium size chicken, put in a bowl.
- Cook hard boiled eggs, cool under running cold water. Take the shells off them. Cut the eggs in the same pieces as the chicken, add to it.
- Wash cucumbers, blot with a kitchen towel. Cut off the tips of the fruit, cut them just like chicken and eggs, place in a common container.
- Open the jar of mushrooms, drain the liquid from it. Mushrooms cut into cubes or thin plates. If they are already sliced, it is not necessary to grind them in addition. Send the mushrooms to the rest of the ingredients.
- Open a jar of corn, fold it to a colander. When the grains dry, pour them into a bowl, where other products are already located.
- Season the salad with mayonnaise, put it in a salad bowl. Sprinkle with finely chopped dill.
If you add green onion to the salad, it will look even more colorful and fresh. The taste of snacks from this, too, will benefit.
Salad with smoked chicken, cucumber, sweet peppers and tomatoes
Composition:
- cucumbers - 0, 3 kg;
- tomatoes - 0, 3 kg;
- Bulgarian pepper - 0, 25 kg;
- canned corn - 0, 25 kg;
- smoked breast fillet - 0, 3 kg;
- fresh greens - 100 g;
- salt, black pepper - to taste;
- mayonnaise - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Chicken fillet cut into cubes the size of a little less than a centimeter.
- Cut cucumbers in about the same size.
- Pepper seeds, cut the flesh into squares of a slightly larger size than chicken and cucumber.
- Wash tomatoes and blot with a napkin. Cut seals near the stem. Pulp cut into cubes. You need to cut with a sharp knife so as not to squeeze the juice out of the vegetables.
- Put the crushed products in a bowl, add the corn and chopped greens to them.
- Salt, pepper, pour in the sauce and mix well.
- Transfer to a salad bowl and serve.
Salad prepared according to this recipe will be no less tasty if you replace mayonnaise with a lighter sauce: sour cream or white yogurt mixed with a small amount of pepper and lemon juice. Refill and salt the snack should be immediately before serving to the table, otherwise it will be watery.
How to decorate a salad with smoked chicken and cucumber
Pieces of cucumbers, flashing in the salad, where it serves as one of the main ingredients, give the snack a fresh and bright look. The effect is even more noticeable if the composition is corn, sweet peppers, tomatoes and other products that have a bright color. Such dishes are easy to decorate, turning into a masterpiece of culinary art.
- The products that make up the salad of smoked chicken and fresh cucumbers, you can put on the dish sectors, without mixing with the sauce. The sauce is poured into the center. Ingredients are mixed after serving to the table, so that the guests have time to admire a bright kind of snack.
- The simplest salad will sparkle with new colors if you put it on lettuce leaves and decorate with fresh greens.
- When serving in portions, fold out the snack with a special mold, giving it a similarity to small cakes or pastries. A special form can be replaced by a tin from which the bottom was cut.
- Salad can be spread out in cocktail glasses - it will emphasize its refined and sophisticated taste.
- You can make flowers from cucumbers and arrange them on the surface of the snack. Flowers from tomatoes, radishes, eggs, carrots or other products that make up the salad can add to the bouquet.
Some recipes for smoked chicken and cucumber salads may provide for a specific type of decoration. In this case, you can not reinvent the wheel, and follow the instructions in the recipe.
Salads with smoked chicken and fresh cucumbers are nourishing and tasty, bright and appetizing look. The simplicity of their preparation allows you to collect these snacks for a family dinner, but the exquisite taste of these dishes makes them desirable and on the holiday table.
