Are you looking for a delicious main meal salad that can double as your centerpiece for a shower or reception? This pineapple-chicken salad swan boat is a perfect choice. Your guests will be delighted with the presentation and the flavor and they'll beseech you for your recipe. Here's what you need to do.
Instructions
1. Steam the chicken until it is thoroughly cooked. Cool the meat to room temperature. Cut the cooled meat into one inch chunks and put them into the food processor. Chop or grind the meat so that it is evenly crumbled. Place the chopped chicken into a covered mixing bowl and into the refrigerator until the rest of the ingredients are prepared.
2. Cut the grapes into halves or quarters depending on how large they are to start with. Set them aside for later.
3. Slice the pineapple in half length-wise so that both halves still include some of the leaves. The leaves will become the tail feathers of your chicken salad swan boat. Use a very sharp serrated knife to cut the pineapple out of the rind. Be extremely careful not to cut into the rind itself as this will be the bowl for your chicken salad. The "bowl" will be more stable if you leave about 1/4 inch of pineapple all along the shell of the rind.
4. Cut out the long woody core of the pineapple and throw it away. Then cut up the remaining fruit into 1/2 chunks. Add them to the grapes. Toss in the nuts.
5. Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl: pineapple chunks, grapes, nuts and chopped chilled chicken. Gently mix them together until the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the mixture. Add about 1 tbsp. of mayonnaise for every chicken breast or enough to hold the mixture together. Add salt to taste. Cover the bowl again and put it back into the refrigerator until minutes before you are ready to serve the chicken salad swan boat.
6. Use the black marker to draw the outline of a swan's head and neck on the cardstock. Cut it out. Then draw an eye (eyelashes are fun to add) on each side of the swan's head. Color the beak red on both sides of the swan's head.
7. Cover your serving platter with large washed pieces of lettuce. Then place one half of the pineapple on top of the bed of lettuce. Spoon in the chicken salad so that it heaps up in a mound like the back of the swan. Insert the swan's head so that the leaves form the swan's tail feathers and are opposite to the head. Serve the salad on a buffet table or family style. Enjoy.
Tags: chicken salad, swan head, salad swan, salad swan boat, swan boat, chicken salad swan