Smoked Chicken Salad & Avocado Toast
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Since I’ve been spending more time at home lately — a lot more time — I have been experiment more with my charcoal grill. First, i wanted to learn how to smoke a chicken (more on how easy that is below). After smoking my second chicken, it was time to make smoked chicken salad. You can look at this recipe from two perspectives. One is that this is an avocado toast recipe topped with smoked chicken salad and cucumbers. The other is that this is an open-faced smoked chicken salad sandwich with everything you want in a sandwich – avocado (which serves as our condiment), cucumber (which gives us some crunch), and hot cherry peppers (which serves as our pickled/vinegary element and gives us some heat). Neither perspective is wrong.
For this recipe I am assuming that all of the cooking has been done already. You have ether already smoked a chicken, roasted a chicken, or purchased a cooked chicken. The same goes for the onion and roasted red pepper. This is more of an idea for what to do with leftover chicken than a “how to cook the perfect chicken” recipe.
Smoking chicken is easy, even if all you have it a basic Weber Kettle grill. That is what I use. You just need some charcoal, some wood chips, preferably a drip pan, and a whole chicken. You set up charcoal on two sides of the grill, pour some water in the drip pan, and when the temperature of the grill is 350 or 375 place the chicken breast-side-up in the middle of the grill. Every now and then, throw wood chips on the coals. The cooking time will depend on the size of your chicken and the temperature inside of the grill. It will probably take at least an hour. Once your thermometer registers 160 or 165 degrees when inserted into the breast, you are done. The reason we can remove the chicken at 160 is because as the chicken rests the carryover heat will bring it up to the correct (and safe) temperature. For juicier meat, brine the chicken for at least 24 hours before cooking. And when it comes to brine, always remember to rinse it off, and you usually don’t need to salt any meat that has been brined because you will just make it too salty.
If you are smoking your own chicken, once you remove the chicken from the grill place a red pepper over the coals on one side, and your thick slices of onion over the coals on the other side. You will want to rotate the onion every 5-7 minutes, and you should be able to just leave the onions on one side. This will reduce the likelihood that the onion slices fall apart and through the grill grate as well.
If you are not going to be smoking a chicken, you can substitute a roasted chicken. If you are roasting your chicken and home, you can cook your pepper and onions in the oven along with the chicken. If you are buying an already cooked chicken, such as a supermarket rotisserie chicken, you can always just buy jarred roasted red peppers. If you go this route, I would either cook the onion in a pan or under your broiler.
I recommend cooking the chicken, onion and/or red pepper the day before you plan to make the recipe. You want everything to be cool when you work with it.
Servings/Suggestions
There is enough “dressing” for 2 pounds of chicken
If you double the chicken, also double the scallions and paprika
Gluten free: skip the toast and make it a salad with Napa cabbage, cucumber, and avocado
Make it a sandwich with mayo, hot cherry peppers or pickles, and Bibb lettuce.
Special Equipment
or if you have this stick blender, you can use the food processor attachment
Ingredients
1 pound of smoked chicken meat, mix of light and dark meat (don’t include any skin)
subbing roasted/rotisserie chicken is fine
1 roasted red pepper
if roasting yourself, remember to peel off the skin as best as you can
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into thick slices, grilled
you can broil the onion instead
1/2 avocado (per toast)
lemon juice
lime juice is also okay
1/2 cup greek yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonaise
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
4 scallions, thinly sliced (reserve some for garnish)
use all except for the white part. Save that for another use
2 teaspoons paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
toast
Thinly sliced cucumber
Hot cherry peppers, seeds removed and thinly sliced
or pickled red onions, or thinly sliced dill or bread & butter pickles
Mise en place
(Set yourself up for success before you start cooking)
Toast the toast. Either use a toaster oven or your broiler to toast only one side of the bread. This way the side we are putting everything on has “structural integrity” and the bottom side will still be soft so that you aren’t tearing up your mouth while eating.
Directions
Step 1
Cut the chicken up into bite-sized pieces and transfer to a large bowl. Slice the scallions and add them to the bowl with the smoked chicken. Add the roasted red pepper and grilled onion to your food processor or blender. Once that is well blended, add the yogurt and blend. Add the lemon juice and dijon. Blend again and then taste. Do you want to add more lemon juice?
Step 2
Add half of the roasted red pepper dressing to the smoked chicken (or all of it if you are using 2 pounds of chicken). Toss to coat. Then add the paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
Step 3
Put the avocado in a bowl and smash with a bit of lemon juice. Remember, each slice of toast will need around 1/2 of an avocado. Thinly slice your cucumber. Using a spatula, spread a layer of avocado on the toasted side of the toast. Then layer with the thinly sliced cucumber. Think of this almost like laying down shingles of cucumber—they slightly overlap each other. Sprinkle the cucumber with a bit of salt (and pepper if you like). Add the smoked chicken salad on top of the cucumbers. Top the smoked chicken salad with the hot cherry peppers (or your pickled element of choice) and the reserved scallion slices.
SMOKED CHICKEN SALAD & AVOCADO TOAST
Ingredients
- 1 pound of smoked chicken meat, mix of light and dark meat (don’t include any skin, subbing roasted/rotisserie chicken is fine)
- 1 roasted red pepper
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into thick slices, grilled
- 1/2 avocado (per toast)
- lemon juice
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons mayonaise
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced (reserve some for garnish)
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- salt and pepper, to taste
- toast
- Thinly sliced cucumber
- Hot cherry peppers, seeds removed and thinly sliced (or pickled red onions, or thinly sliced dill or bread & butter pickles)
Instructions
- Cut the chicken up into bite-sized pieces and transfer to a large bowl. Slice the scallions and add them to the bowl with the smoked chicken. Add the roasted red pepper and grilled onion to your food processor or blender. Once that is well blended, add the yogurt and blend. Add the lemon juice and dijon. Blend again and then taste. Do you want to add more lemon juice?
- Add half of the roasted red pepper dressing to the smoked chicken (or all of it if you are using 2 pounds of chicken). Toss to coat. Then add the paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
- Put the avocado in a bowl and smash with a bit of lemon juice. Remember, each slice of toast will need around 1/2 of an avocado. Thinly slice your cucumber. Using a spatula, spread a layer of avocado on the toasted side of the toast. Then layer with the thinly sliced cucumber. Think of this almost like laying down shingles of cucumber—they slightly overlap each other. Sprinkle the cucumber with a bit of salt (and pepper if you like). Add the smoked chicken salad on top of the cucumbers. Top the smoked chicken salad with the hot cherry peppers (or your pickled element of choice) and the reserved scallion slices.
Notes
Remember to refer to the website for additional information
