Midwestern Spring is most definitely here. Our weather forecast shows Monday: sunny with a high of 85 and a low of 70. Tuesday,: snow blizzard with a high of 2° and a low of -80° with a wind chill of stay your ass inside. I might have exaggerated a bit but ONLY a little. Good ol’ Kansas City weather is about as predictable as a two-year-old. With that said, I have decided to just skip this cold drizzling spring and welcome summer with my paleo Frisbee Chicken Salad.
Frisbee Chicken Salad? A what? It is a salad comprised of frisee, beets, apricots, chicken and an orange vinaigrette topped with sunflower seeds, a twist of fresh cracked black pepper and smoked flake salt. If you want to add an extra dimension of flavor, use paleo sunflower seed pralines. Man, that was a mouth full. The Frisbee Chicken Salad is served on top of a thin slice of crispy paleo garlic and chive toast. So it is like a 4-in-1 recipe this week. Let’s get started!
Frisbee Chicken Salad:
Salad:
1 Cup – Organic Frisee
1 Small – Purple Beet (Peeled and shaved thin)
2 – Organic Apricots (Sliced)
2 Tbsp – Sunflower Seeds (Praline if preferred)
Freshly Ground Coarse Black Pepper
Smoked Flake Salt
Poached Chicken Breast:
1 to 1½lb – Free Range Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 Sprig – Fresh Tarragon Leaves
2 – Bay Leaves
2 Cloves – Toasted Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Orange Vinaigrette:
1 Cup – Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice (Or 100% Juice not from concentrate)
1/4 Cup – Kasandrinos Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbsp – Organic Honey
2 Tbsp – Champagne Vinegar
Thickening Agent i.e. Tapioca Starch or Xanthan Gum
Paleo Sandwich Bread:
1 Cup – Almond Meal
½ Cup – Otto’s Natural Cassava Flour
½ Cup – Organic Gemini Tiger Nut Flour
1½ Tsp – Baking Soda
¼ Tsp – Salt
½ Cup – Garlic Infused Gold Nugget Ghee
8 – Handsome Brook Farm Pasture Raised Eggs
2 Tbsp – Fresh Chives (Finely Diced)
1 Tsp – Champagne Vinegar
First things first, you know I have to talk about ingredients, but before I even get to that, I promise this Frisbee Chicken Salad is a lot easier than it looks. You can substitute anything for the salad, use your favorite vinaigrette, bake the chicken, use left over roasted chicken from one of the wholesale markets (I’m not judging!). Whatever it is to make it easier for you. One pain free way to make the chicken is to rub it in Kasandrinos Garlic & Herb Seasoning and bake it. It is fantastic! Ok, Ok, Ok… Before I get too side tracked, back to the ingredients for the Frisbee Chicken Salad. The ingredients I want to talk about today is Tiger Nut flour and xanthan gum. I love Tiger Nut flour because it lends a sweet nutty flavor to the bread, similar to traditional yeast risen wheat breads. Next, I want to mention xanthan gum. I know some people have negative reactions to them. You can easily substitute it with tapioca starch or arrowroot starch. I will go into further detail when we make the vinaigrette. Let’s make this awesome Frisbee Chicken Salad!
“Bread” Instructions:
The bread is super easy to make. First off, preheat your oven to 350ºF. In a mixer, mix all of your dry ingredients. If you want the garlic and chive flavor, heat half a cup of ghee in a skillet and let two cloves of smashed garlic simmer in it until it is a light golden brown. Let the ghee cool off a bit and strain it into the dry mixture along with the finely diced chives. Save the garlic, because we will use it to poach the chicken. Add in eggs, mix well and pour it into a standard size loaf pan. I lined mine with parchment paper for easy release. You can add different kinds of seeds on top of the loaf if you want. Pop that baby in the oven for 30-35 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remember, bake time will vary depending on weather and the type of pan you use. A word of advice, this bread is very filling, so thin slices are great. If you want to use it for sweet things, I would suggest not adding the garlic and chives. Onward to the other pieces of the Frisbee Chicken Salad.
Poached Chicken:
While the bread is baking, lets poach the chicken. That sounds difficult right? Not at all. It’s probably one of the easiest way to guarantee tender and moist chicken. Put your chicken breasts in a pot, submerge it by an inch of room temp water. Add in spices of your choice. In my case, I used fresh tarragon, bay leaf, toasted garlic cloves, salt and black pepper. Set the pot on the stove on medium-high heat and bring it to a rolling boil. As soon as it starts boiling, reduce the heat down to a simmer. You want to simmer the chicken breast until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF. The cook time will depend on how thick your breasts are. Check the temp between 12-14 minutes. I like to let it get to about 160-162ºF and finish it off in a skillet to get a nice golden brown color. While the Chicken for the Frisbee Chicken Salad is poaching, let’s make the vinaigrette.
Vinaigrette Instructions:
This is probably the easiest part of the Frisbee Chicken Salad. I used a hand mixer and blended all of the ingredients together along with a heaping teaspoon of xanthan gum and you are done. That’s one of the nicest things about xanthan gum is because you don’t have to heat it like many other thickening agent. It is very versatile and naturally gluten-free. If it is too thick, add a bit more orange juice. If your sugar content in your mixture is too high, it might hinder the thickening properties of the xanthan gum, so keep that in mind. For those who are not a fan, you can use tapioca starch or arrowroot powder to thicken the vinaigrette. The only draw back is, you have to heat it and let it cool off before using it. The bread should be close to done by now so, let’s assemble the Frisbee Chicken Salad!
Slice the bread into slices about half an inch thick. This is where a bread knife really comes in handy. I brush the bread with a bit of ghee and set it in the oven at 400ºF to let it toast for about 5-8 minutes. Turn them half way through. I like mine drier, like a melba toast. It adds a nice crunch. Slice the Chicken breast into thin deli style slices, layer it evenly on the toast. On the top add: frisee, beets, apricot, sunflower seeds, black pepper, smoked flake salt and a drizzle of vinaigrette. This dish is light, refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day! There you have it, my paleo Frisbee Chicken Salad. Until next time, eat up my friends!
