Cathy's Chicken Salad with Schmaltz Mayo

Not Eating Out in NY

  • Not Eating Out in NY
  • Not Eating Out in NY
  • Not Eating Out in NY
  • Not Eating Out in NY
  • Not Eating Out in NY
  • Not Eating Out in NY

INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife, split the chicken by cutting straight through the center of the breast vertically. Splay the chicken open and season both sides generously with salt and pepper. Preheat a large cast-iron pan (at least 9” in diameter) with the tablespoon of oil over medium-

high heat. Once the pan is hot, place the chicken skin side-down on the pan. Let cook without turning or moving the chicken about 5 minutes, or until the underside is golden-brown when peeking with tongs. Flip the chicken over carefully with tongs.

Transfer the cast-iron pan to the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and cook for another 30-40 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reads 170 when a thermometer is placed in between the thigh and leg.

Lift chicken with tongs, letting any excess juices drip onto the pan, and transfer to a bowl. Let cool a few minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely, at least 1 hour.

Scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a spatula. Pour the pan drippings into a small bowl and whisk. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, place the egg yolk, separated from its white entirely. Whisk in the grated garlic and lemon juice. While whisking rapidly, slowly pour in a few drops of the chicken pan drippings. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in the remaining chicken fat. Mixture should appear light in color and slightly thickened. Whisk in the mustard and mayonnaise, and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Pick the meat (and skin if you like) from the cooled chicken and coarsely chop.

Combine with the chopped celery, scallion, optional sundried tomatoes and fresh herbs. Stir in the chicken fat aioli until thoroughly incorporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Can be kept refrigerated up to 1 day before serving. To assemble the sandwiches, spread the chicken salad onto the halved baguettes and top with the lettuces. Place the opposite half of the baguette on top and cut horizontally into 6 sandwiches.

 

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

MODERATE

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SERVES

1

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PREP TIME

90 MINS

  • 3-3 1/4 
    lb 
    whole chicken
  • 1 
    tbsp 
    olive oil
  • 2 
    sprigs 
    fresh rosemary
  • 1/2  
    cup 
    chicken pan drippings (juice and fat)
  • 1 
     
    egg yolk
  • 1 
    tbsp 
    fresh lemon juice
  • 1-2 
    tbsp 
    whole-grain mustard
  • 1 
    clove 
    garlic, grated or minced and crushed
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    mayonnaise
  • 3 
    stalks 
    celery
  • 3 
     
    scallions, finely chopped
  • 1/2  
    cup 
    assorted fresh herbs, chopped (such as parsley, thyme, oregano, more rosemary)
  •  
     
    salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 
     
    long baguettes
  •  
     
    lettuce or baby greens for the sandwiches

INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife, split the chicken by cutting straight through the center of the breast vertically. Splay the chicken open and season both sides generously with salt and pepper. Preheat a large cast-iron pan (at least 9” in diameter) with the tablespoon of oil over medium-

high heat. Once the pan is hot, place the chicken skin side-down on the pan. Let cook without turning or moving the chicken about 5 minutes, or until the underside is golden-brown when peeking with tongs. Flip the chicken over carefully with tongs.

Transfer the cast-iron pan to the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and cook for another 30-40 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reads 170 when a thermometer is placed in between the thigh and leg.

Lift chicken with tongs, letting any excess juices drip onto the pan, and transfer to a bowl. Let cool a few minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely, at least 1 hour.

Scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a spatula. Pour the pan drippings into a small bowl and whisk. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, place the egg yolk, separated from its white entirely. Whisk in the grated garlic and lemon juice. While whisking rapidly, slowly pour in a few drops of the chicken pan drippings. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in the remaining chicken fat. Mixture should appear light in color and slightly thickened. Whisk in the mustard and mayonnaise, and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Pick the meat (and skin if you like) from the cooled chicken and coarsely chop.

Combine with the chopped celery, scallion, optional sundried tomatoes and fresh herbs. Stir in the chicken fat aioli until thoroughly incorporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Can be kept refrigerated up to 1 day before serving. To assemble the sandwiches, spread the chicken salad onto the halved baguettes and top with the lettuces. Place the opposite half of the baguette on top and cut horizontally into 6 sandwiches.

 

Cathy Erway, the woman behind Not Eating Out in New York, might be your favorite food blogger, but eating with Cathy is no different that eating with one of your closest friends.

Ever since I began Salad For President, I have had a nagging concern: if one is always photographing/tweeting/instagramming their food, their shared meals, their dinner parties, do they risk alienating the people who share their real-life table?  It is a challenge to remain present and to also be diligent in creating content for a food blog, but Cathy Erway has got it down to a science.

Cathy and I decided that her guest appearance on Salad For Present would involve a casual Potluck gathering in Prospect Park. She is a laid back and intuitive cook, focused on playing the part of the gracious hostess. And, it goes without saying that she does make a mean chicken salad. Schmaltz (the yiddish word for rendered animal fat), for those of you who are not familiar, is the rendered fat and pan drippings from a roasted chicken.  It is packed with flavor, and a brilliant substitute for the vegetable oil normally used to make mayonnaise.

Aside from her wildly popular blog, Cathy Erway is the author of The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending, which was named one of the “Top Favorite Cookbooks” of 2010 by Serious Eats. It was based on her two years of going without restaurant food and her blog on that topic. Her second book will debut this Spring.

Cathy hosts the weekly talk radio show podcast, Eat Your Words, on Heritage Radio Network and has written about food for publications including The Huffington Post, Saveur, PAPER Magazine, Serious Eats, Civil Eats and Edible Brooklyn.

All these accomplishments aside, Cathy is just the kind of girl with whom you want to lounge on a picnic blanket, tap a vodka-filled watermelon and spend the day relaxing in the sun.

 

Cathy Erway in her own words

Julia: When you started your blog, were you pioneering the effort to cook and entertain amongst your friends? Judging by the contributions to the picnic, it seems like your friends are quite enthusiastic about food and cooking,

Cathy: At the time, a lot of my friends were interested in food, but for all of us, convening over great food served as a catalyst for meeting new people and having a good time. I met a lot of friends through cook-offs, food blogging meet-ups, and other food-related events.

Julia: How did the blog gain followers and become so popular? It doesn’t seem like you set out to do the project for that reason. What do you think makes your blog so appealing to a wide range of readers?

Cathy: I think the blog was somewhat polarizing at first. Whatever people’s reactions were, it did inspire questions and conversation. When I began blogging in 2006, it seemed that being a food enthusiast in NYC meant that you ate at all the hot new restaurants, knew the chefs, etc. My blog was providing a very different perspective.

Julia: Now that you are no longer boycotting restaurants, how often do you eat out? What were the first restaurant meals you ate after your two year hiatus?

Cathy: I eat out occasionally, but it’s not a habit. At the end of two-years of cooking exclusively at home, I actually enacted an “opposite week” where everything I ingested came from a restaurant. I hit the whole spectrum — trendy new restaurants, boring delis, pizza shops, dim sum in Flushing Queens, etc.

Julia: Have you ever calculated how much money you saved by cooking at home exclusively?

Cathy: I did compare those back-to-back weeks at the end of the experiment – my final week of only eating at home, as compared to the following week of only eating in restaurants. I saved about $300, even though friends treated me to some of those restaurant meals.

Julia: Reason #20 on your Reason of The Month page of your blog is “Book Deal.” Tell me about your forthcoming book, and how it differs from your last book.

Cathy: My first book was a narrative memoir, with only a couple recipes at the end of each chapter. There were no photos, no color. I could do it all from my laptop. My next book is a comprehensive cookbook on Taiwanese food and food culture. I found that no previous US author had covered this topic, so it necessitated a lot of intensive research.The book features about 100 recipes, many accompanied by images. This required considerable travel time in Taiwan, taking photos and doing research. After four trips to Taiwan, the book was something I really wanted to do, so I’m just really excited that the book is actually coming out next Spring!

Julia: Your radio show focuses on cookbooks and their authors. What is your favorite cookbook right now?

Cathy: I really liked Chad Robertson’s Tartine No. 3, about using ancient grains and finding new and old methods of bread-baking.I hoard cookbooks and love collecting ones for every cuisine or country in the world. I really like the Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anaussassan, which thoroughly chronicles the cuisine of an ethnic group that hasn’t been given much consideration by popular culture, restaurants or the media.

Julia: Why should people get their recipes and inspiration from food bloggers as opposed to/in addition to celebrity chefs and magazines?

Cathy: In this day in age, food bloggers can also be “celebrity chefs.” All told, I think it’s important to find food mentors whose perspective and intentions you trust. This is more valuable to the average home-chef, than paid entertainers producing sensational web content. People want reliable, practical, relatable recipes and/or food stories that they can honestly relate to.