Chicken Nicoise Salad

For years I've always wanted to try a Nicoise salad but have always shied away because of the tuna. I'm not a huge fan of tuna unless it's in a spicy sushi roll, for whatever reason. But I had a revelation when I realized, who says it has to be tuna? Why not chicken and better yet, why not rotisserie chicken? Actually I had planned on roasting and shredding my own chicken, but after boiling my eggs and potatoes, I went to the fridge to discover I had only mentally taken out the chicken from the freezer to defrost. Such is life.

If you have never had a nicoise salad, it is a perfect salad for summer. The dressing is a simple, yet flavorful dressing and while potatoes, green beans, boiled egg, tomatoes and nicoise olives are traditional, you can add pretty much what you like in a salad. Cucumbers are not traditional, but I was cleaning out the fridge and it seemed like a good way to get rid of them.

Chicken Salad Nicoise

hard boiled eggs

green beans, blanched

nicoise olives or kalamata

rotisserie chicken, shredded

new potatoes, boiled

tomatoes, quartered

lettuce

white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

juice of a lemon

chopped dill

1 garlic clove, crushed

salt and pepper

olive oil

To make the dressing, in a sealable container, combine lemon juice, Dijon mustard, dill, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. The amount of olive oil depends on the amount of juice of the lemon. A typical vinaigrette will be 2 parts olive oil to 1 part acid.

Pour a small amount of dressing over lettuce, warm potatoes and warm green beans. Pour a small amount of vinegar over beans. Salt tomatoes and eggs.

Arrange ingredients on plate. Transport yourself to southern France.

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