Since I am sick to death of using left over chicken breast on salad for lunch, I decided to take a recipe from my BFF Pam Romick, buffalo chicken soup and adapt it to make something new~~buffalo chicken salad. I took the basic ingredients but added my own little zing~~diced chorizo and prosciutto hock.
I am always looking for new ingredients to play with, and on my last trip to the Italian grocery store, Gallucci's in Cleveland, I hit pay dirt. In addition to my usual Spanish chorizo, sopressa (wonderful italian salami), five different olive salads, pickled eggplant and peppers, fresh ricotta and buffalo mozzarella, homemade italian sausage, hot and mild and of course, capicola, they found a bin of prosciutto hocks. I had never heard of prosciutto hocks. I was told by trusted deli dude that prosciutto hocks are great soups or stews. The meat is so tender it melts in your mouth. That was all I needed.
If you like buffalo wings, YOU WILL LOVE THIS dish. I have come up with a great combination to give this already spicy dish a blast of additional flavor!! Oh, if you do not have both chorizo and prosciutto hocks, I suggest you get one or both before preparing this dish. You only need a little of each, so after using what you need put the remainder in the freezer for another time. It will last you quite a while.
So here it is, let me know if you try it and what you think.
Ingredients
1 chicken breast cooked, chopped and skin off
3 tablespoons each:
olive oil or unrefined coconut oil
finely diced chorizo
finely diced prosciutto meat from the hock (you can use regular prosciutto if you cannot find the hock, but believe, the deli dude was right, the meat from the hock is wonderfully silky and so full flavor)
finely diced shallot
finely diced garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon cream cheese (I do not use low or no fat cream cheese; to me, the ingredients in those varieties are worse for you than the original, so I just use a small amount of the original)
1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce (you can use another brand but Frank's works for me)
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup black beans, home cooked or from can (rinsed)
Sprinkle of dill, either fresh or dried
Heat frying pan with olive oil, add finely diced chorizo and prosciutto, cook 1 minute to extract flavor;
Add shallot and garlic, cook another minute until soft
Add chopped chicken and mix with other ingredients in pan;
Add butter, honey and cream cheese to pan stir until melted
Add hot sauce and bring to boil. Cook one minute.
Add black beans to heat
Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes
Add dill
Place on a bed or romaine lettuce (I use romaine because it holds up well with the warm buffalo chicken.)
If you want, you can add a little ranch dressing to the top of the salad. (I make my own with dried buttermilk, dried dill, powdered garlic and onion mixed together with coconut or almond milk. So good.)
Enjoy!
