Sometimes you have to wrestle with a recipe a bit before you land in a spot that suits you.
This recipe appealed to me on several accounts. For one thing, once the snow recedes, it's chive season in my alley garden until snow falls again, so I'm always happy to find new recipes to use what amounts to a free commodity at my house. Also, I had bought a small jar of za'atar to use in another recipe that, ahem, I have yet to make, so it's a spice purchase guilt that needs to be assuaged.
What didn't appeal to me about the original recipe was it was designed for a lettuce cup form. I object to it on the grounds of both structural integrity — pretty soon after you start eating them, you're basically looking a deconstructed salad that requires utensils — and it calls for romaine lettuce. I get why they specified that: With its firm ribs it's as good a candidate as any for trying to stand up to being pressed into service as a bread replacement. But while I can eat the leafy parts of romaine without ill effects, the ribs contain the same substance that makes iceberg lettuce crunchy, and me and a small subset of the population nauseous.
So first I figured I'd just toss it all together like a salad.
Tahini chicken salad
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, March 2023. If you want to make the original recipe, buy romaine leaves to serve as lettuce cups. Not finding it on their website to link to, however.
Ingredients
¼ cup tahini
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons za’atar spice mixture
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ cup salt
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 cup finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Lettuce or other green leaves for lining bowl
1 cup thinly sliced cucumber
1 cup chopped cherry or grape tomatoes
Method
In a small bowl, combine tahini, lemon juice, olive oil,
garlic, mustard, za’atar, cumin and salt. If tahini is thick, add a bit of
water to get desired consistency.
In a medium bowl, mix chicken, celery, chives and enough of
the dressing to reach desired consistency. I found it took much of it, but not
all of it.
If serving as a salad, place lettuce leaves at the base of a
bowl (or plates if you’re plating it instead of passing it). Top with chicken
mixture. Top with cucumber and grape tomatoes. Pass extra dressing on the side.
If you’re serving as a wrap or sandwich, spread a thin layer
of extra dressing on the wrap or bread. Top with cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce
and roll up or top with the second slice of bread.
Rating: That dressing is very tasty and it make a very nice chicken salad dressing base. The cumin and za'atar add a really nice flavor to the tahini dressing. But even with water added it's too sludgy to really play well with the lettuce greens and just turns them to mush.
Take 2: So I tried it again as written above, this time mixing the chicken, celery and chives and placing that on a bed of lettuce with the cucumbers and tomatoes on top. It worked better, and I still really liked that dressing mixed with the chicken. (That dressing could totally work as a veggie dip.)
Take 3: But what I realized is this really wants to be a wrap, just not in lettuce form. or else a sandwich. Otherwise there's just too much disconnect otherwise between the lettuce component and the salad itself. Sure enough, in wrap form, this was a dandy chicken salad sandwich.
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