This past weekend I got to celebrate my first Mother’s Day.
Having only been a mother for a little over three months, the holiday does not feel mine quite yet. I’m well aware that my every waking moment (and often half-asleep ones as well) are spent mothering, but I still feel like an amateur, like I should step back and let the experts lead the way, like I haven’t quite earned me keep in this new role.
When I’m feeling a little self-conscious or unsure of what to do with this little life I’m responsible for, I instinctively call my own mother, who is never short of advice and reassurances of any variety.
On Mother’s Day every year, it seems only natural to scroll through my mental backlog of all of my mother’s favorite recipes and settle on one to make. Sometimes the recipes are complex and fancy (like the cook they represent), sometimes they’re creative versions of something simple, and other times they’re just the things I remember from my childhood.
This year, I went with her chicken salad recipe, which of course, isn’t traditional. No mayo, no celery, basically nothing like the American version, her salad is simply poached chicken smothered in a sauce made out of walnuts and bread.
She serves it the traditional Russian way: along with about five other salads and small plates overflowing with pickled things, intended to be eaten as a first course. As with all my mother’s dinners, you have to be careful not to get too full on course one, because there are at least three more courses coming, and you will be sorely disappointed if you lack room for them all.
But if eating it plain isn’t your style, you can always put it on bread or stuff it into a pita with some arugula or other greens, or throw it on crackers. But I always eat it by itself, the way she intended.
- 3½ pound whole chicken
- 2 carrots, cut into big chunks
- 1 yellow onion, halved
- 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
- 8 whole peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup walnuts, crushed
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, plus more for finishing
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 2 pieces wheat or white bread, torn into small pieces
- Place whole chicken in a large heavy bottomed saucepan. Add in carrots, onion, salt, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Pour in enough water to cover chicken. Bring pot to a boil, reduce heat and cover, and simmer for about an hour (skimming fat off top every once in a while, if necessary), until chicken is fully cooked. Remove chicken from pot and let cool.
- While chicken is cooling, bring liquid back to a boil and cook down for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve 1 cup of broth to make the sauce. (You can strain the remaining broth and freeze it for another recipe).
- Once chicken is cool, use two forks to shred it into ~1 inch pieces, removing and discarding all bones.
- In a small pan, melt butter. Cook down onion until translucent. Remove from heat.
- In a food processor, add onion and walnuts and ½ cup of reserved chicken broth. Puree until smooth. Add in salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, and torn bread pieces. Puree until mixture has the consistency of hummus. Add additional reserved broth if needed.
- Pour walnut sauce over shredded chicken and mix well to combine. Adjust salt to taste, and then top with additional paprika before serving.
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