If the continued quarantine is making you a little nuts, fight back by eating some Shredded Chicken with Toasted Walnuts and Shallot Oil! This recipe with poached chicken and shallots slow cooked in walnut oil requires several steps but is overall pretty easy. It can be a main course for a light meal or an appetizer. It’s especially nice if you’re asked to bring a plate to a potluck or other group gathering. And one other thing – it can be any other nut including slivered almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts….you pick. You could also use almond or olive oil or any other neutral oil that you have on hand.
To start you want to chop and lightly toast the nuts and set aside. Then you will poach the chicken gently over a very low flame until just cooked. If the chicken is skin on leave it on. It will impart flavor and you can remove it after it’s cooled. Once cooked remove the skin, let cool, and shred. I specify legs here but you may also use thighs. Actually, you can use anything but dark meat is moister and better for this recipe.
How to make crispy shallots and shallot infused walnut oil
Next up is the star of the show.
The Shallots! Sounds like a bad Vegas act but no, it’s slowly carefully cooked to perfect crispness thinly sliced fancy pants onions. However, they cannot be hurried. They must be cooked on low heat, and for the first 10 or 12 minutes it will look like nothing is happening. Towards the end though you must watch them carefully since they’ll burn quickly once all their moisture has evaporated.
Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and let them drain. Take the oil off the heat and let it cool for a couple then stir in the garlic, green onions and pepper.
Pile it up on a plate and surround with the shallots that you haven’t already eaten and serve it forth!
Quick Faker Version: This involves left over or rotisserie chicken (think Costco) and canned fried onion rings like the ones you put on the green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. The oil can be nut oil or even garlic-infused olive oil. Chop the green onions and red bell pepper, mix into chicken, bind with the oil, top with the toasted nuts, pop the top on the canned rings, surround the salad and dig in!
- For the Walnuts:
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped
- For the Chicken:
- 1.5 lbs chicken legs (or leg & thigh parts)
- For the flavored oil:
- ¼ cup toasted walnut oil (or mild olive oil)
- ½ lb. shallots, sliced thin
- The ingredients below are added after you remove the cooked shallots and take the oil off the heat
- 1 tablespoon garlic, grated
- 3 tablespoons green onions, sliced
- 1 tablespoon red pepper, finely minced (this can be hot or sweet)
- For the Walnuts:
- Chop roughly and toast over medium flame in a pan on the stove top, set aside.
- For the Chicken:
- Boil on low heat in lightly salted water to cover for about 20 minutes or until chicken is falling off the bone.
- Remove & let cool.
- For the seasoned oil:
- Thinly slice shallots. If you have a mandolin use that for uniform slices.
- Pour the oil into a small saucepan with the heat VERY LOW and add the shallots cooking until brown & crispy. This can take 15 minutes. Towards the end of that time watch it carefully because it crisps up fast.
- Remove shallots, drain, and set aside.
- For the Assembly:
- Remove chicken skin and shred.
- Stir the garlic, pepper and green onion slices into the warm oil and pour over chicken.
- Garnish with chopped walnuts & toasted shallots.