Today with unusual salads you will not surprise anyone. We are already accustomed to the fact that in their composition are not only well-known vegetables and boiled sausage, but also all kinds of exotic ingredients. However, not everyone likes a not quite familiar combination of products. And so sometimes you want something that seems to be simple, but at the same time not quite ordinary. This is where the Turtle Salad will come to the rescue. Its components are more than familiar to our kitchen, so literally everyone will like it, but an unusually beautiful external design will allow serving this dish not only on a casual, but also on a festive table. Believe me, the hostess will not be ashamed!
Tortoise salad with chicken and apple is quite a hearty dish, so it can be served as an appetizer or as an independent dish, supplemented with just a baguette or bread. Moreover, its composition can be changed, supplementing with certain ingredients. The only thing to keep in mind is that any turtle salad recipe (with chicken and apples as a classic or its variations) implies the presence of four essential ingredients in a dish. These are chicken, cheese, eggs and apples, the latter being preferably green. In all other respects, including refueling, the hostess can experiment as she wants. But before talking about how to prepare a turtle salad with chicken and apple, you should raise a few general questions regarding its design.
How to make a turtle?
This salad belongs to the category of layered. Well, in order to get exactly a turtle, each layer must be laid out initially in the form of an oval, thereby creating, as it were, its body. A boiled egg is ideal for the head, and peas of black pepper for the eyes. As for the carapace, in the classic version it is made from walnuts (you can take their whole halves and chopped kernels), but no one forbids and replace them with other ingredients - for example, olives, grapes. Some housewives even cover the body of the turtle with pieces of kiwi, which is especially popular with kids.
By and large, everything is quite simple. We are moving from theory to practice. So, prepare the turtle salad with chicken and apple.
Classic version
In order to prepare the Turtle salad with chicken and apple, the photo of which we present in our article for better clarity, the hostess should take care of the presence of the following components in her refrigerator:
- Legs - 2 pcs.
- An apple (preferably green) is also two.
- Walnuts - one hundred grams is enough.
- Hard cheese any - about two hundred grams.
- There are five eggs.
- Mayonnaise - 150 grams.
- Bulbs - 1 pc.
You will also need two peas of black pepper, plus, of course, salt. To decorate the dish on which the Turtle salad with chicken and apple will be located, you can buy Beijing cabbage. Its leaves will serve as an excellent background for a cute edible turtle.
How to cook
Boiled legs in - required! - salted water. In parallel, cook the eggs. Peel the apples, then rub on a coarse grater, do the same with cheese. Naturally, for each ingredient we use a separate container. Free the onion from the husk, finely chop. Grind the nuts. The yolks and squirrels of four eggs are rubbed - separately - on a fine grater. Cut the meat into small pieces. All. The preparatory phase is over. You can make a "turtle." As already mentioned, the salad is prepared in layers. We coat each of the layers with mayonnaise. First, spread the squirrels, then the meat, then the onions, apples on top, cheese on them, sprinkle with yolk, and then make the shell of crushed nuts. The head, as already mentioned, can be made from an egg, the eyes from peas. And the legs are made from whole pieces of walnut. That's all. It remains only to let the salad soak in mayonnaise, for which it needs to be placed at least for several hours in the refrigerator.
"Turtle" with prunes
So, we looked at how to cook a turtle salad with chicken and apple. You won’t spoil this dish with prunes, so we’ll try to experiment and introduce this ingredient into the turtle. And replace the onions with green, and the thighs with fillets. Just white meat is better combined with prunes, and green onions will not interrupt, but subtly emphasize the taste of this exquisite tandem. So, stock up:
- Chicken fillet - 2 pieces are enough.
- Eggs in the amount of four pieces.
- Cheese - about 100 g.
- Prunes - 100 g.
- Walnuts - 100 grams.
- Onion green - a small bunch is enough.
- A bag of mayonnaise.
Cooking
In general, the cooking process is the same as that described in the classic version. So, perhaps, we will not repeat ourselves. As for the sequence of layers, it is as follows: proteins, fillets, onions, apples, yolks, cheese, prunes. From above we form a shell of walnuts, which, for greater attractiveness, can be decorated with thin stripes of prunes, we make the head and legs. Salad "Turtle" with chicken and apples, slightly modified due to green onions, prunes and fillets, is ready. Welcome to the table!
Tortoise Salad with Smoked Chicken and Apple
So, we continue to experiment. Let’s try to make a salad not with ordinary, but with smoked chicken. It would seem a trifle, but the taste of this dish will already be completely different, especially since we will also add pickled cucumbers, and instead of green we take leeks. We stock up:
- Smoked chicken - take 400 g.
- Eggs - five pieces.
- Hard (any grade) cheese - 150 g.
- Pickled cucumbers - 4 pieces.
- Leek - 1 pcs. enough.
- Walnuts - about 150 g.
- Light mayonnaise.
Cooking method
We chop the chicken and cucumbers as small as possible, cheese, eggs, as in previous cases, we rub on a grater (shallow). Grind the nuts in a blender. As for leek, we cut it very thinly. The dish itself can be decorated first with lettuce leaves, on which we will spread the salad on top, again, naturally, in layers, not forgetting to grease each with mayonnaise. First, chicken (half), then onion, after the egg, then cucumbers and chicken again, at the end - cheese and walnuts. On the carapace for beauty, you can draw a net with mayonnaise, as for the head, then we make it again from the egg, the legs from nuts.
And how many calories?
Of course, for those who are accustomed to starting their morning with weighing, the Turtle salad with chicken and apple may not be suitable . Its calorie content , despite, in general, dietary components, is quite high. One hundred grams of it (in the classic version) contains about 250 kcal. By and large, not so much. Especially if you do not get carried away by the absorption of this culinary masterpiece. In addition, the salad can be made less nutritious by replacing the most high-calorie part of it - mayonnaise - with low-fat yogurt. Yes, the taste of this will change a little, but the size of the waist will not suffer. And, of course, for those who are used to counting each added gram to weight, it is best to make a salad in the simplest version, using only chicken, green apples, eggs and cheese. Sometimes you can make a salad with prunes, the presence of which, to the extent, of course, does not affect the parameters of the figure. As for smoked meat, it is still better to refuse it.