Comments on: My salad with chicken, and not a chicken salad

By: AuSable

AuSable — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:10:37 +0000

Well I guess that I’m already a little bit ahead of the game. I do make my own buttermilk ranch dressing; 1 hidden valley ranch packet, 1 cup regular buttermilk, 1 cup Hellmann’s Mayo……and I shake it all up in my Hidden Valley Ranch shaker from when I was a kid. That is one item I never understood why people would buy since it’s easy to make at home. Plus buttermilk lasts way past the expiration date, so I always have a carton in the fridge.

And I also make my chicken fingers from scratch; I usually cut up a chicken breast into 3-4 tenders, coat in AP flour, an egg wash then plain breadcrumbs (I also make my bread crumbs from plain white bread dried in the oven, then put through a food mill.) I do fry the tenders for a couple of minutes on each side, but then I finish the cooking in the oven for about 10 mins at 350F. But when I do make chicken tenders (about once a month) I do make up about a whole jelly roll pans worth (3-4 whole breast fillets). Since if I’m going to make a mess, I might as well make a big mess. It’s funny because on my sandwiches I always use romaine and never iceberg. But for salads it’s the other way around. I’ll have to give the spinach addition a try, since I already like spinach, so it should be an easy addition.

By: JRR

JRR — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:30:31 +0000

First place is the ranch dressing. I am going to guess that you are using a store bought version (probably Marzetti’s or something similar). Make your own at home, little buttermilk, little 1% yogurt, tiny bit of 1/2 fat Mayo. Mix it with whatever ranch mix you can get (Hidden Valley, Penzey’s, etc.) and you have a delicious (and probably creamier/less acidic) dressing. Second spot is the chicken fingers. I would guess that you are using a frozen bag of pre-made fingers from Costco, or similar. find a good recipe for “oven fried” chicken and use that instead, cooks has an excellent one. You can make a big batch on a weekend and just food save them for when they are needed. It’s a little more work on the front end, but it should both taste better and save you a ton of fat and calories without losing much flavor. I’d also sub in at least half spinach in the greens dept, it can stand up to ranch, especially the non-baby type.

By: AuSable

AuSable — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:14:39 +0000

Now I’m curious, where would you start to cut the fat, or change the fat?

By: JRR

JRR — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:29:52 +0000

I saw the disclaimer in the beginning. I am saying you could have almost the exact same salad, probably cut the fat down by half and barely notice the difference.

By: AuSable

AuSable — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:41:00 +0000

My sis was just commenting about how I should have used romaine or mixed greens. But when I think of mixed greens, I think of using a vinaigrette instead of ranch. Hence the notice in the first half of the post about this not being a healthy salad......This is more like the salad at Orlondo's, which is a trucker salad.

By: I Make Thousands of Dollars a Month Posting Links on Google from Home

I Make Thousands of Dollars a Month Posting Links on Google from Home — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:49:34 +0000

Hey, great post, really well written. You should blog more about this.

By: JRR

JRR — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:57:15 +0000

There is nothing redemptive health wise about this salad, there has to be a green/veggie that will go well in there that has some nutritive value, unlike Iceberg Lettuce. I am thinking about it and I bet you could easily cut way down on the fat without sacrificing too much flavor…