Market Chicken Salad

As the last days of summer come upon us, I prize my trips to our local farmers’ market for fresh produce.  At the market, I can find vegetable varieties that might not be available at the grocery store. The offerings are local, fresh, and full of flavor.

A recent trip garnered a large bag of yellow and green pole beans as well as some Yukon Gold potatoes.

These beauties were just the right ingredients for what I call my Market Salad, an easy do-ahead dish. I took some ideas for prepping the potatoes from a recipe that David Tanis recently published in The New York Times.

For the vinaigrette, I made a few changes to a trusted recipe for Salade Niçoise from Jacques Pépin, published in Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home. I love the strong notes of mustard and garlic in Pépin’s vinaigrette, and added a finely minced anchovy fillet to the dressing. The anchovy dissolves into the mix, adding a boost of flavor that’s just right. (Even professed anchovy haters will love this salad dressing.)

Finally, I opted to use a rotisserie chicken from the deli as the protein for my salad, instead of the tuna and boiled eggs found in a typical Niçoise salad.

One nice feature of this salad is that you can do the prep early on, chill the ingredients separately, and then compose the salad when you’re ready to serve. Both the potatoes and the green beans need to be cooked and cooled ahead of time. After cooking the potatoes to the point that they are tender, you peel and slice them, and dress them with the vinaigrette while they’re still warm. The flavors of the salad dressing permeate the potato slices. (You might actually boil more potatoes than you need for the salad because they are fantastic for days afterwards in other salads or as a side dish.)

While the potatoes cook, you can debone and chop the roasted chicken from the deli.

Next, cook the beans until they’re just crisp tender and then shocked in an ice bath and drained. I like to put them aside separately instead of marinating them for a long time, as the acid in the vinaigrette can darken their bright colors.

A few other vegetables and garnishes help to ramp up the flavor of the dish. Herbs like fresh parsley and basil, along with thinly sliced green onions bring a lively taste to the salad. Chopped capers and cherry tomatoes provide a tangy note.

I built our market salad by first placing spring mix lettuce leaves atop a platter. Then I arranged the beans and potatoes around the outside. Next, I heaped the chopped, boneless chicken pieces in the middle and garnished with the herbs, green onions, cherry tomatoes, and capers. You can opt to drizzle the vinaigrette over the whole salad or pass it for individuals to dress their own portions as they wish.

This salad is beautiful and filling enough for a main course. The flavorful vinaigrette lifts it from an everyday offering to a special dish with French panache. We served our inaugural Market Chicken Salad at a park picnic with some fresh melon slices as a side dish, and everyone came away happy.

Market Chicken Salad

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Farmers market vegetables, a rotisserie chicken, and homemade vinaigrette create a beautiful salad.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 3 large Yukon Gold or red potatoes
• 1 pound fresh green beans or variety of pole beans ends snapped off
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped capers
• 6 cups salad greens
• Cooked chicken shredded into pieces (I used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store), about 3 cups
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 tablespoon chiffonade of fresh basil leaves

Dressing

• 2 garlic cloves minced then smashed to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 anchovy filet finely minced
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

 

• Scrub potatoes well and place in large pot, covering with cold water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium. Cook for about 20 minutes or until a skewer poked into a potato goes in without too much resistance. Remove potatoes from water and allow to cool a bit.
• Meanwhile, make dressing in 2 cup mason jar. Combine all ingredients and shake well.
• When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and slice into 1/8 inch thick rounds. Scatter in large, shallow bowl and spoon some dressing over, enough to coat the rounds. Allow to cool at room temperature, gently tossing now and then to continue redistributing dressing. Season potatoes with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Empty water from pot used for potatoes. Fill with 4 inches of cold water. Bring to a boil, add 1/2 teaspoon salt, and then add beans. Cook on high for 4 minutes. Transfer beans to bowl of iced water to shock them and stop the cooking. Drain the beans well.
• Cover potatoes and beans separately and refrigerate until just before serving time.
• When ready to serve, spread salad greens on large platter or in large, shallow bowl. Arrange potatoes and beans around outer rim of greens. Mound chopped chicken in center. Sprinkle chopped parsley, green onions, basil, and capers on top. Garnish with cherry tomatoes. Either drizzle desired amount of remaining vinaigrette on salad before serving or pass to guests so they can dress salads individually.

Notes

Feel free to substitute other sizes of potatoes. 8-12 small potatoes could work as well. Steamed golden beets are another good addition to this salad.