
During the weekend I helped serve a meal and, as a result, was able to take home a large quantity of leftover fried chicken. While I know cold fried chicken makes a great picnic entree, there isn’t good picnic weather in the near future.
So I took a cue from the Netflix show “Best Leftovers Ever” and turned the fried chicken into a delicious chicken salad.
Some leftovers are perfect when simply reheated — or even eaten cold — but others need a little love to find a second life.
Some of the concoctions on “Best Leftovers Ever” are quite creative, like turning kids’ food into cocktails for grown-ups or making breakfast out of leftovers from a fancy dinner.
Turning leftover chicken into chicken salad isn’t quite that creative, but chicken salad is fairly flexible and there’s a lot of room to have some fun.
First, there’s the base. Most use mayonnaise or salad dressing, but adding yogurt or cream cheese adds additional creaminess. A dairy-free base like hummus also works.
Next come the add-ins — crispy vegetables like cucumbers or celery, a pop of sweet like craisins or grapes, or even a little bit of heat like jalapenos. No two chicken salads are the same, which is half the fun.
As a kid, I wasn’t the biggest fan of leftovers. We got something different at school everyday, why not at home?
I am a childless adult and I love cooking and baking, but if I had to come up with something different for supper every night, I think I would go bonker balls. To those parents who make fresh, nutritious meals every night after working all day, you are true superheroes.
Now I live on leftovers. My strategy is to make big batches of nutrient-dense foods, usually during the weekend, and then I live on leftovers throughout the week.
Being able to pop my lunch or supper in the microwave or make a quick sandwich takes away so much pressure during limited free time. I kinda hate having a whole weeknight evening taken up by making supper and cleaning up afterward.
While I might not be as creative as some of the chefs and home cooks on “Best Leftovers Ever,” I feel like I did a pretty good job repurposing my abundance of fried chicken. Those who don’t have any leftover fried chicken can certainly shred up whatever chicken, turkey or pheasant they might happen to have to make their own sandwich filler.
March 23, 2021 at 09:30PM
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Taste: Fried chicken gets a second life as salad - AberdeenNews.com
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