The appearance will not be the most appetizing in the world, but it is what has the texture of the shredded chicken well coated with a delicious sauce based on pesto and hints of dried tomato. It is a very easy recipe that allows us to take advantage of the leftovers of the Italian dressing -or throw away the purchased pot- and prepare a good quantity to take as is or combine in countless dishes.
We could prepare the recipe by cooking the breasts as we pleased, for example on the classic griddle or using the comfort of the oven, although probably they would be somewhat dry. We have therefore followed the advice of Arlyn Osborne who also adapts a technique of our guru J. Kenji López-Alt, in a version more of walking around the house.
Instead of investing in an appliance sous-vide or dedicate time to the typical brine, we apply a low temperature salt water cooking, starting from cold, to ensure that the breasts are very juicy and absorb the sauce from this salad. The ideal is to have a digital thermometer; They are cheap and we will put them to good use on multiple occasions in the future.
ThermoPro TP15 Waterproof Kitchen Thermometer with Long Probe Digital Food Thermometer for Liquids Barbecue Meat Oil Water with Calibration
Combine the water with the salt in a large saucepan until dissolved. Add the clean, whole chicken breasts and heat with a digital thermometer to monitor the temperature. Let the water exceed 65ºC, lower the temperature and keep below 76ºC. Keep cooking until the center of the thickest part of each breast reaches 65.5ºC, about 25-30 minutes.
Remove the breasts from the water and let them cool on a board with kitchen paper or on a rack, about 5 minutes, until they do not burn too much. Next, shred with one or two forks, separating the fibers into strips of the size you prefer.
Mix all the other ingredients of the sauce in a bowl with a rod or spoon. Add the dried tomatoes in oil, chopped to taste, if used, with the shredded chicken and stir until integrated homogeneously.
With what to accompany the pesto chicken salad
The juicy texture of the lean chicken meat combined with the flavorful pesto-based sauce provides a dish that it devours itselfPerfect to complete an office container or keep in the fridge and fix dinner or any quick lunch. But we can go further and turn this chicken salad into a filling of arepas, quesadillas, tacos, burritos, sandwiches, sandwiches or even crêpes, adding, if we feel like it, more cheese.
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