Chopped Italian(ish) Salad

Get the full recipe at https://www.daphneoz.com/itanian-ish-chopped-salad/

The homemade rendition of my lunch order every day on set at MasterChef Junior — I swap out the traditional salami and provolone for some grilled or blackened chicken breast and chickpeas, plus a generous shaving of Parmesan, plus pickled red onions and the bright, salty pop of pepperoncini!! I’m a more is more person. It could not be more perfect. Unless you have some fresh flat leaf parsley and then you should toss whole plucked leaves on in just before serving.

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maybe you’ve heard Master Chef Jr is
back on the air and you can watch
Mondays on Fox 87 Central we are going
to make the Italian is chopped salad
that I ate for lunch basically every day
on set for two reasons first of all it
is literally what I was craving it is so
flavorful so filling but light and
energizing because it’s tons of colorful
veggies great hits of protein from the
chickpeas and the chicken the most
delicious easy Italian vinegret that’s
perfect to keep on hand for Sumptuous
salads throughout the week and also
because we were eating so much Els on
set that I just wanted something simple
for lunch and I feel like you’re going
to fall in love with the salad the same
way that I did why Italian is because I
am swapping the more traditional salami
and provolone combo for chicken breast
you can Grill it you can blacken it I’m
going to actually do it in a cast iron
skillet today and some shaved Parmesan
which doesn’t feel that untraditional
let’s get started first thing we’re
going to do is make up some pickled red
onions another thing I love to have
around the house throughout the week
they’re great on salads and sandwiches
they’re great on little crackers with
little cheese for a snack but in this
salad provide the perfect salty sweet
juicy pop to complement all the other
wonderful flavors here so get yourself a
red onion and because they are so good
on so many things go ahead and make a
big batch there’s no reason to go
through this process just to make enough
for the salad videlia or sweet onion
would work great here too but I like the
color I like that little pink pop I
basically slice up to the midpoint maybe
a little bit past just to where the
balance starts to feel off flip
it into a mediumsized sauce
pot with equal parts apple juice and
apple cider vinegar and the reason I
like this combo is you don’t need to use
any granulated sugar this way it’s the
right balance of sweet to acidity come
on over we are going to add apple
juice and then an equal part of apple
cider vinegar I mean I’m eyeballing here
but probably a cup of each I would say I
am now going to grab coriander seed
which I think is the Perfect combo in
these pickled red onions brings just
like a little citrusy spice note I’m
probably going to go for like three
tablespoons of these maybe even 1/4 cup
and then you need some salt again these
are pickled red onion so a good amount
of salt at least two teaspoons give that
a little stir just to dissolve the salt
into the liquid and press your onions
into the mix and then turn that over a
medium high heat heat bring it up to a
simmer Let It Go a few minutes kill the
heat it’s going to sit and continue to
pickle cool down and it’ll be perfect
you’ll see it turns a bright pink really
soft and tender very flavorful and juicy
and it will be perfect for our salad so
while the onions are cooking I’m going
to go ahead and get started on our
chicken breast I really like to leave it
quite simple because there’s so much
gorgeous flavor and texture happening in
this salad that you really don’t need to
spend a ton of time here you can if you
feel like going wild and crazy on the
chicken please do get yourself a
separate cutting board just because
these are very kind of like thick
chicken breasts I am going to slice them
in half it’ll help them cook faster and
ensure that I’m getting lovely juicy
meat throughout just holding my palm
flat so I make sure that it’s good and
protected and just working my way
through and I’m just going to add some
salt little pepper maybe a little garlic
salt it’s all you need okay salt I love
that so many of you are like your spiced
cabinet looks just like my spice cabinet
yeah cuz we like our spices and we don’t
always have time to go back and organize
them but we know where everything is it
makes sense a little bit of garlic salt
and yeah why not oregano o you know what
would be nice if it’s if you or just
people who like it spicy or eating the
salad you can add a little chili flake
on here very nice just a splishy splash
of olive oil here just to help the
spices coat give those a quick toss and
we’re going to work as quickly as
possible because looking at raw chicken
breast is horrible set those aside
until we’re ready to cook you’ll see I’m
kind of working in layers of flavor so I
did the onions first cuz they need a
chance to cool and really maximize their
flavor I’m letting the chicken marinate
now to again build in all that flavor I
can there I’m going to make the vinegret
quickly so that the garlic has a chance
to infuse the olive oil and the red wine
vinegar combo and then we will just
basically assemble all the other little
bits and Bots I let the onions boil a
minute or two I’m taking them off the
heat now and as they continue to sit in
that now hot apple cider vinegar and
apple juice combo they’ll continue to
soften they’ll continue to flavor up
sweeten up get that nice little vinegary
hit going for the vinegret let’s go for
four cloves of garlic and this is going
to make a nice amount so that you can
have some left over to keep in your
fridge throughout the week um just pop
them out of their skins since these
cloves are quite small I might be going
for slightly more than
four but you do you there’s
no essential amount although I will say
that like the memory the the smell
memory of my
childhood would be garlic cooking and
olive oil for my grandfather’s Sunday
sauce or the extreme amount of garlic in
my grandmother’s now famous eggless
Caesar salad so clearly we are a family
that doesn’t say no to garlic at this
point you can either press this garlic
or grate it I already have my knife
handy and I want it to be super smooth
SM and combined into this vinegret so
I’m going to cream this garlic you can
also just throw everything into a
blender or use your immersion blender
and get a very emulsified creamy
vinegret all right so just chop your
garlic up add some
salt once it’s good and chopped then
you’re going to take the I’m holding the
dull side of my blade and you’re just
going to start smoothing it against the
sharp edge of your blade using that salt
almost to help exfoliate kind of okay so
once it’s at a lovely smooth place and
you can keep going but this is plenty
for vinegret purposes go ahead and add
your creamed garlic into your Bowl along
with a squeeze of Dijon
mustard call it a teaspoon half a cup of
olive oil half a cup of red wine
vinegar Let’s do let’s start
with I was going to say we’ll start with
half a lemon but I feel like I know that
I’m going to want the full lemon
remember we already had the salt in here
so I’m going to add a teaspoon of
oregano s right into our blend I need to
get some more pepper and then the famous
if controversial Pinch of Sugar so we’re
talking about like a teaspoon for this
whole lovely vinegary mix whisk it all
together the smell guys the vinegar the
sweetness the Tangy
acidity fresh lemon
garlic is beyond
delicious and truly unbelievably it’s
not too much garlic it’s actually the
perfect amount of garlic and because of
that I’m going to add a little bit of
garlic salt in here I’m adding these
pepper and cheny peppers in with the
salad which is why I’m not going too
crazy here because we’re getting
saltiness and brininess from these two
but just a
splash just a splash of that pepper and
Chini
brine
oh it’s so good it’s so good okay it’s
time to cook the chicken in order in
order to guarantee ourselves as much
success as possible we’re doing two
things first of all we are going to
grease this pan up nicely I took a
little olive oil and just rubbed it with
a paper towel before I get it over a
high heat and get this pan nice and hot
that’s going to help seal a crust on the
chicken which is going to lock in
moisture and also make it easy to
release so we’re not fighting with the
chicken in the pan just wait be patient
let it get really hot when you lay the
chicken in it should Sizzle immediately
which is how you know that it is at the
right temperature you can also test it
by splattering a little water and seeing
if it evaporates right away which it
should little magic trick go ahead and
drop the heat to a medium high just so
you don’t risk cooking the chicken too
fast or burning it into the pan happy
days you want to make sure the chicken
isn’t touching you don’t want it
steaming you want it having as much
surface area on the hot heat of the pan
as possible while the chicken is cooking
and our onions are cooling I am going to
prep my greens I love a combo of curly
kale and shredded Roma here it keeps it
juicy but with plenty of chew on it go
ahead and just take the Woody stems off
just kind of bunch it together and put a
nice thin slice on your kale just keep
Gathering it
up and putting this nice thin slice on
the kale is of course going to make it a
lot easier to chew it also opens it up
to soak up lots of that yummy flavor
from the vinegret just in case my
grandmother is watching I will wash the
scale grab yourself a head of Roma and
we are going to put a thin slice on this
as well just going to take off some of
the gnarly top pieces that are a little
bit Brown and dried out these don’t need
to be as thin because Romine is so much
more tender toss it all together rinse
it off okay come check on this chicken
with me if you look in the pan you can
see it’s still a bit pink here at the
center I’m going to flip it and let it
continue cooking and even though it’s
not super golden brown yet I’m actually
kind of going to allow myself the
opportunity to flip back and forth that
I find distributes the liquid properly
it gets it really moist and delicious
and ensures I’m not going to overcook it
on one side and then be rushing through
the other side and get no color on it
let’s wash some
lettuce wash lettuce let it hang out and
dry just a little bit more because there
is nothing that ruins salad quite so
fast as bad vinegret especially
raspberry vinegret the worst but the
second thing that could really hurt
salad is when your greens are wet and
the vinegret whatever you’re using goes
running off to the edges and that’s just
you know you worked hard and that
perfect V agret so don’t waste it okay
the chicken is gorgeous golden brown
Perfection look at that super juicy set
those off to the side I’m going to
quickly chop up some cucumbers I’m using
uh Persian or baby cucumbers I just find
that the flavor is powerful delicious
and they’re not too watery so they’ve
got great texture nice and crunchy give
it a quick
chop doesn’t need to be too small cuz
you actually want the texture of these
coming through keeps the salad really
lovely juicy and flavorful I’m just
going to go ahead and chop up some
cherry tomatoes these are a little bit
larger maybe like mini plum tomatoes so
I’m just chopping them into quarters now
my friends we are
ready to assemble giant wooden salad
bowl of course take all your lovely and
now perfectly dry
lettuce and add it to the bowl and then
what I like to do is toss the greens
together with the
chickpeas about a cup of chickpeas
throwing in here and the cucumbers and I
like to give those a quick toss with the
vinegret just to start that flavoring
process happening and then we’ll
assemble everything else right on top
and it’s a beautiful presentation go
ahead and give your vinegret another
whisk and the beauty of having made this
about 20 minutes ago now is that the
garlic has had time to infuse the olive
oil and vinegar it’s also mellowed out a
little bit so it’s not quite that same
raw bite go ahead and splash that over
salad now I did promise you left over
vinegret but I also had not intended to
make enough for quite so many people so
it will be enough for a large salad or
to have some leftover and give it a
quick toss oh look at
this my mouth is watering so much right
now I can’t wait to have some lunch now
I’m going to add in some sliced pepper
and Chen these are not too spicy they’re
a little pickle a little
Briny salty okay maybe I just like spicy
things they’re a little spicy but I like
them a lot layer those in adding in
about 1/4 cup of those pepper and CH
give that another quick toss go ahead
and arrange the salad like so and we are
going to add our cherry tomatoes to one
area we’ve given our chicken a minute to
rest let’s check and see how we did H
juicy
gorgeous super
flavorful just go ahead and give your
chicken a quick chop chicken going in
gorgeous hot pink pickled onions going
right into the mix here and then of
course we’ve got to have the king of
cheeses that beautiful parmesan
shredding it right
oo if that doesn’t look like the most
Sumptuous and inviting and delicious
easy flavor packed protein packed so
good for you and so delicious lunch I
don’t know what does flaky salt right on
top
yum let’s toss it all together bring
this baby home when I tell you the
layers of flavors and textures in this
blend the acidity and the sweetness and
the saltiness and then that good bit of
Parmesan just balancing it all out with
a little bit of salty creaminess I am
about ready to drool on this salad it is
my
favorite when I tell
you I could basically eat this salad
every single day and I have I’m not
lying it is so delicious the balance of
flavors here is out of control sweet
salty a little bit of pickly brininess
from the pepper and Chini the beautiful
juiciness of the pickled red onions
which I have to say are a monster
addition here flavorful layered but
relatively
easy
impact 10 out of 10 11 out of 10 sharing
with your family and friends
Priceless potentially overated good