What is Curry Chicken Salad?
Diced or shredded cooked chicken breast combined with finely-chopped onion, dried cranberries and walnuts, and mixed with mayonnaise and curry powder. Curry chicken salad has a slightly chunky texture and a rich, spicy flavor. It can be served on bread or lettuce.
What does Curry Chicken Salad Taste Like?
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Spicy is a flavor that brings heat and fire to food by creating a burning sensation in the mouth or sinuses. Spicy flavors come from hot peppers, horseradish, and wasabi. Spicy adds a kick and sometimes complexity to a dish and releases endorphins, creating a mildly addictive quality.
Ingredients
Grilled chicken breast is meat from the chest of the chicken. It is a white meat, making it a bit dryer than the darker meat from the leg or wing. When grilled properly chicken breast can be moist, juicy and tender. The meat is an off white color with golden brown grill marks. These golden brown parts have extra flavor and a bit of crispiness. Grilled chicken has a mild taste that is meaty and savory.
Mayonnaise is a cream colored condiment and thick sauce, or spread. Mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to a mixture of raw egg, vinegar and seasonings, until it thickens. This is done by continuously whisking. The flavor is mild, tangy and a bit salty with a comforting quality from the creamy texture. Mayonnaise is a multi-use ingredient for sauces, cold meat salads, sandwiches and more.
Apples have been around since nearly the beginning of human evolution. However, domesticated varieties are newer to the scene and much sweeter, as wild apples are extremely sour. The apple is a round fist-sized fruit with a smooth skin that is either green, or variations of red, and may have yellow tones. The white flesh has a crunch and is sweet and crispy. Apples are a common fruit in the USA and eaten raw and cooked in desserts, salads and savory dishes.
Dried cranberries are made from the small, red cranberry. These extremely sour berries are dried and have sugar or apple juice added to them to bring sweetness to their extraordinarily tart flavor. Dried cranberries are small, about the size of a blueberry, semi-flat and burgundy colored. They taste sweet and tart and are most commonly added to baked goods and salads.
Walnuts are technically a seed and not a nut, but are used as a nut in the culinary world. Walnuts have a hard shell around them and a dry skin that surrounds the nut. The shell and skin are removed and the meat of the nut is eaten. Walnuts are a light brown/tan color and have a wrinkled top divided into two halves and resembles a brain. The flavor is mild with hints of tannins and sweetness. They are a rich and fatty nut which imparts an umami taste.
Lettuce is a leafy green vegetable that grows in a clustered head, with many leaves growing from the stem, to form a round or conical vegetable. Lettuce is green with large tender leaves that bruise easily and get smaller towards the center, or heart of the lettuce. There are many varieties of lettuce, most have green leaves, while some have purple/brown leaves. Romaine is hearty, while iceberg is watery. Each leaf does have a dry, yet partially juicy quality and a crisp texture. The flavor is green and vegetal. Lettuce is best served cold and raw.
Lemon juice is made from the flesh of the pulpy yellow lemon fruit. The juice is squeezed from the flesh of the lemon and is a pale yellow color. The flavor is very sour and bright. Lemon juice is used in multiple cuisines around the world to brighten and enhance the flavors of the other ingredients. Lemon juice is used to make lemonade and goes well on fish. It has many uses.
Green onions, also called scallions are used in cooking and have a milder flavor than a round onion, though they pack a punch of their own with a mild zestiness and onion flavor that is bright and a bit green. Green onions are thin stalks with white dense bottoms two thin hollow green stalks, sprouting from the base. Scallions have a crunch to them and a hint of juice. They perk up any dish with their bright flavor.
There are many varieties of curry powder. One of the most common ones is made from a mixture of coriander, cumin, black pepper, turmeric, mustard and cinnamon. The spices vary, but the first four of these spices are almost always present in a curry powder. The powder is fine and light and ranges from golden to brown or orange. The flavors are spicy, bright, earthy and sometimes sweet. Curry powder is added to many Indian dishes to give a delicious complexity of tastes.
