Sicilian Chicken Salad

Ingredients

½ medium red onion, diced

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ cup currants

5 cups shredded roasted or poached chicken meat (from about 1 roast chicken)

1 cup stiff Aïoli (page 376)

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley leaves

½ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

2 small celery stalks, diced

½ medium fennel bulb, diced (about ½ cup)

2 teaspoons ground fennel seed

Salt

For serving, croissant, toasted slices of crusty bread, or wrapped in romaine leaves

Directions

1. Combine the onion and vinegar in a small bowl and let sit for 15 minutes to macerate (see page 118).

2. In a separate small bowl, submerge the currants in boiling water. Let them sit for 15 minutes to rehydrate and plump up. Drain and place in a large bowl. Skip step if using fresh currants.

3. Add the chicken, aïoli, lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley, pine nuts, celery, fennel bulb, fennel seed, and two generous pinches of salt to the currants and stir to combine. Stir in the macerated onions (but not their vinegar) and taste. Adjust salt and add vinegar as needed.

4. Serve on croissant, toasted slices of crusty bread, or wrapped in leaves of romaine or Little Gem lettuces.

Notes

As we served spit-roasted chicken every night at Eccolo, we had to get creative and figure out all sorts of ways to use up the leftover cooked birds. Chicken pot pie, chicken soup, at chicken ragù all made it onto the menu regularly, but this salad quickly became our favorite way to use up all that chicken. Teeming with pine nuts, currants, fennel, and celery, it’s a lovely Mediterranean play on traditional chicken salad.

(And if you're short on time, pick up a rotisserie chicken from the store and use a good-quality store-bought mayonnaise spiked with a clove or two of pounded or finely grated garlic to speed things up.)