Cold Chicken Salad Recipes

Chicken is not only one of the most versatile of all cooking ingredients, it can be equally good served hot or cold. This means that when the summer heat turns you off the idea of not only cooking over a hot stove but even eating hot food, chicken can still be on standby to be used as the basis of a tasty and satisfying meal. The recipes on this page can be made from leftover chicken which was perhaps grilled outdoors the day before and not finished, or they can be made to order from any particular piece of chicken you wish. Why not give these ideas a try to - better still - let them inspire you to come up with your own cold chicken salad recipes?

Prep time: 2 hours, 30 min

Cook time: 1 hour, 20 min (approximately - varies depending on weight of chicken)

Ready in: 3 hours, 50 min

Yields: 4 modest servings or 2 large

• 3lb whole prepared chicken
• 1/2 fresh lemon, halved again
• 2 shallots or very small onions, peeled
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Large baking potato
• 2 tbsp mayo
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 tbsp sweetcorn
• 2 tbsp frozen peas, cooked and cooled
• 2 generous handfuls baby spinach leaves, washed

This dish is a lot easier to prepare than you may think and can create quite an impression when you take it to the table. The key is simply in portioning the chicken correctly and taking just a couple of extra minutes to create the presentation. Hopefully the instructions and the photographs will be sufficient to show and prove the straightforward nature of the techniques.

1. Put your oven on to preheat to 400F/200C. Weigh your chicken. This is imperative to allow you to determine the cooking time. It should be twenty minutes per pound and twenty minutes over.
2. Wash your chicken under running cold water and pat it dry. Lightly grease a roasting tray with olive oil and sit your chicken on it.
3. Season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper and stuff it with the lemon, onions or shallots and dried thyme. Rube the exposed areas of the chicken with more olive oil and season with salt. Put it in to the oven and simply leave it alone until the alloted cooking time has expired.
4. Peel the potato and chop in to about six pieces. Do not chop too small prior to cooking or it will soak up too much water. Add to a pot of cold, salted water, bring to a boil and simmer until soft - twenty to twenty-five minutes.
5. Drain the potatoes, return to the empty pot and allow to steam for a few minutes. This gets rid of the excess water. Cover and leave to cool completely.
6. Take the chicken from the oven and pierce it at its thickest part to ensure the juices run clear and it is fully cooked. Cover loosely with foil and leave it for a couple of hours to cool.
7. Dice the potato portions and mix with the mayo. Add the sweetcorn, cooked and cooled peas and half the bell pepper, seeded and finely diced. Mix well and season as required Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until it is needed.
8. Sit the chicken on a chopping board and carefully cut off the whole leg portions. Do the same with the wings.
9. Starting immediately to one side of the central breastbone, cleave carefully down and around the bone to remove the first whole breast fillet. Do the same again and remove the second fillet.
10. Form the potato salad in a mound in the centre of a serving platter, as close as you can imagine to the shape of the chicken carcass. Arrange the spinach leaves and the sliced remaining half of the red bell pepper around it.
11. Carefully place the chicken breasts on top and arrange the legs and wings as they were on the whole chicken. Taking just a little bit of time over this makes for great presentation.
12. Take the platter to the table and allow your family or guests to admire the served dish before removing the portions and revealing the true nature of your creation, as shown below.

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: 30 min

Ready in: 2 hours, 30 min

Yields: 2 servings

• 4 to 6 whole chicken legs
• 1 medium white onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 tsp sea salt, plus extra for seasoning salad
• 3 or 4 handfuls fresh peashoots, washed
• 8 small red radishes
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• Chopped chives to garnish

This salad recipe sees the chicken legs cooked to order, which is why it takes that bit longer to prepare.

1. Put the chicken legs in to the base of a large pot and add the onion, peppercorns and salt. Pour in enough cold water that all the legs are comfortably submerged. Put the pot on to a high heat until the water boils. Reduce and simmer for thirty minutes.
2. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and leave to cool and complete cooking for two hours.
3. Scatter the peashoots in a large serving dish.
4. Top and tail the radishes and slice. Evenly distribute over the peashoots.
5. Slice and deseed the yellow bell pepper before adding to the salad. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Lay the cooled chicken legs on top of the salad bed, garnish with the chopped chives and serve.

Prep time: 1 hour 15 min

Cook time: 15 min

Ready in: 1 hour 30 min

Yields: One serving

• 4oz basmati or long grain rice
• 6 fl oz cold water
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 4oz leftover chicken breast meat
• 1/4 medium white onion
• 1/2 red chilli pepper
• 1/2 green chilli pepper
• 2 tsp freshly chopped coriander/cilantro plus a little extra to garnish
• 1 slice tomato (garnish)
• 1 slice cucumber (garnish)
• Naan bread to serve

1. Wash the rice well through a sieve under running cold water. Add it to a pot with the turmeric, salt and cold water. Put it on a high heat until the water reaches a boil. Reduce to achieve a very gentle simmer, put the lid on the pot and leave it alone for fifteen minutes.
2. After fifteen minutes, the rice should have absorbed all the water and should fluff up nicely with a fork. Spread it out evenly on a large plate, cover a leave to cool completely for an hour. Important: never leave cooked rice at room temperature for more than about an hour and a half. This constitutes a serious risk of food poisoning.
3. Break the chicken in to fairly large flakes and stir it through the cooked rice.
4. Finely dice the chillies and onion and mix through the rice and chicken, along with the coriander/cilantro.
5. Spoon the rice in to a serving bowl, garnish with the cucumber and tomato slices and the remaining coriander and serve with the naan bread.