Chicken, Corn, Peach, & Tomato Salad

This salad is rather fancy and a bit time-consuming to make, although it could be pretty quick if you just bought a rotisserie chicken for it. A good-sized one should provide enough for 2 people to eat one night and make salad with the other half the next day.

Either way, this is a lovely summer salad and makes the most of the best fruit and vegetables of high summer; the ones we wait for all year. Heirloom tomatoes if at all possible!

We served this alongside this quinoa salad and they went together very well. 

6 servings
45 minutes advance prep
30 minutes to assemble the salad

Cook the Chicken & Corn:
2 pounds skin-on bone-in chicken pieces
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and black peppercorns
2 cobs of corn

Put the chicken into a pot with sufficient water to just cover.  Add the bay leaves, salt, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil and reduce to at once to a simmer. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Let cool and remove the chicken from the broth. Strain the broth and reserve it for some other use. (You may wish to add the skin and bones from the chicken and let it simmer for a while again first.)

Pick the chicken from the bones, discarding the skin and bones, and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Instead of cooking your own chicken you could use prepared rotisserie cooked chicken. You should have 3 to 4 cups of prepared meat for the salad.

Put a pot of water on to boil for the corn. Shuck the cobs, and boil them for 5 to 6 minutes. Rinse under cold water until cool. Cut the corn from the cobs, and mix it with the chicken.

Make the Dressing:

the juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons sunflower seed oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup mayonnaise - light is fine

Mix all the ingredients in a jam jar or small bowl, and mix until blended. It may help to heat the dressing slightly (in the microwave or on the back of the stove) to help the honey to dissolve. Don't add the mayonnaise until after that is done!

Finish the Salad:
1 small sweet Spanish onion or 1/2 large sweet Spanish onion
1/4 cup finely minced fresh mint
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh basil
4 large ripe peaches
2 large beefsteak tomatoes
a few large whole lettuce leaves for serving

Peel and chop the onion. Salt it and set it aside to drain as you prepare the other ingredients.

Wash, dry, and finely mince the mint and basil and add them to the chicken and corn. If you like, you can blanch the peaches and tomatoes for 1 minute before dropping them into cold water and peeling them. Otherwise, just cut them into small bite-sized pieces and add them to the chicken and corn.

Rinse and drain the onion well and add it to the salad. Toss the salad with the dressing. If you like, serve it on a bed of lettuce leaves, washed and dried and arranged on a serving platter. I also saved out a few bits of the tomato and peaches to garnish the platter.




Last year at this time I made Tuscan White Bean Salad with Tuna.

Posted in: Ontario Food