When Grapes Meet Chicken and Cilantro

This weekend was full of late nights. John and I met up with Mike, Joe and Nancy at the Greene Turtle for some St. Pat's festivities. I've never been there on a major drinking holiday falling on a weekend night. That place was PACKED! We left around 11:30 or so and there was a line of people waiting to get in.

Saturday night, I went to Laurie's for an MCBC girl's night with my famous Chicken & Grape salad in hand. Everyone wanted the recipe, but if you know me and Thai food, I don't measure. I put stuff in, taste it, adjust it, and voila! I learned this bojangling technique from my mom, who measures spoonfuls of ingredients using a plastic brown serving spoon. When translating recipes for my sister-in-law, my mom will say, "a spoonful of fish sauce", which could be really like two tablespoons. What's worse is she may not exactly fill the whole spoon. I, on the other hand, bypass the spoon thing all together. Straight from the bottle of fish sauce for me. A couple swishes. If it needs more, a couple more swishes. Lime juice? I cut the lime in half and squeeze directly into the dish. How much juice came out of that lime? Who knows? Could have been a teaspoon, could have been 10. That's why you taste it! The problem is I know what it's supposed to taste like, so to someone who hasn't had this dish before, that could be a problem.

Here's my attempt at noting the recipe for the MCBC. I'm more than happy to come by and taste your version to see if it's right! Or contact me if you need help.

Chicken & Grape Salad
3-4 skinless chicken breasts
3 cups grapes (any seedless variety)
2 T fried garlic
2 T fried shallots
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dressing:
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce

[1] Bring 2-3 quarts of water (enough to cover chicken) to a boil. Add a teaspoon or so of salt. Place chicken in boiling water and turn burner to medium-low (not a rolling boil, but not too low). After a few minutes, skim off any gunk from the top of the pot. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Don't OVERCOOK! I checked to see if it was done by using a thermometer (180 degrees). I also cut into the middle of the thickest piece of chicken, but I don’t really like to cut into it because then it tends to dry out if I have to cook it longer

[2] Remove chicken and set in a covered bowl to cool. The chicken broth can be saved for soup (or just toss it)

[3] Once chicken has cooled, shred it by hand by tearing into thin strips with the grain of the meat, as chunky or delicate as you can bear, as this is a tedious task... I usually park myself at the dining table where I can see the TV

[4] Mix lime juice and fish sauce, pour over shredded chicken and mix

[5] Add fried garlic, fried shallots and chopped cilantro. Add grapes (cut them in half if they seem big) and mix. Taste it for seasoning... if you like it more “perky”, add a little more lime juice. If you think it’s too tart, add a little more fish sauce or a little salt

Serve cool or at room temperature.

This recipe is very flexible. Use as much or as little of the grapes, garlic, shallots or cilantro as you like (or have on hand). My mom has also added shrimp and substituted tart apples for grapes. Traditionally, this recipe was a way to use up tart grapes, but I like the sweet ones as a contrast to the savory of the dressing.

Fried garlic and fried shallots (or red onion, as the package says) can be purchased at most Asian markets. I used to peel, thinly slice and fry garlic and shallots myself, but it can really stink up your house. Even though homemade tastes better, the stuff you buy at the market is a lot easier!

In other news, I'm not doing so well in the 2 NCAA pools I've entered. So many upsets! In one of my pools, you only pick the first two rounds' games and then start this week off by picking from the winners. Hopefully, I'll do a little better... although who knows if "Bradley", whoever they are, will beat #1 Memphis. Meh!