Pesto Chicken Salad w/ Mozzarella Pearls and Grape Tomatoes
Today, a friend of mine posts a message on our city's update page on Facebook. He said that he had grew some fresh organic basil. Naturally, I messaged him, and told him to bring some basil to me. He arrives holding the most beautiful smelling basil, I have ever smelled in my life. The basil looked like a large leaf Genovese. He asked, "What could I make out of it?" I said, "Pesto." He didn't have a lot of basil, but it was just enough to make a nice pesto.
I felt like eating a cold preparation for dinner, and of course, I had to incorporate the pesto. So, I came up with a pesto chicken salad. The week before, I went to our local grocery store, and picked up some grape tomatoes. I brought them home and tasted them. They were the best grape tomatoes I have ever tasted. (super surprising for our store). Also, they have these mozzarella pearls that are about the same size of the grape tomatoes sliced in half. Finally, I had my dish for the night. One quick tip, then we cut the yip-yap and start cooking.
(Quick Tip: Buy a box of grape tomatoes, and taste them. If they are sweet, slightly acidic, and a nice pop when you bite into them, go back and by more. If they aren't to your liking go buy some more somewhere else.)
Ingredients
Pesto:
Basil
Pine nuts (I used walnuts)
Garlic Cloves
Parmesan Cheese (i used Gruyere)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Lemon Juice (a squeeze)
Mayo:
Egg Yolk (just one)
Mustard (about a spoonful)
Distilled Vinegar (a splash)
Salt (I use Kosher)
Avocado Oil (any neutral oil will work)
Lemon Juice (just a squeeze)
The Rest:
Chicken Breast
Grape Tomatoes
Mozzarella Pearls
Lets start with chicken, because this takes the longest in the preparation. You can roast, boil, poach, sou vide your chicken if you would like, but I decided to roast my chicken breast. I had three medium size chicken breasts, and I roasted them at 375 F until the chicken breast is 165 F internal. (I'll leave a link to a good thermometer in a link below). I also put a head of garlic with the top cut off to expose the garlic cloves in the oven on the side wrapped in foil. Pour some oil on top of the head of garlic and season with some salt. Wrap the garlic up leaving a little hole on top for heat to get to the garlic. I learned this from watching Emeril Live.
I don't like to use recipes because you may be cooking for more people or have larger or smaller ingredients. When the chicken is done, shred the chicken with two forks. I wanted to leave the chicken in nice size pieces because the size of the tomatoes and mozzarella pearls are a nice chunky size. Place your chicken in the fridge to cool. On to the Pesto.
While the chicken is cooking, let's make the pesto. In a blender, place your basil, walnuts, roasted garlic cloves, gruyere cheese, lemon juice, and pour some of the EVOO just above the blade and blitz. While blitzing, carefully pour more EVOO in the blender in a nice small stream to desired consistency. If you would like a chunky pesto, only add some of the basil leaves in the beginning and the rest at the end of blitzing. Here, I didn't want the pesto chunky because we are going to mix it with the mayo. Let's talk ingredients. If you can, please don't skimp on the parmesan cheese. I used gruyere for this pesto. Parmesan cheese is traditional. I would not suggest using the parmesan from the plastic green labeled jar. When selecting EVOO, I know you want your EVOO bottle to be a dark color. I believe it has something to do with the oil oxidizing in the clear bottle. Let's talk Salt. I use Kosher Salt, and the chefs' i worked with use Kosher Salt or Sea Salt while cooking. If a person claiming to be a chef uses table salt, they are not a chef. (I'll leave a link for the Kosher Salt below). Now that the pesto is done, let's make the mayo.
Bowl Method:
I made my mayo in a bowl the old school way, because that's the way i learned in culinary school. With that being said, it is way easier using a good food processor, and the one i have has a emulsifying spout that streams oil in to slowly. (i'll leave a link below. its worth the investment). In a bowl, put your egg yolk, salt, mustard, and distilled vinegar in the bowl and whisk together. (If you can, use a flat bottom bowl. If you don't have a flat bottom bowl, wet a paper towel, and place under the bowl so the bowl won't move while whisking). Now while whisking, slowly stream your oil into the mixture to emulsify. It is very important to stream slowly at the beginning so the mayo won't break. The water from the egg yolk and the vinegar won't mix with the oil, they don't like each other. Also, a tip I got from Chef Paul, if the top of the mayo starts to look shiny while your whisking, stop pouring the oil and keep whisking. When the shiny-look is gone, continue with streaming in the oil and whisking. The shiny-look on top means your about to break due to too much oil at that moment. If it doesn't get shiny, keep streaming and whisking til you get the thick consistency of mayo. If needed, add a squeeze of lemon juice, and reseason with salt to your liking. Boom... you just made a homemade mayo.
Food Processor Method:
In your food processor, put your egg yolk, salt, mustard, and distilled vinegar in and turn on. While the food processor is on, pour some of your oil in the spout. When the oil gets low, add some more. After the second time, stop the processor and check the consistency. If the consistency is too thin, refire the processor and add more oil til desired consistency. If needed, reseason your mayo. So much easier.
(note: I used Avocado Oil for the mayo. Avocado Oil is way healthier than the other neutral oils such as canola, veggie, corn because those oils are extracted with chemicals.)
Now for the home stretch. Whisk in your pesto into your mayo. Add your grape tomatoes, mozzarella pearls,
and chicken in your pesto mayo,
and mix together.
Now you are ready to put this amped up chicken salad between any nice two slices of bread of your choosing. I hope you give this a try, and i hope you comeback and try more of the food on my blog. Have a good one. Yep-Yep
Links to Amazon ingredients/equipment
Nice looking recipe right here!