Rotisserie Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I’ve always believed that “best” and “chicken salad” are subjective terms, but when I stumbled across an article crowning Kardea Brown’s recipe as the top chicken salad—beating out even Ina Garten—I couldn’t resist the challenge. Kardea, a Food Network chef I hadn’t heard of before, had my curiosity piqued. Her recipe promised a fresh take, and I was craving chicken in any form, so I dove in. Spoiler: it’s a winner!

 

 What sets this recipe apart is Kardea’s clever use of both light and dark meat from a rotisserie chicken that gives it incredible depth. I made a small tweak, swapping the suggested bell pepper for roasted red pepper (a personal preference), and the result was phenomenal. I’d never used peppers of any kind in chicken salad before, and I rarely reach for Dijon mustard, but that mustard was a game-changer, adding a tangy, sophisticated kick that elevated the whole dish, not to mention the eggs that I particularly enjoyed.

The recipe comes together quickly, perfect for a weeknight meal or a fancy lunch. The combination of creamy mayonnaise, smoky paprika, and garlicky goodness with the crunch of celery and the subtle sweetness of roasted red pepper made every bite irresistible. Served on buttery croissants, this chicken salad sandwich is now a staple in my kitchen.

Here’s the recipe, adapted from Kardea Brown’s original:

 

Rotisserie Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Serves: 6

1 store-bought rotisserie chicken (about 3 lbs.), white and dark meat hand-shredded, then roughly chopped
1 c. Duke’s mayonnaise
1/3 c. Dijon mustard
1 t. smoked paprika
1 t. garlic powder
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped 
1 celery stick, diced 
½ c. Melissa’s roasted red pepper, diced 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
6 croissants, split 

In a medium bowl, mix the shredded chicken, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, paprika, garlic powder, chopped eggs, celery, and roasted red pepper. 

Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. 

Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to chill and let the flavors meld. 

Serve on split croissants for a delicious sandwich. 

This chicken salad is versatile—perfect for a picnic, a casual lunch, or even a light dinner. The Dijon and roasted red pepper add a bold twist that makes it stand out from the usual recipes. Kardea Brown’s version has earned its spot as my go-to, and I’m already looking forward to making it again. If you’re a chicken salad skeptic like I was, give this a try—it might just redefine “best” for you too!

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Olive Ham Salad

How did the holidays turn out for you? Ultimately, mine were reasonably good although they didn’t turn out entirely as anticipated. Due to illness, the dinner that I made for Christmas Eve was only enjoyed by my son and me. It was a pretty fancy dinner for just the two of us, but I think we really enjoyed not just the food, but the time that we spent together in such elegant surroundings.

 I sent him home with plenty of food, but I still had a good bit of ham left, as well as the ham bone. I set the bone aside to use in pea soup, used slices in casseroles and sandwiches, and decided to toss what was left into the food processor for ham salad. Generally, when I make ham salad I use sweet pickle relish, but because I had gotten a glazed ham that had a lot of its own sweetness, I decided to replace the sweet pickle relish for olives. It made a wonderful difference!

Olive Ham Salad

 ¾ lb. piece of baked ham, cut into chunks

1 rib celery, cut into fourths

1 scallion, cut in half

10 small pimiento-stuffed olives

1/3 c. Duke’s mayonnaise

1 t. Dijon mustard

Few gratings ground black pepper

Put all ingredients into the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse until. Cover and chill for at least a Cover and chill for at least an hour before serving to allow flavors to meld.

This will keep up to three days, covered and refrigerated.

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Egg Salad with Kalamata Olives

 

I have no doubt mentioned before that I am an olive lover. I have quite the collection, and incorporate them into as many dishes as possible. It occurred to me that I hadn’t yet added them to egg salad, so that’s what I did. Basically I just added tasty Kalamata olives to my usual recipe for egg salad, and boy did it kick it up a notch! My guess is that I’m never going to make egg salad again without adding olives.

Egg Salad with Kalamata Olives

4 hard-boiled eggs.
½ c. chopped Kalamata olives*
½ c. finely chopped celery
1 T. capers
1 heaping t. Dijon mustard
1 heaping T. Duke’s mayonnaise
1 heaping T. sour cream
1 t. dill pickle juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

These are, essentially, the measurements that I used. When I’m making egg salad, I just throw things together. Generally speaking, here I used an equal portion of chopped eggs, olives, and celery, and then added the rest of the ingredients to get the flavor and the texture that I wanted. By no means consider this carved in stone. Do what you like here.

*I chopped my olives by throwing them into a little mini high-speed blender, and pulsing it a couple of times. That made it super easy to do.

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Trader Joe’s Maple Mustard Chicken

I make good use of our local library. I don't know about you, but I find it stunning the amount of resources that the library has available (for free, I might add), from hardcopy to digital streaming to genealogical services, the library, in my opinion, is one of the best places in town. When I visit, I tend to head in one of two directions, the audiobook section (because I am a huge fan of audiobooks) or, no surprise, the cookbook section. 

I try to keep up with new cookbooks that are being released, but some of them manage to slip by me. Apparently the entire series of Trader Joe's cookbooks completely escaped my notice. Once spotting them, naturally, I couldn't resist, and brought home the I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook. 

Like a lot of people, I am a fan of Trader Joe's, so this was a fun cookbook to read. One recipe that I stumbled across, was particularly inviting, because of the relatively few ingredients required, the fact that I had all of them, and that the meal could be on the table without a whole lot of effort. This recipe is a good one. I find the combination of maple syrup and mustard to be quite pleasing with the chicken thighs. I cut the recipe in half and made only two chicken thighs, one of which I ate for dinner, the other I pulled apart and had on a sandwich with additional sauce for lunch the following day. Both were sensational. Here's the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Trader Joe’s Maple Mustard Chicken

1 1/2 - 2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, trimmed of fat

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 450° F. Spray an 8x8" ovenproof baking dish with Pam; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together Dijon mustard, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Place the chicken thighs into the prepared baking dish, and then pour the mustard mixture on top of it. Turn the chicken around in the sauce to make sure it is well coated.

Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and let chicken rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate, ladle the sauce over, and serve.

PRINT RECIPE

This post is linked to: Inspire Me Tuesday, Tuesdays At Our Home, Two Cup Tuesday, Celebrate Your Story, Wow Us Wednesday, Work It Wednesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Wake up Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Share Your Style, Coffee and Conversation, and Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Sirloin and Mushrooms in Dijon Cream

What. A. Week. As you all know from the yummy potato dish that I served as a part of a delightful "welcome home" meal, Mr. O-P is recovering from hip surgery.  I am recovering from his recovery of hip surgery. I'd forgotten what it is like to have a newborn in the house, but my guess is that the care, the hours, the laundry, the crankiness (don't get me started), and feeding schedule are shockingly similar. Then, as I was just about ready to collapse from the exhaustion there was a water main break and we were put under a boil order. I really do wish that I'd have found out about the boil order as soon as it was put into place, but no.  It wasn't until about 6 hours later after I had happily hydrated myself with six glasses of water that I learned that drinking the water would be bad. Ten hours later, and for the next three days, my stomach reminded me of this again and again. Did I mention that, in the midst of all of this (the very day of his surgery, actually) that we got a contract on our century home on the St. Louis side of the river after being on the market for three-and-a-half years?  Can you comprehend the timing?  But I digress.

The sun is starting to peek through the clouds; the dishes that had been stacked in the sink have been run through the dishwasher. Tainted ice cubes have been dumped and replenished, I found an app of sleep noises that has allowed me to get five hours of sleep running, and cooking has commenced. Life is slowly returning to normal.

I'm refraining from starting any dish that involves a great deal of time and trouble because I have little of the former and more than my share of the latter, so simplicity is the order of the day.  This dish is easy, goes together in about thirty minutes if you do your chopping ahead, and is satisfying and delicious. I served it over toast points, but for a heartier meal, it is heaven when served on a bed of Jasmine rice. It can also be made with a variety of mushrooms in place of the steak for a vegetarian main dish. Versatile!

Sirloin and Mushrooms in Dijon Cream

5 tablespoons butter

1pound sirloin steak, trimmed, diagonally cut into thin strips*

6 ounces crimini mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely diced**

2 tablespoons Dry Sherry

1 cup heavy cream

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 pieces of toast, cut into triangles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet and sear the meat on both sides until nicely browned, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer the steak to an ovenproof dish and keep warm.

Add sliced mushrooms to the skillet and sauté in juices for about 3 minutes.  Add the mustard, ginger, salt and pepper.  Stir well and cook for 2 additional minutes.  Add sherry (bourbon in a pinch) and cream.  Cook at medium heat until cream reduces slightly and thickens.

Add steak to cream mixture, stir to coat, and pour back into the ovenproof dish.  Cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly.

Serves four.

*Freezing the meat for a while (or, if already frozen, don't allow to thaw completely) makes slicing a breeze.

**I store fresh ginger in the freezer.  It keeps for a long time, and makes slicing, chopping, dicing, and grating very easy.

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Be Inspired Friday

Foodie Friday

Friday Flash Blog Party

Mini Sausage Pastries

If you’re looking for an appetizer in a hurry (and who isn’t during this very busy holiday season?), then you might want to try these.   I based my recipe on this one that I found in last week’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, kicking it up a notch with the addition of Dijon mustard.   We’d found ourselves dipping the pastries into mustard, so I figured why not just add it to the pastry and be done with it.   It worked!  The key here is to have a very flavorful, spicy sausage that is a relatively fine grind.   I used the Bob Evans savory sage pork sausage as suggested in the original recipe to find it rather grisly and insipid, so went with our usual Bob Evans 'hot' variety and it worked out much better.

I also made just a third of the recipe, using the remaining two thirds of the puff pastry for Palmiers so I ended up with two delicious appetizers in relatively little time, having assembled the palmiers during the baking process of the sausage pastries.   The jury is still out on whether or not the sausage pastries freeze successfully.   I’ll have to let you know.

Mini Sausage Pastries

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (half of a 17.3-ounce package)

2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 pound spicy pork sausage (your favorite brand)

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 450° F.  Cut the sheet of dough into 3 equal strips, cutting along the fold lines.  On a floured board, roll each strip into a 4-by-8-inch rectangle.   Brush center of each pastry (running lengthwise) with 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard.   Divide sausage into 3 equal portions.  Roll each portion into an 8-inch log.   Place one log in the center of each dough rectangle, leaving room to seal the dough.  Moisten one long edge of dough with water (you can use a pastry brush for this, or your finger – I chose the latter – fewer dishes to clean), then fold the dough over the sausage, making edges meet.   Flute the edge to seal, leaving ends open.  Cut each log into 10 equal pieces.  Repeat with the remaining sausage and dough.   Transfer sausage rolls to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Score the pastry tops.  Whisk the egg with a fork, then brush across the tops of the rolls.   Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.    Let stand on baking sheet 2 minutes; remove to a cooling rack.   Sausage rolls may be served hot or cold.

This post is linked to:

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Mouthwatering Monday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Tasty Tuesday

What's Cooking Wednesday

Foodie Friday

Palmiers with Mustard and Prosciutto

We are nothing if not elegant when it comes to serving up snacks during the big game whether that game is baseball, football, or some Safari segment on Animal Planet.  As complicated as these look, they are actually very easy to put together, and can be assembled in about 15 minutes.  But the real beauty of this tasty little snack is that it can be frozen in log or sliced form and simply popped into the oven when you're ready to make them so you can wow a crowd with your culinary skills while still looking composed and refreshed.  This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, St. Louis Days, St. Louis Nights, and has never failed me.  If you need something sweet rather than savory, mix things up a bit by spreading softened butter on the rolled out pastry instead of the mustard and top with a cinnamon and sugar mixture, or simply spread it with jam.  What could be easier?

I annotate every recipe I make for future reference.

After thawing, open up your sheet of puff pastry and place on a board or countertop that has been dusted with flour.

Using a rolling pin, roll it out to approximately 18" x 11".

I use both Dijon mustard and the grainy, stone ground mustard combination for the best taste.  If you plan to do the same, make the first layer the smooth Dijon.

Spread the grainy mustard on top of the existing Dijon.

Use the best prosciutto that you can find to avoid ending up with a fatty, rubbery variety.  We buy ours at an Italian market, Di Gregorio's.

I have used both Parmesan and Romano cheeses and they work equally well.  I store these cheeses in the freezer (hence the lumps you see here, that do not matter one bit) to keep them fresh and help them to last longer.

Roll up as tightly as you can to keep it from trying to unroll when you slice it.

Trim the edges with a sharp knife.

Cover in plastic and chill to make slicing easier, or cover in plastic and then slip into a freezer bag to freeze for up to 4 months.

The sharper the knife, the easier these are to cut.  I turn the roll seam side down when cutting.  Do NOT use a serrated knife.

Place cut slices on parchment or a Silpat.

Brush with egg wash.  Use a silcone brush (If you don't have one of these, click on the link at the bottom of this post for more info.  You'll thank me later.) to coat with the egg wash.

This post is linked to: 

Foodie Friday
Food on Friday
Friday Favorites
Friday Fat Camp
I'm Lovin' It Friday
Simply Delish Saturday
Fantabulous Friday