Sunflower Salad with Chicken, Mushrooms and Chips

Name: Sunflower Salad with Chicken and Mushrooms Recipe
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Button mushrooms 200 g; Chicken fillet 1; Eggs 2; Onion 1; Pitted olives 20-25; Hard cheese 50 g; Provençal mayonnaise 50 ml; Potato chips 20-25; Vegetable oil 2 tbsp; Salt, black pepper to taste; Vinegar, bay leaf, black and allspice peppercorns, cloves for the marinade; Water for the marinade 1 l

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There are plenty of salads made from a long list of ingredients and dressed generously with mayonnaise. For smaller gatherings, we sometimes make a layered chicken and mushroom salad shaped like a sunflower. It is tasty and filling, perfect for a holiday, and it always dresses up the table. And it is quite simple to make, without much effort.

Layered appetizers are mostly typical of Ukrainian home cooking. Somewhere along the way, the idea took hold that homemade salads should be built around mayonnaise, be rich in calories, and serve as an appetizer and a main course at the same time.

It turns out there are quite a few sunflower salad recipes. There is always boiled chicken and mushrooms. What is interesting is that two kinds of mushrooms are used: pickled, and fried with onion. Other components, such as eggs and hard cheese, may be added or not, as you prefer. The top of the salad is decorated with halved black olives, which stand in for the black seeds, and the flower petals are made from potato chips.

Homemade Sunflower salad is made on a large platter or plate for serving at the table. It is rarely made in individual portions, since it is hard to shape the petals. Keep in mind that this dish is high in calories: olives, mayonnaise, hard cheese. Even potato chips contain vegetable oil. It is important to let the salad soak and chill, because that is when it tastes best.

Of the most accessible mushrooms, I would recommend button mushrooms. Some of them need to be boiled and cooled in the marinade, since I don’t like store-bought pickled mushrooms. The rest should be chopped and fried with onion in vegetable oil.

Most of the ingredients for the salad need some preparation. The chicken fillet should be boiled for up to half an hour, then cooled. A few mushrooms are boiled in the marinade and cooled in it. The remaining mushrooms are fried with onion. Hard-boil the eggs beforehand and peel them. Everything else only needs to be sliced or grated. You can use store-bought or homemade mayonnaise in the salad.

12 ingredientsTo the recipe

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Ingredients

4 servings

Button mushrooms 200 g
Chicken fillet 1
Eggs 2
Onion 1
Pitted olives 20-25
Hard cheese 50 g
Provençal mayonnaise 50 ml
Potato chips 20-25
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
Salt, black pepper to taste
Vinegar, bay leaf, black and allspice peppercorns, cloves for the marinade
Water for the marinade 1 l

Step-by-step recipe

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To my mind, Sunflower salad is an appetizer somewhat like Mimosa salad: just as delicate and soft. I like dishes like this and eat them with fresh bread. All the ingredients are easy to find in almost any store. Notably, everything that needs cooking can be prepared at the same time in different pots. They also cool at the same time and are fully ready for layering.
First, cook and fry the ingredients that need preparation. I use large button mushrooms, although you can make this appetizer with wild mushrooms, which is even tastier. In a small saucepan, heat 1 l of water, add 2 tbsp of table vinegar, 1-2 bay leaves, a few black and allspice peppercorns, a little cloves and salt. Boil 2-3 large mushrooms for 5 mins. Then cool them in the marinade. It is a great alternative to store-bought pickled button mushrooms.
At the same time, boil the chicken fillet in water without spices or salt. Boiling time for the chicken is 25-30 mins. Then cool the chicken fillet. Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a skillet and fry the onion until soft. Add the remaining mushrooms, sliced into thin pieces. Stirring constantly, fry everything together. The mushrooms will release moisture, which evaporates quickly. As soon as the mushrooms start to darken and brown, remove them from the heat and let them cool. Hard-boil and peel the eggs.
It is convenient to layer the Sunflower salad in a large cooking ring. I bought an interesting model of this kitchen gadget, with an adjustable diameter. I assembled the salad at 16 cm, which was just right for the amount of ingredients given. You can put some greens on the bottom of a large plate, such as lettuce or parsley. Then set the ring on top. Finely chop the chicken fillet and lay it down as the bottom layer. Salt and pepper the chicken and spread a little mayonnaise over it.
By the way, many recipes advise applying the mayonnaise to the inner layers as a mesh. You can do that too, it makes no real difference. Put all the mushrooms fried with onion on top of the chicken and level the layer. Spread a little mayonnaise over the mushrooms as well. To keep the salad from turning out crumbly, press each layer down lightly with a spoon before spreading the mayonnaise.
Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and separate the whites from the yolks. Set the yolks aside for now and chop the whites with a knife. Sprinkle the whites over the layer of mushrooms. Slice the pickled mushrooms and arrange them on top of the whites. Then grate the hard cheese on a fine grater and sprinkle it over the pickled mushrooms. It is better to use a cheese that is not too soft, and Parmesan or Grana Padano work well. Spread a little mayonnaise over the cheese and level it.
Grate the yolks on a fine grater and sprinkle them over the Sunflower salad. This is actually the last layer of ingredients before forming the top of the salad. You can do the following. Cut the pitted black olives in half and let the excess liquid drain. Arrange the olives over the egg yolks in a diagonal lattice, and pipe lines of mayonnaise in the gaps.
The second option is simpler, and it is the one I use: spread plenty of mayonnaise over the yolks and arrange the black olive halves. Keep in mind that olives are quite high in calories, and a small salad may need a jar or even more. That is why I rarely pack the olive halves tightly and leave considerable gaps. It is all up to you.
Carefully remove the cooking ring, trying not to disturb the layers. Then put the Sunflower salad in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. During this time it will soak and chill thoroughly. Meanwhile, get the potato chips ready. Of course, you will want the sunflower petals to be yellow, and cheese-flavored chips work well for this, since their color is close to yellow.
Once the salad has chilled and soaked, take it out of the refrigerator. Pour the chips from the bag into a large bowl and pick out 20-25 of them. They should be oval, about the same size, and without chips or cracks. You can eat the rest. Arrange the even chips around the salad in a circle like petals. Press the chips slightly into the sides of the salad, just a few millimeters, so that they hold.
The salad is ready to serve. Once the petals are in place, there is no need to chill it further or wait. Sit down at the table and dig in. Strictly speaking, this is an appetizer, although many will argue with me. I really love this dish with fresh bread, and it is often my only dish for lunch.
Do not leave the salad in the refrigerator for long, or the chips will get soggy. You can fry the chicken fillet instead, and the salad will turn out a little “drier”. Wild mushrooms give the appetizer an unbeatable flavor and aroma.