Chicken and mushroom salad

I love improvising with salads. To me, there are no salad recipes, there are just some rules and some common salad ingredients. Other than that, salad  is piece of art and person making it is the artist. So my dear artists, improvise and enjoy what you create!

Here is one of my creations, maybe someone might associate it with something they have tried before, like Cesar salad, or be surprised by combination of ingredients, as a friend of mine was when she heard of this salad. But again, salads are pieces of art, and there are trends in art, so some art-pieces look similar. This salad is called “who said we need Parmesan for this salad…”.

To serve 2:
Lettuce – I use the curly ones
1 chicken breast
1/2 egg white
100-150 gr. fresh mushrooms (white simple champignons)
Balsamic vinegar (if you don’t have it, use lemon juice)
Extra virgin olive oil

20 gr butter

Mustard
Mayonnaise
White bread - some 10 slices
Black, white, red peppers
Grind ginger
1 small clove of garlic and garlic powder

Note: This is DzzFood secret for chicken breast preparation, our unique technique. I love it so much, that I use it for preparing pasta with chicken, making chicken with vegetables, salads, burgers, anything that requires small cubes of fried chicken breast.

Cut chicken breast in small cubes, add salt, red pepper, garlic powder and ginger. Bit egg white with a fork - in case of preparing more than 1 breast use a whole egg white, never more. Put seasoned chicken cubes in the egg white and mix well.

If you have WOK good, if not, just heat really well any frying pan then at high heat add the oil  and put the chicken egg mixture on the pan and mix constantly and fast. Do so for some 2-4 minutes or until all pieces are white and soft. 

Chicken comes out so soft and tasty that no one will ever believe you had fried it for 2-4 minutes.  Drain the oil by placing chicken cubes on paper towel.  

Thinly slice mushrooms, leave some 4-5 mushrooms uncut. Fry cut mushrooms in the same pan for some 2-3 minutes. Do not add salt to mushrooms it will make them watery. Remove from pan put on a paper towel to drain.

Cut white bread slices to small cubes. Heat another pan, add 20 gr. butter and olive oil, smash the garlic with knife (do not cut it) and put it in the butter, let it fry a bit. It gives butter its taste.  Put the bread squares on the pan and fry, constantly mixing. Even if they are soft when fried, it is ok. Put them aside for some 10 minutes and when chilled they will become crispy. Do not forget to remove the garlic clove.

Sauce option 1:

Mix 3-5 teaspoons of mayonnaise with 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, just a small amount of mustard, and 10 drops of olive oil (optional) using a fork. Add white and black peppers, salt, garlic powder (optional).  

Sauce option 2:

As I said, its all about creativity. If you like sour-sweet sauces. Mix well balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, melted honey, mustard, and olive oil. Add black and white peppers, salt, and garlic powder(optional). As an option, add 2 teaspoons of soya sauce to this sauce.

Now cut lettuce in thin slices.  Mix lettuce, fried mushrooms and chicken with the sauce. Put uncut raw mushrooms on top of the salad mixture. Place croutons around the salad on the serving dish, or serve separately. Do not mix into the salad before serving, so that they do not soften from the sauce.

Oh forgot, if you by any chance have Parmesan in the fridge, grid some Parmesan on top of the salad.

Bon apetit!