chicken mayonnaise salad with cos and asparagus
entrée for 6
the meat of 1 poached chicken — click here to go to poaching technique
2 bunches of thick stemmed (real) asparagus, tough ends snapped off, thinly diagonally sliced
1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon drained capers
12 cornichons, finely sliced
½ bunch dill, stalked, few sprigs reserved and rest chopped
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled, 4 sliced and 2 quartered
250ml lemon mayonnaise — refer to the recipe index
1 large cos, washed and dried, larger leaves broken up, smaller leaves left whole
Method
Blanche the asparagus (see image below) very quickly in boiling salted water with a little extra virgin olive oil. Drain and refresh under cold running water.
Just before serving, put everything except the quartered eggs and whole cos leaves into a bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix gently. Using the small cos leaves t make the salad look attractive plate the dish and garnish with the quartered eggs and serve.
tip — we also make this into a Russian salad, adding cooked carrot dice, green peas, finely chopped blanched beans and replace the dill with tarragon and add a tablespoon of whole grain mustard, we especially love the Beerenberg Hahndorf Hot Mustard to the base mayonnaise. The cos is not added to the salad and only used as an edible garnish underneath the salad.
