Black bean, corn and chicken salad

This is a revised version of my chicken and black bean salad.That emphasized the beans and included some corn. For this salad, the corn gets equal billing (as in the steak, black bean, and corn salad). But this includes chicken and a mix of additional ingredients.

This other difference is the dressing. For this I made a honey-lime vinaigrette that was well seasoned. For a salad like this, the dressing will be the thing that makes the salad distinctive. And for me, this one really worked!

3/4 cup black beans
3/4 cup corn (cut from oven-roasted corn on the cob or cooked frozen corn)
3/4 cup cooked chicken, bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
3 tablespoons onion, diced
1/3 cup avocado, cubed
1/3 cup tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons canola oil
1-1/2 tablespooons lime juice
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1 clove garlic, pressed
fresh ground pepper

If using fresh corn on the cob (in the husk), preheat oven to 375 F, put ear of corn in husk directly on the rack in the center of the oven. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove and let cook so you can handle. Cut the kernels off the cob. This should give about 3/4 cup if you have a fairly good-sized cob.

If using frozen corn, cook for a minute in boiling water and drain. In either case, prepare the corn in advance so it can cool.

Combined all of the ingredients for the salad except the avocado in a bowl. Combined the ingredients for the vinaigrette, the oil, lime juice, honey, cumin, garlic, and peppers, and whisk or shake in a small jar. Pour over the salad and mix. Add the avocado and lightly mix. (This is to keep the avocado from becoming mashed.) Serve.

Basic chicken pasta salad

I wanted to make a basic, simple pasta salad with chicken and macaroni. Nothing fancy. Some bell pepper and green onions.

Then the issue of the dressing. I went back and forth between doing a vinaigrette and having a traditional creamy dressing based on mayonnaise. I decided to do a combination, a small amount of vinaigrette along with mayonnaise and sour cream. It worked and I’ll do this again.

4-6 ounces cooked chicken cut into bite-size pieces
3/4 cup to 1 cup pasta (I used elbow macaroni)
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4 cup diced orange or red bell pepper
2-3 green onions, sliced, including white and green parts

1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/4 teaspoon fines herbs or herbes de Provence
fresh ground pepper

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool.

Combine the chicken, pasta, bell pepper, and onions in a bowl. Whisk or shake in a small jar the oil, vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise, sour cream, and spices. Pour over the salad ingredients, mix, and serve.

Steak fajita frittata

The basic idea was simple: Make a fajita and put it into a frittata. Everything else is just the details.

I decided to do a steak fajita (frittata). My suggestion of about 3 ounces represents my take on the amount of steak that can reasonably fit into the frittata. I used sirloin and got the 3 ounces in the following way. I got a piece of sirloin to use for other meals for myself. The size worked out so that I could cut it into 2 good-sized pieces for other meals leaving the 3 ounces for the frittata.

I cut the steak into strips and marinated the steak like I did for the chicken in the chicken fajita salad. The strips were cut into smaller pieces after then were cooked.

I sprinkled the cheese on top after removing the frittata from under the broiler. Normally when adding cheese to a frittata, I either mix it in or put it on top to melt before putting the frittata under the broiler. But I wanted to make this as close to a regular frittata as possible, which means having the cheese unmelted.

The side additions of avocado, sour cream, and salsa or pico de gallo commonly come with fajitas and went really well with this frittata.

about 3 ounces of steak, cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 clove garlic, pressed

1/4 cup green bell pepper, cut into strips and then smaller pieces
1/4 cup orange or red bell pepper, cut into strips and then smaller pieces
1/4 cup onion, sliced and then cut into quarters and separated
vegetable oil.

3 eggs
vegetable oil

shredded Mexican cheeses
avocado slices
sour cream
salsa or pico de gallo

Mix the ingredients for the marinade (listed under the steak) in a small plastic bag. Add the steak. Marinate 2-4 hours in the refrigerator. When starting to make the frittata, remove and place on a paper towel to drain.

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the pepper and onions. Cook at fairly low temperature until nicely softened. Remove from then pan.

Raise the heat on the pan. Add the strips of steak, first searing on one side and then turning over and searing on the other. About a minute on each side. Remove from the pan. Cut into smaller pieces for the frittata.

Put the eggs into a good-sized mixing bowl and beat to just mix them up. Using a new pan (or clean the first pan), add oil and let it get hot. Add a small amount of egg to the pan to set the bottom of the frittata to prevent sticking. Turn the heat down to mediium low. Mix the steak, peppers, and onions into the eggs and pour the mixture into the pan. Cook this for about 5 minutes to set the bottom and sides.

Preheat the broiler. When the 5 minutes cooking on the stove are up, place the pan under the broiler, about 6 to 7 inches below. Cook until the top is set and just starts to brown. This is about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes for me, but watch closely.

Remove from the broiler, loosen up the sides with a spatula if necesary, and slide the frittat out onto the serving plate. Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Add the avocado, sour cream, and salsa on the side.

Salad with chicken and Brussel sprouts 2 ways

I made roasted Brussel sprouts and it occurred to me that they might be an interesting addition to a salad. Having previously made a salad with shaved Brussel sprouts as the base in place of lettuce, I had the crazy idea of using raw shaved Brussel sprouts as the base for a salad to which I added roasted Brussel sprouts. Chicken thighs seemed like a good addition, with their more robust flavor compared to chicken breasts complementing the robust flavors of the raw and roasted Brussel sprouts. And for me the balsamic vinaigrette was the obvious dressing.

boneless chicken thighs
Brussel sprouts
small tomatoes, cut in half
olive oil

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Remove the outer leaves and stems from the Brussel sprouts. Take 4 or 5 of the Brussel sprouts , depending on size and preference) and cut in half. Put a little olive oil in a small bowl, add the Brussel sprouts, and stir until the are well coated.

Cover a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Spray with olive oil spray. Place the Brussel sprouts cut side down on the baking sheet. Spray the chicken thighs lightly with olive oil and place on the baking sheet. Place in the oven.

Check to see when the Brussel sprouts are roasted nicely and browned to your liking, perhaps 15 to 20 minutes, and remove. (I did 15 minutes.) Continue cooking the chicken if necessary until fully cooked with an internal temperature of 165 F., which was 25 minutes for me. Remove.

Shred some more of the Brussel sprouts, perhaps a half dozen or more. A mandolin makes this easy (but watch your fingers!), but you can use a knife instead. Place on the plate along with the tomatoes.

Mix the oil, vinegar, honey, mustard, garlic, and pepper for the vinaigrette. Spoon about half over the salad.

Slice the chicken and add to the salad along with the roasted Brussel sprouts. Spoon the remaining vinaigrette over the chicken and roasted Brussel sprouts.

Steak salad with ginger and soy

I’m not sure how I first got the idea for this salad. But once I did, it sounded really good. With the steak and ginger and soy, the lettuce and spinach mix, the mushrooms, and the bamboo shoots were obvious additions.

The steak was marinated in soy and ginger, which I think added to the flavor. I cooked the steak in the way I have come up with for salads: Take a chunk of sirloini and cut through it to make two thinner slices. Sear on both sides and then slice. This makes for steak that is more tender and not overcooked than slicing into smaller pieces first and then cooking the steak.

This was really good! Definitely one of my better salads!

steak, sliced to give 2 thinner slices
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated ginger or ginger paste
vegetable oil

lettuce and spinach mix
mushrooms, sliced
bamboo shoots

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoons grated ginger or ginger paste
1 clove garlic, pressed

An hour or 2 before making the salad, mix the soy sauce and ginger in a small plastic bag, and put the steak in to marinate.

Arrange the lettuce and spinach mix, mushroom, and bamboo shoots on the plate.

Mix the oil, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic for the vinaigrette.

Heat the oil in the pan to very hot. Put in the steak and sear for a couple of minutes on one side, turn over and sear on the other.

Remove the steak from the pan and let set for a minute or 2.

Spoon about two thirds of the vinaigrette over the salad.

Cut the steak into slices and place on the salad. Spoon the remaining vinaigrette over the steak.

Smoked salmon frittata

I love hot-smoked salmon, the smoked salmon that comes in chunks like pieces of salmon and is flaky, not smooth. I have long wondered how that would be in a frittata. Given the flavor of the salmon, I wasn’t sure whether that would work. It did.

The thing that really made this work was the sour cream and dill sauce. It complemented the distinctive flavor of the salmon very nicely. I served it on the side and dipped the pieces of the frittata in the sauce as I ate.

Because the salmon flakes apart so easily, I didn’t mix it in with the eggs. Instead, after putting a thin layer of the eggs in the pan, I placed small pieces of the salmon on top and poured the remaining egg mixture over. With respect to the amount of salmon, I started with a 4-ounce piece of salmon and broke off what I felt were enough pieces for the frittata. The 2-1/2 to 3 ounces in the recipe is my guess as to the amount I used.

2-1/2 to 3 ounces hot-smoked salmon

3 eggs
vegetable oil

1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh dill, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Mix the sour cream, dill, lemon juice, and lemon zest for the sour cream-dill sauce.

Break the smoked salmon into small pieces for the frittata.

Put the eggs into a bowl and beat to just mix them up. Put the oil in a pan and let it get hot. Add a small amount of egg to the pan to set the bottom of the frittata to prevent sticking and serve as a base. Turn the heat down to medium low. Distribute the pieces of smoked salmon on the eggs. Pour remaining eggs over the salmon. Cook this for about 5 minutes to set the bottom and sides.

Preheat the broiler. When the 5 minutes cooking on the stove are up, place the pan under the broiler, about 6 to 7 inches below. Cook until the top is set and just starts to brown. This is about 1–1/2 to 2 minutes for me, but watch closely.

Remove from the broiler, loosen up the sides with a spatula if necessary, and slide the frittata out onto the serving plate. Serve with the sour cream and dill sauce.

Tarragon salmon salad

I found a recipe and made tarragon salmon—seared and baked salmon topped with a tarragon vinaigrette. It was great. Given the vinaigrette, it was quite obvious how this could form the basis for a really nice salad. I followed the recipe as before, but made a bit more vinaigrette and put the salmon on a bed of lettuce with radishes (to contrast with the flavor of the tarragon) and small multicolor tomatoes. Very good.

I learned something about cooking salmon with this recipe. You first sear the salmon, skin-sized down, for 3 minutes in a very hot pan (hotter than you would normally get a pan for most things). Then the salmon went into the oven for a few minutes to finish cooking. What this does is to make the skin very crisp and tasty, as opposed to when you don’t do this and the skin is not eaten.

I was conflicted on giving credit for the source of this recipe. I am a retired college professor and had to be scrupulously careful in giving proper citations for all sources. I have consulted multiple recipes online in making previous salads and frittatas on this blog. But I have generally blended ideas from multiple recipes and have not felt a need to cite any of them as the source. This was different. I followed the recipe I found exactly, with the exception of proportionately reducing the quantities of ingredients for the vinaigrette. But here was the problem: In looking at recipes online, I have frequently found the same recipe on multiple sites, never with mentions of another as the source. The recipe I followed came in an email from a merchant who frequently includes recipes with his (often) interesting emails. I doubted it was original. And indeed, it took only a minute of googling to find exactly the same recipe online, down to the identical language for the preparation instructions. But was this the original source? Or could I find the same recipe on another website? And if I did, how would I know which, if either, was the original? After going down this rabbit hole, I have concluded that I cannot and need not cite recipes found online or received in emails such as this one. If I do use a recipe from a cookbook, however, I will cite the source.

salmon filet (I used a fairly thin sockeye salmon filet, which worked well)
olive oil

lettuce (I used baby butter lettuce)
radishes, sliced
small tomatoes, cut in half (I used multicolor tomatoes)

tarragon vinaigrette

3 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1-1/2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon leaves
1-1/2 tablespoons minced shallots
3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Brush the salmon with olive oil. Put a small amount of olive oil in a pan and get the pan very hot. Sear the salmon skin side down for about 3 minutes. Put in a lightly oiled baking dish and put in the oven to roast for 5 to 8 minutes, until done.

Arrange the lettuce, radishes, and tomatoes on the plate. Whisk or shake in a small jar the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Spoon part of the vinaigrette over the salad. When the salmon is done, put in on the salad. Spoon vinaigrette over the salmon.

Chicken pasta salade Nicoise

The classic salade Nicoise includes tuna and the pasta salade Nicoise I had made likewise has tuna. The idea for the pasta salad was simple: substitute the pasta for the potatoes and keep all of the other ingredients the same. For the pasta salad, I chose to keep the tuna and egg separate, serving on the side next to the pasta salad. I felt if I mixed in the tuna, it would dominate and would make for a tuna pasta salad that just happened to have the other ingredients. Mixing in the egg would either dominate or would result in the egg being lost, depending on the amount of egg I included.

Using chicken in place of the tuna, I saw no problem with mixing the chicken into the pasta salad with the other ingredients. I still served the egg on the side.

In the post for the original pasta salade Nicoise, I mentioned how I was particular about my choices of pasta and decided on the mini farfalla. What I didn’t mention was that I really wanted to use some mini penne but was unable to find any. The mini penne seemed perfect because it was almost exactly the size and shape of the haricots verts. This time I was successful in finding the mini penne. I like the way it worked in this salad.

1-1/2 cup haricots verts cut into 1 to 1-1/2-inch pieces
1 hard-cooked egg

3/4 cup mini penne pasta
cooked chicken breast, sliced and cut into bite-sized pieces
10-15 grape or cherry tomatoes (depending on size) cut in half
10 Kalamata olives cut in half lengthwise

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, pressed
1/4 teaspoon herbes de provence
fresh ground pepper

Sometime before serving the salad, bring water to the boil, put in the haricots verts, and cook for 4 to 7 minutes until just tender crisp. (Time will depend on thickness and tenderness of the beans.) Drain and rinse with cold water to keep the color. Refrigerate. This would also be a good time to cook the egg.

When you are ready to make the salad, cook the mini farfalla following package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool.

Mix the pasta, chicken, haricots verts, tomatoes, and olives in a bowl. Whisk or shake in a small jar the oil, vinegar, mustard, and spices. Pour over the pasta salad and mix. Put on the plate and add the egg on the side.

New Orleans frittata 2

I had andouille sausage, green pepper, and onion. So how about a frittata? I thought about how I would make it. And then I looked at my blog. It turns out that I had made a New Orleans frittata 3 years ago. But the way I was planning to make this one was different enough that I felt it deserved its own blog post.

Here are the differences: I was now planning on including less sausage and a lot more green pepper and onion. In keeping with the idea of emphasizing those, I was going to cut them into larger pieces rather than a dice. And finally, instead of completely cooking the green pepper and onion, I would cook them only very briefly to take off the raw edge but leave them fairly crisp and nice and green (for the pepper).

I liked the new version.

1 andouille sausage sliced in half lengthwise and then sliced
1/2 cup onion cut into fairly large pieces
1/2 cup diced green pepper cut into fairly large pieces
1/4 teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper
olive oil

3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper

Prep all of the ingredients before starting to cook. Because you want to start cooking the frittata immediately after the brief cooking of the onions and peppers, beat the eggs and the cayenne pepper to mix so it will be ready as well.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the sausage and cook until it is lightly browned. Add the garlic near the end to cook that. Turn down the heat, put in the onions and green pepper, turning frequently, for 30 seconds to a minute.

Pour in the egg mixture. Cook this for about 5 minutes to set the bottom and sides.

Preheat the broiler. When the 5 minutes cooking on the stove are up place the pan under the broiler, about 6 to 7 inches below. Cook until the top is set and just starts to brown. This is about 1–1/2 to 2 minutes for me, but watch closely.

Remove from the broiler, loosen up the sides (and bottom, if necessary) with a spatula, and slide the frittata out onto the serving plate.

Mini chicken tender salad with honey mustard vinaigrette

I saw a mention of chicken tenders with honey mustard dipping sauce, a combination I’ve always liked. I thought, why not have chicken tenders on a salad? Taking the idea a step further, how about making mini chicken tenders for the salad? And, of course, have a honey mustard vinaigrette.

I decided to bake the chicken tenders. (One could certainly fry them instead.) My procedure was adapted from several recipes I found online. They turned out well, nice and crisp and my guess at the timing was right on. At 12 minutes they were cooked through but were still nice and moist and tender. They didn’t brown much on the top but did on the bottom, so putting them on the salad upside down looked nicer. Next time I’ll turn them over half way through the baking.

I was sure I had made honey mustard vinaigrette before and liked they way I had done it. So I did a search on the blog so I could see the proportions I used. Surprise! Over 4 years ago I had made this honey mustard chicken salad. On that one, I baked a chicken breast with honey mustard sauce. The honey mustard vinaigrette went on the rest of the salad, with more sauce on the sliced-up chicken breast. Here I am making the mini chicken tenders, with the vinaigrette over everything. Otherwise a very similar salad, including the choice of the lettuce and tomatoes. At least I’m consistent. 🙂

A hint from that earlier post: The viscous nature of honey at room temperature makes it difficult to mix it with the other ingredients. My solution is to warm the honey first, which thins it out and makes the mixing much easier. I do this by putting the honey in the microwave for 15 or 20 second (less if there is a smaller amount left in the bottle). I’m just warming it up, not getting it hot. I have done this a lot, and it has never seemed to have negatively affected the honey.

chicken tenders, cut into smaller pieces (I did thirds)
flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
bread crumbs
salt
fresh ground pepper

spring mix
small tomatoes, cut in half

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Mix salt and pepper with the flour in one dish. Mix the egg and milk in a second dish. Put the bread crumbs in a third dish. Spray a baking sheet with oil.

Dip each piece of chicken first in the flour, then in the egg mixture, and finally roll in the bread crumbs. Place on the baking sheet, separated. Bake for 12 minutes, turning over half way through. After taking them out, check one of the largest to make sure they are cooked through.

Arrange the lettuce and tomatoes on the plate. Put the chicken tenders on the salad. Whisk or shake in a small jar the oil, vinegar, honey, mustard, and pepper. Pour over the salad.