Chicken salad on watercress

It was leftovers night tonight. This turned out much better than expected. We had two courses: wontons in duck broth and this salad.

Here is my tale.

Leftover, I had:

- Most of a roast chicken breast. A big one, from a 5.35lb heritage breed chicken. It was a fancy poultry part.
- A big pile of watercress I cleaned for a salad then forgot about and made another salad a few nights ago so now I have all of this watercress.
- An avocado I sliced open two days ago then changed my mind about and put it back together and wrapped some plastic wrap around and put it back in the fridge. But you know it can never really be whole again and you have to use it up now.
- Some apples I bought to have fruit in the house before deciding I'm finally sick of apples. It happens. Winter is almost over. Persevere.

The first step was to sit on the couch and wonder what the heck to do with all of this. And to feel guilty about the last cooked chicken breast that I forgot about. It sat in my fridge until it went bad. I thought about the fact that I need to remember to throw that away tonight.

But then I came up with this idea. A then my friend Sarah recommended that I add honey. And she was right.

And we ate it. And it was good.

Chicken salad on watercress


made three servings

- 1.5 cups chopped cooked chicken
- 1 ripe avocado, diced
- 1 apple, cored and diced
- 2 green onions, white parts only, thinly sliced
- two big handfuls of watercress, cleaned with thick stems removed

Dressing:
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp mayo
- 1 tsp honey
- A small clove of garlic, minced
- salt and fresh cracked pepper

Dice all the things that need dicing and slice the onion. Put them in a bowl.

In another small bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the dressing and taste to season.

Scrape the little bowl into the big bowl and mix it all together until it's chicken salady. Taste a bit with a sprig of watercress to check seasoning. Add more lemon, tahini, honey, salt, or pepper if you think it needs it. I'm guessing at the amount of all these things that I added.

Serve the chicken salad on watercress. You should eat it with chopsticks because all salad should be eaten with chopsticks. It might be a thing you never knew, but it's true. You're welcome.

Aromatic duck broth

I have an Instant Pot. Yes, I love it. 

The most recent thing to come out of it was a really great duck broth. I turned this into two soups.

Aromatic Instant Pot Duck Broth

- Stripped carcass from a crispy roast duck plus one extra duck neck plus maybe some odds and ends. Enough scraps to fill a 1L bag, at any rate.
- Ginger, thumb-sized nub. Slightly crushed.
- 1 dried shiitake cap
- 2 whole star anise
- 3 Chinese dates/jujubes
- 1 tsp green sichuan peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp white peppercorns
- 2 medium shallots, peeled and halved
- Pinch MSG
- Water to cover

I threw all this in the Instant Pot for 90 minutes, which is a freaking long time. The gelatin extraction was glorious. If you want, you can watch the cooled broth jiggle while someone talks about the legal environment for establishing medical uses for psychedelic drugs in the background for eight seconds.

A tale of two soups. So far.

With mung bean noodles, bok choy, and seared duck breast.

The first night, we sliced up a salt-and-five-spice-rubbed duck breast on top of the broth over mung bean noodles and baby bok choy and seasoned with Xinjiang spice mix. Garnished the bowl with shallots and cilantro. Cooking the duck and seasoning the broth were both done to taste. I cannot guide you further.

With Hong Kong wontons and king oyster mushrooms.

Tonight was less pretty but at least as tasty. I sliced and seared four king oyster mushrooms in a tablespoon of sesame oil and cooked them until they were starting to brown, then added the broth (which got more delicious after a few days in the fridge). To this, I added a package of 100% Dim Sum Canton Shrimp & Pork Wontons, green onions, and roasted chili oil. 

I still have some more of this broth. I'm thinking it's destined for a re-do of night one, but with duck hearts.

Slurp.