Poultry meat, prunes and nuts - this trio is considered flawless by many gourmets. The combination of these products allows you to get a unique taste. On the basis of these ingredients, many dishes have been invented, including cold snacks. Salad with chicken, prunes and walnuts can consist only of the main components and sauce, and can be complex and multi-layered. Any of the options has its fans, any of these dishes is worthy to become a decoration of the festive table.
Cooking Features
It would seem that there is nothing difficult to cut prunes, nuts and chicken meat, mix them and pour over the sauce. However, the salad of these ingredients, not all housewives get tasty. Get a perfect result allows knowledge of a few moments.
- Pay attention to product quality. Moldy nuts, spoiled prunes, stale chicken, hitting the salad, do not hide behind the sauce and other ingredients, and make the taste and aroma of the entire snack unpleasant.
- In order for the salad to have a delicate flavor, prunes must be steamed before adding to it. To do this, it is not necessary to keep it above steam, you can simply pour hot water for 10 minutes. But after such a procedure, the dried fruit must be pressed and dried.
- Nuts will taste better if you fry them in a dry frying pan or dry them in the oven. The nutty notes of this will increase, and it will be easier to shred the kernels after that.
- You can chop nuts in different ways: in a mortar, using a blender or a coffee grinder. One of the easiest ways is to put the nuts in a bag or cover with a towel, walk over them several times with a rolling pin to roll the dough.
- Do not add a lot of sauce to the salad. It increases the calorie content of the dish and makes the layers more fluid and less resistant. To apply mayonnaise with a fine mesh, place it in a bag and make a small hole in cellophane with a toothpick, through which you will squeeze out the sauce.
- Most often from prunes, chicken and walnuts make puff salads. They become tastier when the layers have time to soak in the sauce, it takes about 2 hours. If you do not have time and are forced to prepare a snack before the most feast, mix the products with the sauce before putting them in a salad bowl or on a dish - they get soaked much faster.
- Do not add warm foods to the salad, because of this, the snack quickly deteriorates and keeps its shape poorly.
Considering the above recommendations, even an inexperienced cook will be able to cook a tasty and appetizing salad of chicken, prunes and walnuts.
A simple recipe for salad with chicken, prunes and walnuts
Composition:
- boiled chicken fillet - 0, 2 kg;
- pitted prunes - 120 g;
- walnut kernels - 80 g;
- mayonnaise - 15 ml;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
Preparation Method:
- Boil chicken breast in salted water. Let it cool in broth. Cut the fillet into cubes of about 1 cm.
- Put the hoop on the dish, place the pieces of chicken inside it. Tamp the spoon. Pepper, brush with a teaspoon of mayonnaise.
- Leave half of the walnut kernel for decoration, finely chop the remaining nuts with a knife, mix with the remaining mayonnaise, put on the chicken.
- Pour the prunes with hot water, after 10 minutes, rinse, dry with napkins, coarsely chop and put the upper layer.
- Gently remove the hoop, decorate the appetizer with half a walnut.
Salad made according to this simple recipe is tasty, nourishing and healthy. Even one who is on a diet can afford it. The calorie content of this salad is high due to the high content of dried fruits and nuts, but the nutritional value is also high.
Salad “Tenderness”
Composition:
- prunes without stones - 0, 2 kg;
- chicken breast fillet - 0, 4 kg;
- walnut kernels - 80 g;
- chicken egg - 4 pcs .;
- fresh cucumbers - 0, 3 kg;
- mayonnaise - 150 ml.
Preparation Method:
- Eggs boil hard boiled, put under a stream of cold water to cool them. Eggs after such a “soul” are cleaned much easier.
- Remove the eggshell. Grind whites and yolks separately.
- Rinse prunes, pour boiling water. After 10 minutes, squeeze, dry with napkins, cut into strips.
- Boil chicken breast until tender, cool. Take off the skin. Separate the meat from the bones, disassemble into fibers, divide into 2 parts.
- Dry the nuts in the oven, crush to the state of small crumbs in any way you like.
- Wash cucumbers, cut off the tips. Cut the vegetables into strips.
- In the salad bowl, put the first part of the chicken, grease with mayonnaise. Put prunes on top, sprinkle with nuts, put the remaining chicken.
- Watering the chicken layer with mayonnaise, sprinkle it with egg yolks, then lay out the cucumbers, grease them with sauce.
- Sprinkle the salad with chopped protein.
You can pick up a salad in a salad bowl or in batches - in bowls or glasses. It also looks good on a platter, if using a detachable baking dish to give it a cake shape.
Smoked Chicken Salad with Prunes and Walnuts
Composition:
- smoked chicken meat - 0, 2 kg;
- pitted prunes - 80 g;
- fresh champignons - 150 g;
- chicken egg - 3 pcs .;
- walnut kernels - 50 g;
- onions - 100 g;
- hard cheese - 100 g;
- vegetable oil - 20-30 ml;
- garlic - 1 clove;
- mayonnaise - 0, 2 l;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
Preparation Method:
- Chop a chicken finely.
- Steamed prunes cut into strips.
- Finely chop the nuts with a knife.
- Hard-boiled eggs, coarsely rub.
- On a grater with fine holes, chop the cheese.
- Cut the mushrooms into plates.
- Free from onions peel, cut into thin quarters of rings.
- Heat the oil, fry the onion with the mushrooms in it. Cool it down.
- Mix the garlic passed through the press with mayonnaise.
- Lay the food in layers in the following sequence: half eggs, mushrooms, half cheese, nuts, half chicken, prunes, the remaining chicken, the remaining eggs. Water all the sauce layers, making it a thin mesh. Last pour out the remaining cheese. It is not required to lubricate.
Before serving, the salad must be allowed to stand in the refrigerator for at least 1, 5-2 hours. His unique taste is unlikely to leave anyone indifferent.
Salad with chicken, prunes, walnuts and pickled cucumbers
Ingredients:
- 150 g of chicken meat;
- 1-2 chicken eggs;
- 1 handful of walnuts;
- 50 g of hard cheese;
- 1/5 tsp. salts;
- 1-2 pickled cucumbers;
- 2-3 prunes;
- 4 tbsp. l mayonnaise;
- 2-3 sprigs of fresh greens.
Cooking:
1. Chicken meat (you can take the fillet) cook in salted water with spices and spices. Cool and cut into small cubes or disassemble into fibers by hand.
2. Chicken meat will be at the very bottom of the salad. Place it evenly on a dish and smear with mayonnaise. You can take a flat dish or a deep small salad bowl.
3. One large chicken egg or a pair of small boiled hard boiled eggs, then cool and clean. Rub on a coarse or fine grater, make the next layer and smear with mayonnaise.
4. Now it's the turn of the pickled or pickled cucumber - at your discretion. Cut it into small cubes and place it on top of a layer of chicken eggs.
5. Hard cheese will suit any variety. You can take more salty or more bland, with additives (spices, spices, nuts). Grate the cheese on a fine grater and sprinkle the salad on top. Lubricate with mayonnaise is not necessary.
6. Garnish the salad with walnuts and prunes. If dried prunes, it is better to put it for 15-20 minutes in hot water, so that it becomes softer. Then dry it with napkins and decorate the salad. If possible, let the salad stand for 30-40 minutes.
7. Before serving, you can add some more fresh greens - so the salad will look brighter and more appetizing.
How to decorate a salad
The composition of the salad of chicken, nuts and prunes gives the chef an opportunity to decorate the snack with the help of basic ingredients. Walnuts and prunes look equally good as a decor. The field for manifestation of fantasy opens wide. If you do not like any of the ideas below, you can come up with your own options for decorating snacks, taking them as a basis.
- It is better to spread the salad inside the culinary hoop, then its shape will be smooth, and the alternation of contrasting layers will be clearly visible after removing the device. Such a salad looks beautiful if you just sprinkle it with nut crumb, grated eggs or cheese. To complement the decor will help the flowers of the products that make up the snack. It can be eggs, cheese, mushrooms.
- Prunes and halves of walnut kernels can be laid out on the surface of the salad in a checkerboard pattern, dividing them with mayonnaise grill.
- Salad can be laid out in the form of a pineapple or turtle, covering it with nut kernels, like shell or peel.
- Making the top layer of prunes and putting on it contrasting patterns of mayonnaise, you get a salad resembling a chocolate cake.
Beautifully looks like a salad of prunes, chicken and nuts in a transparent salad bowl, ice-cream bowl, fougere, since dark prunes alternating with light chicken breast meat, cheese or eggs creates a bright and attractive contrast.
No matter how you make a salad with chicken, prunes and walnuts, it will be appetizing and beautiful. The taste of the snack also does not disappoint anyone.