Chicken Salad with oranges and herbs

This recipe makes an awesomely clean and bright salad which can served with lettuce leaves or traditionally on bread or in a wrap. The oranges I used were a little past ripe but the juiciness added to the decadence of the dish. In the future I would season the chicken breast better, but I know others don’t cook with salt as much as I do (ahem, my sibling Maura) and this dish as is, was super good. I am always looking for recipes which be served hot and cold, especially in the hot weather, and this recipe you could make ahead and serve to guests. You could use other fruits instead of oranges like mango or even green grapes, but oranges were very flavorful and added some very serious sweetness. It is surprisingly addictive and in the spirit of complete disclosure, I learned this recipe by accident when I was learning to breakdown a chicken.

There are things people think all aspiring chefs, even humble home chefs like myself should know - how to make meringue, how to make pasta from scratch, and yes, how to breakdown a chicken. When this whole shutdown happened in New York, I took it as an opportunity to learn things and initially I was in very good spirits, cheerfully learning to bake bread and walking by the river instead of spending my traditional workout time in the gym and the pool. With real commitment I refocused myself on my yoga practice, organized my art supplies and while I missed freedoms and the people I love, I admitted to myself I even enjoyed the extra sleep. The blush was off the rose pretty quickly but I am still focusing on trying to learn things and breaking down a chicken was on the list. The “I’m ok with this” lasted for a few days, the “I’ll get through this” lasted for 2 months, and the “when the f is this going to be done?” had set in by the time I signed up to learn this skill.

When I learned to make ravioli, I learned through Cocusocial in person and I turned to Cocusocial to learn how to give the business to my whole chicken. Probably, if it was up to me and I did not have the unusual dietary requirements I do, I would spend my days happily not eating meat and living more guilt free, but well, if I don’t eat meat, my blood pressure drops, my wounds don’t heal, I get inexplicable paralyzing headaches and my circulation goes to all heck in a starchy basket… it is surprising how important circulation is- probably it’s a no brainer but when your foot falls asleep too many times it means apparently not such great things for your heart and lungs. Who knew! So, I eat meat, but I feel very strongly if I can’t bring myself to cook it myself I should not be eating it, and so I tackled my chicken. As the teacher expertly guided us through breaking it down he gave us body geographic cues, which as a Pilates teacher I cringed at because they were so similar to the cues I would give my clients and then he said “yes, it is exactly like a human sternum….” And I said outloud to my muted computer “Yes, I know and this is why I should be a vegetarian.” In most parts of the United States we are distanced from our food, thinking only of taste and nutritional content, but not where it comes from and honestly, who it comes from. For me, I have walked around in my conflicts with meat, and in a funny way, getting my hands on the actual chicken helped me get to a place where I was able to internally say a prayer of thanks for the sustenance it was about to give me.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

Seedless English cucumber

2 medium oranges

Salt and pepper

medium diced onion

cilantro

2 tbs of olive oil

juice of a single lime

finely diced garlic

Bunch of Parsley

Add oil into your medium skillet and add your chicken breasts to the pan (pictured - all the parts of the chicken I got from my whole roaster mentioned earlier in this post)

*In this step in the future, I would season the chicken breast with salt pepper and garlic and add chicken stock, up the breast midline, to cook the breast

Dice your cucumber, orange, cilantro parsley and onion. Add to a bowl with lemon juice, tsp of oil, salt, pepper, and garlic…I would add diced bell pepper in future

Mix it all together and serve on rolls, bread, crackers …or as I did the next day for lunch, on lettuce leaves.