Those who know me know I love to cook, and I’m always up to something in the kitchen. You might think that would make it easy to come up with dishes to share at potlucks and parties, but I’ll be honest — I actually find it challenging. A lot of things I like to make just don’t have great visual appeal or aren’t that portable, and potluck dishes are like jokes — if you have to explain it, it’s not good.
I now have one spring/summer dish and one fall/winter dish that I’ve deemed successful on all fronts — people try it, people like it. If you’ve found this page you’re probably one of them, and have asked me for a recipe. Here’s an attempt to get you on your way. I promise I’ll try not to turn this into a food-blogger-esque, story-time nightmare, but as long as I’m going to write this all down I might as well be thorough, right? Bear with me. (If you don’t want to read the following notes scroll down for the actual recipe.)
Chicken Curry Salad
I’ve been making this dish for at least 15 years, maybe closer to 20. It started on a trip I took from Philly back to Michigan to visit my folks. My mom served this for dinner one night. In full disclosure I was a little wary, as I really didn’t like mayonnaise, nor anything “-salad”. Potato salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, egg salad. Bleck, no thanks. But I tried it… and…. it was amazing! Not too goopy, not too bland. I liked it so much I started making it myself. It became a go-to dish to share, too. This stuff is so good I had a friend contact me out of the blue after we hadn’t spoken in quite some time just to ask for the recipe.
Having been asked for the recipe after bringing the dish to a BBQ recently, I thought it high time I recover the original recipe to share and stick it here on the website for easy access. I asked my mom if she had the recipe handy, and she sent me a scan of the cookbook page (plus the title page). It comes from More Remarkable Recipes by Antionette Kuzmanich Hatfield, or as the byline indicates, “Mrs. Mark O. Hatfield”. (Mark Hatfield was a senator from Oregon who served in the role for like 30 years.) I expected to find that I’d strayed so far from the original that it might not even be worth sharing, but I think it’s still pretty close to what I do. The handwritten notes on the scan are my mom’s. I think her adaptations and adjustments have followed my own pretty closely. I don’t know that I’ve ever done the toasted almonds, but I bet that’s good! I’ll have to try it next time. Here are some of my own notes:
- I tend to put whatever I think it needs in there or I happen to have handy. This recipe lends itself to adaptations. The batch I made for my friend’s birthday party recently included parsley and green onions because they’re growing in the garden.
- I tend to think that red onion is better than sweet or yellow onions, but either is good. I think I use more than the recommended amount, too.
- I use homemade broth which is an entirely different “animal” than boxed or canned, but you can use what you want, and I’ve even made this before without the broth — just cooking the rice in plain old water. The dish is still good, but it’s a little bland.
- Speaking of the rice part, don’t let the mention of “uncooked” rice in the ingredient list confuse you — the first of the directions is to cook the rice. Both the rice and the chicken should be cooked and cooled before you put all the ingredients together, so plan ahead to account for that.
- Adjust to taste as you’re going, but remember that the flavors meld as it chills in the fridge after assembly. If it seems too lemony or you think you overdid it with onion bits give it some time before being disappointed or trying to fix it.
- Chicken breasts look nice cut into little cubes, but I like rough-chopped thigh meat better.
- I like to use jasmine or basmati rice. My mom likes brown rice. Whatever you use just make sure to not overcook it!
OK, all that said, here’s the original recipe. Have fun making it your own!
Coming next….. The dish for fall/winter: Pumpkin Pie Dip