Chicken, Pineapple and Blue Cheese Salad

Choosing the ingredients

1. By and large, the salad can also be made with other kinds of salad greens: iceberg, romaine, lettuce, frisée and so on. Fans of more bitter greens may like arugula, mizuna or radicchio. It is a matter of taste. We chose Napa cabbage because it is widespread and available all year round, and also because it is cheap.

   

   The salad is best made with white meat, the breast fillet. Fried fillet is quite firm, cuts well and does not fall apart in the salad. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs would work too.

   

   For a refined flavor, we add a soft blue cheese to the salad. The best choice is the well-known Danish cheese Danablu, or Danish Blue, a cow’s milk cheese similar to Roquefort. It is exceptionally aromatic and has a pronounced piquant taste.

   

How to grill the chicken

1. Prepare and lightly pound the chicken breast. Wash the fillet, remove the bones (they often remain) and any leftover chicken fat. Pound it with the side that had the skin facing up on the board. Chicken breast is very tender and, if pounded hard on both sides, can turn into mince. After pounding, the fillet should be an even thickness of no more than 1.5-2 cm. There is no need to season or salt the fillet.

   

2. Grill the fillet on both sides for 5-6 minutes each, then cool to room temperature. The salad is especially tasty if the chicken is grilled. At home a grill pan heated over medium heat works fine, although I will not argue that chicken grilled over coals is much tastier. The chicken is pounded thin, so this time is enough. The fillet should be fully cooked (no pink juices when cut) and a pleasant golden color. This is how you make grilled chicken cutlets, but with aromatic herbs and spices.

   

How to assemble the salad

1. Prepare the Napa cabbage. Wash the whole head, dry it so that not a drop of water remains, and separate it into leaves. For the salad we use only the thin green part of the leaf. So that the leaves do not release moisture into the salad, in other words do not turn watery, do not cut them with a knife. Tear the green part into small pieces by hand. It is quick and easy. Throw away the white centers of the leaves. Put the torn cabbage in a large bowl.

   

2. Add the pineapple and cheese to the cabbage. Take the canned pineapple rings out of the syrup, blot them dry with napkins and cut each ring radially into 10-12 pieces. If you like, you can use fresh pineapple.

   

   Cut the Danablu very carefully into cubes, a little larger than for Olivier salad vegetables. Most likely the cubes will not come out neat, since the cheese is very soft, close in texture to softened butter. That does not matter: some of the cheese will stay in cubes in the salad, and some will blend with the dressing, which improves the flavor of the appetizer overall. Without mixing, add the Danablu to the cabbage and pineapple.

   

4. Cut the cooled chicken fillet with a sharp knife into thin, elongated pieces, preferably across the grain, and add to the other ingredients. That completes the main preparation of the salad: put the bowl of ingredients in the refrigerator without mixing.

   

5. Before serving, gently toss all the components. Do not salt the appetizer; given the Danablu, it is unnecessary.

   

6. Make the spicy dressing and pour it over the salad. Pour natural olive oil into a bowl and season it well with freshly ground black pepper. Add a few drops (not spoonfuls!) of balsamic vinegar and a peeled garlic clove chopped very finely with a knife. Whisk the dressing with a fork. Pour it over the salad and gently toss once more.

   

Serving

1. Divide the salad among small bowls or salad dishes. The appetizer is better served in individual portions rather than in one large bowl. Garnish each portion with a sprig of parsley.

   

   Tasty, aromatic chicken with Napa cabbage, soft blue cheese and pieces of pineapple is a refined appetizer to start a good meal. It is simple and quick to make.