Seafood Salad with Chicken Thighs and Mushrooms

How to prepare the seafood, chicken and mushrooms

1. The dish is best made with frozen seafood, called a “seafood cocktail” and sold by weight after dry freezing. Such mixes contain 4-5 or more kinds of sea creatures and almost certainly no colorings, ice or “helpful” additives.

2. Boil the seafood. Cover the frozen seafood mix with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, foam will start to form, which is normal. Boil the seafood for 2-2.5 minutes. It is often recommended to boil it for 5-7 minutes. I don’t know, but in that time my seafood turns into rubbery pieces. After boiling, rinse the seafood and cool to room temperature. It is all exactly the same as when making seafood pizza..

   

3. Boil the chicken thighs. For this dish you can choose chicken meat from any part of the bird: breast, thigh or drumstick. For salads I prefer not to use breast, the white meat, because of its stringiness and slight dryness. I use chicken thighs, which have plenty of dark meat, one large bone and skin.

   

   Wash the chicken thighs and put them in a saucepan. Cover with cold water and set the pan over high heat. As soon as the water boils, skim off the foam and add 2-3 allspice berries, 6-7 black or mixed peppercorns, 1 whole clove, a pinch of salt and 1-2 bay leaves. Adding these spices to the chicken makes the dish aromatic. Cook the chicken thighs at a gentle simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the meat is tender. Then take the chicken out of the broth and cool it to room temperature, transferring it to a bowl and covering it with something.

   

4. Prepare the mushrooms. The appetizer turns out well with any boiled mushrooms, wild or button. If fresh wild mushrooms are not available because it is out of season, you can always thaw mushrooms boiled and put up in summer: porcini, bay boletes, birch boletes and so on. As a last resort, you can boil and cool button mushrooms.

   

How to assemble the salad

1. When all the ingredients are ready, you can mix the salad of seafood, chicken and mushrooms.

2. Slice the chicken. Skin the cooled chicken thighs, cut out the bone and remove any leftover fat. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and cut it into strips across the grain.

   

3. Transfer the sliced chicken to a salad bowl, then add the boiled seafood and coarsely chopped mushrooms. If the mushrooms are small, you can leave them whole or cut them in half lengthwise.

   

How to make the salad dressing

1. The dressing is easy to make. A similar dressing is used in white pickled mushroom appetizer. Basically, it is enough to simply use ordinary natural olive oil, after salting and peppering the dish first. Probably mayonnaise would work too, but I haven’t tried it.

2. Chop the herbs, onion and garlic. Chop the mixed fresh herbs (dill, parsley and cilantro) very finely, as finely as you can. Peel a small clove of garlic and half of a small red onion. Chop the onion and garlic finely with a knife. Don’t grate the garlic, and especially not the onion, as you would get a lot of juice. Mix the herbs, onion and garlic. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir and leave for a few minutes so the salt dissolves.

   

3. Add a quarter of a teaspoon of natural grape vinegar and stir. Add a full tablespoon of olive oil and whisk the mixture with a fork. The spicy salad dressing is ready.

   

Serving

1. Toss everything and dress with the prepared salad dressing right before serving.

   

   The seafood cocktail salad can be eaten chilled or at room temperature.

   

2. Divide the appetizer among individual salad bowls, garnish with a sprig of herbs and serve at the table. This dish goes very well with toasted bread.

   

   I recommend making lavash appetizer with herbs to go with the salad. It is a very tasty combination.