Winter Chicken Salad w/ Blood Oranges & Almonds

On the quest for some healthy salads this week, I came across Mindy Fox's recipe for a chicken salad w/ blood oranges in Food & Wine.

This was light lunch fare, and made me feel good to know I was eating something with almost negative calories.

Did I ever mention that for as much as I love blood oranges, I hate peeling them?
They require a sharp paring knife to remove all the thick skin, then you pull the membranes off of them and try to expose that beautiful ruby red flesh without damaging them.



If you don't feel like using blood oranges, by all means use a naval orange.

I felt that the dressing was lacking something, so I added a tsp of grainy mustard, and that did the trick.

This makes a large quantity, so feel free to cut the recipe in half, as I did.
The leftover broth made a delicious chicken soup for the next day!



Winter Chicken Salad w/ Blood Oranges & Almonds:

2 whole chicken breasts, bone in with skin (4 halves)
5 celery ribs (3 will be for the broth, 2 for the salad)
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp salt
3 garlic cloves, smashed
3 blood oranges, cut into pieces (save the peels for the stock)
1 cup of shaved Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup of chopped Marcona almonds (delicious oily Spanish variety of almonds)
1 bunch of fresh baby arugula

Dressing:

3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 cup of olive oil
3 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp grainy mustard
salt & pepper

Whisk together dressing ingredients and set aside.

In a large pot, add the 3 celery stalks, smashed garlic cloves, peppercorns, and the peel of the oranges with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and add the chicken breasts. Cook for exactly 16 minutes, then remove from the heat and let the chicken rest in the water for 30 minutes.

Believe it or not, this really worked, and the breasts were cooked perfectly.

Remove chicken from the stock and let cool. Save the broth for soup. Remove skin and shred the meat with your hands.

In a large bowl, mix the cooled chicken with the blood orange sections, sliced celery and some of the dressing.

Mound on a platter of arugula and sprinkle with chopped almonds and shaved cheese.



Enjoy!