Mushroom Glade Salad with Chicken Fillet

Preparing the ingredients

1. The Mushroom Glade salad consists of many ingredients layered on top of each other. Before assembling, it’s worth preparing everything completely and setting each item in a separate dish, which makes it easier to build the appetizer. Start with pickling the mushrooms and preparing the chicken fillet.

   

2. Pickle the champignons. So that you don’t have to cut them before layering them in the salad, it’s best to buy the smallest ones. Clean off any remaining substrate thoroughly and wash them. In a small pot, bring 1 l of water to a boil, add 1-2 bay leaves, a pinch of salt, a few peppercorns of black pepper and allspice, 1-2 cloves, and 2 tbsp of table vinegar. When the marinade boils, add the champignons and cook them for 5-6 mins over medium heat. Then the mushrooms should cool down in the marinade to room temperature.

   

3. Boil the chicken fillet. Trim off any remaining fat and membranes. In a pot, bring 1-1.5 l of water to a boil, add a pinch of salt, 4-5 black peppercorns, 1 tbsp of dried soup root vegetables, and 1-2 bay leaves. When the water boils, add the fillet. With this method of boiling, almost all the meat juices stay inside instead of “leaving” into the broth. Cook the chicken fillet for 20-25 mins over medium heat, then cool it to room temperature.

   

4. At the same time, boil the potatoes and carrots until soft, cool, and peel them. Hard-boil the chicken eggs and peel them.

5. Chop all the ingredients into separate plates. I grate the carrots and potatoes on a coarse grater. Grate the hard cheese on a fine grater. Cut the eggs and pickled cornichons into cubes. Finely chop the green onion tops and dill sprigs with a knife, and it’s best not to use coarse dill stems. Cut the chicken fillet into cubes.

   

Layering

1. The order of the layers from bottom to top: potatoes, cheese, carrots, chicken fillet, eggs, cornichons, dill, with champignons in the center and green onion around the edge. Brush every layer with mayonnaise, but only a little, literally 2 tsp at most.

2. Prepare the dish and the ring. The salad can be served on a large platter or made on small individual plates. If you are making individual portions, I recommend using a cooking ring of a suitable size. Or roll a ring out of stiff plastic, since it is important to be able to remove it later without damaging the salad. Put a few lettuce leaves on the bottom of the plate, purely for looks, and set the ring in place.

3. Lay the first layer. On the very bottom I put the boiled potatoes, grated. Salt and pepper the potatoes lightly and brush them with a little mayonnaise.

   

4. Add the cheese and carrots. Next I add finely grated cheese. Don’t take one that is too hard; a slightly soft Gouda, Emmental, Radamer, or Swiss cheese is perfect. Level the cheese and press it down lightly, then brush with 1-2 tsp of mayonnaise (5–10 g). Then I spread the grated carrots and also brush them lightly with mayonnaise.

   

5. Add the chicken and eggs. On top of the carrots, arrange the pieces of chicken fillet, press the layer down a little, and brush with mayonnaise. If you decided to use fried or baked chicken fillet, it is a bit “dry” and should get a little more mayonnaise. For the next layer, arrange the chopped chicken eggs and brush them with mayonnaise.

   

6. Add the cornichons and dill. Put the sliced pickled cornichons on the eggs and coat them well with mayonnaise. The main layers are done, and what remains is to form the top of the appetizer, mushrooms on a green field. Sprinkle the salad generously with finely chopped dill.

   

7. Add the champignons and green onion. Drain all the pickled champignons in a colander and let the marinade run off. Carefully and thoroughly remove all the bay leaves and peppercorns. It won’t hurt to pat the mushrooms dry with a paper towel. One by one, set the champignons on the center of the top of the salad, caps up, leaving a free border 1.5-2 cm wide around the edge for the greens. Finally, fill the edge around the mushrooms with finely chopped green onion tops.

   

8. Chill the salad for 2-3 hours. Without removing the cooking ring in which the appetizer was formed, cover the top with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

Serving

1. After chilling, remove the plastic wrap and take off the ring with the utmost care. The salad is served as a cold appetizer, and it looks dressy and festive.

   

   If you like, you can add other minor ingredients to the salad, such as capers, and sometimes there are versions with shrimp and even red fish. An interesting way of layering is to start with the mushrooms and lay the layers in reverse order. Then the salad is flipped onto a plate. To my mind, that is unnecessary complication.