chicken salad; or, the Perfect Food?

Josie and I had a discussion regarding chicken salad the other day when we got sandwiches at our neighborhood cafe, Athom on Broadway. They make a damn good chicken salad, with parsley, carrot, red onion, celery, and a bit of mayo. We decided that chicken salad is kind of the Perfect Food. It's easy to make, and relatively inexpensive. Also, you can put whatever the hell you want in it and keep in line with the eccentricities (or cliches) of your personal taste. You can put fruit in it! Nuts! Mayo! No mayo! Mustard! Herbs! Spices! Root vegetables! Tomatoes! Cheeses! Vegan fake chicken instead of real chicken! The possibilities are endless, the limits only those of your imagination....

That being said, I made a fairly simple chicken salad from a half-chicken I bought this weekend with my cousin Annie, for whom I had purchased a gift certificate to Marlow and Daughters as a Christmas gift. Needless to say, we spent forever in there (and quite a bit of time sipping cocktails beforehand at Diner) drooling over various meats, both raw and cured. I also purchased a red onion, some parsley, pea shoots, and fresh spinach (among other things...details forthcoming). I ended up having this for dinner last night:

I made a simple chicken salad, mixing the chicken with parsley, red onion, and a bit of mayo, and then wrapped chicken salad and pea shoots in individual spinach leaves taco-style. So delicious! Maybe pea shoots are actually the perfect food...

Oh right, I'm getting off track.... but the key to making the chicken so deliciously tender is to roast it, skin-on, bone-in. I had basically a breast and a leg, so I rubbed a little olive oil, salt and pepper over it and roasted it skin side up at 375 for 30 minutes. It was perfectly done. When it cooled I removed the skin and any extra fat and then shredded it. I stirred in about a tablespoon of mayo with some chopped parsley and red onion, then plated a bit in between some spinach and pea shoots. And guess what I'm having for lunch today and tomorrow?