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Bridge Club Ground Chicken Salad

Source of Recipe

From "My Mother's Southern Kitchen" by James Villas


Recipe Introduction

"I don't know another human soul who grinds chicken for chicken salad, but to this day I've never seen Mother prepare her popular salad without hauling out the same heavy steel meat grinder that her mother and grandmother used, rinsing it, placing it in the oven momentarily to dry, and pushing the pieces of chicken slowly through the ominous thick blades. (She even travels with her grinder when she knows there's important grinding to be done!) 'I don't know why you criticize the old custom,' she harps in frustration. 'Sure, it takes extra time and effort, but ground chicken absorbs other flavors more easily, the salad packs evenly into tomatoes and on sandwiches, and it doesn't fall all over the plate the way chunky chicken salad does.'"

List of Ingredients

• One 3 to 3½-pound chicken, cut up
• Small bunch of celery leaves
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup minced celery
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped pimientos
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
• ½ cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste


Recipe

Place the chicken and celery leaves in a large pot with enough salted water to cover, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to moderate, cover, and simmer about 1 hour.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a plate and, when cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin, clean the meat from the bones, and cut into chunks. Chill the chicken for 1 hour, covered.

Pass the chicken through the medium blade of a meat grinder into a large mixing bowl, then add the remaining ingredients, mix till well blended, and taste for seasoning. Either serve the salad stuffed into quartered ripe tomatoes or use to make small sandwiches with trimmed white bread.

Makes about 4 cups