Chicken Salad

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.

Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups of chopped cooked chicken

1 stalk of celery, finely chopped

¼ of halved grapes

¼ cup of mayonnaise

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper

Use rotisserie chicken, leftover roast chicken or boil a couple of chicken breasts until cooked and let cool. Chop up the chicken to your desired size. I like big chunks! In a bowl, add the celery, grapes, chicken, mayo, lemon juice. Mix and season with salt and pepper. Keep refrigerated (or in a cooler) until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Raquelle's Ridonk Chicken Pot Pie

A fancy chicken pot pie that's fast and easy? That's ridonk! With very little effort you can create an amazing chicken pot pie.

I created this recipe out of necessity. I didn't have time to make a fancy pie from scratch with crust and all but I didn't want a boring chicken pot pie either. And I would never EVER resort to one of those frozen chicken pot pies from the supermarket. ::shudders:: So I developed a recipe which required very little cooking and could be made super fast. This is the result:

Ingredients:

1/2 rotisserie chicken, meat removed

3 celeries with leaves sliced thinly
2-3 carrots sliced thinly
1/2 onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh dill

1/2 cup of frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup of frozen peas

1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chicken broth

Pillsbury golden biscuits (8)

melted butter with chopped fresh dill

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This recipe makes 4 servings.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Chop your onion and slice your celery and carrots. Heat up some extra light olive oil in a skillet and sautee the veggies until they start to become soft. While they are hot, place them in a bowl with the corn and peas. Season with salt and pepper and add dill. Set aside.

Now for the gravy. I make a simple gravy based on my rule of 1 tablespoon fat, 1 tablespoon flour and 1 cup liquid. In this case it's butter, flour and chicken broth. I like my pot pie light on gravy so you can double this recipe if you like more of it. Cook the butter and flour and mix until you get a roux. Slowly incorporate the chicken broth. Cook over medium heat, constantly stirring until it's gravy consistency.

Mix gravy with chicken and vegetables. Pour mixture into a casserole dish.

Cover the top of the casserole dish with the biscuits. Melt a tablespoon or two of butter and add some chopped dill. Brush the butter mixture over the top of the biscuits.

Bake in the oven at 375 Degrees for 25 minutes. You can cover with foil for 15 minutes and then uncover for the rest of the time so your biscuits won't get brown. Serve hot or at room temperature. Enjoy!