Matthew McConaughey wants a second Academy Award for his recipes. His recipe for tuna salad went viral in November, and now he’s on the cusp of culinary fame once more, this time for his hen salad. In an interview with Meals & Wine, McConaughey broke down all of his finest ideas for making a killer hen salad at dwelling.
Don’t fear: His recipe for hen salad doesn’t require a mixture of head-turning components like his tuna salad. Although admittedly, we’re now in a dedicated relationship with crispy jalapenos, because of him. As a substitute, McConaughey claims the important thing to an incredible hen salad begins with the fundamentals: a well-cooked hen.
What’s McConaughey’s secret?
OK, let’s speak turkey…er…hen. McConaughey says the very best hen salad is made with a complete roasted hen. He doesn’t wish to fiddle with cooking smaller cuts of hen, saying, “I don’t like items of hen being cooked. I feel…in the event you can prepare dinner a complete hen…that’s significantly better than cooking only a breast or cooking only a wing or cooking only a hen piece on the grill. It will get too dry the opposite approach.”
He has a degree. It’s rather more troublesome to dry out a complete hen. Roasting low and gradual within the oven (e.g., Ina Garten’s excellent roast hen) doesn’t expose the meat to direct warmth like grilling or searing; quite, it cooks the hen evenly. The pores and skin, fats and bones of a complete hen all work in tandem to lock in moisture. You may as well roast your hen with lemon, herbs, spices and different aromatics to layer further taste into your hen salad.
True, roasting a complete hen does take extra time than different cooking strategies, so it is probably not doable each time. Fortunately, you’ll be able to take a shortcut if obligatory and go for a superb grocery retailer rotisserie hen as a substitute.
How does he make his hen salad?
As soon as the chook is totally cooked, the true magic begins. McConaughey believes hen ought to all the time be shredded and by no means chopped. “You pull it off the bone. That’s my favourite hen salad when it’s pulled off the bone, not chopped,” he says.
Shredded hen is simpler to pile excessive on a sandwich (chopped hen doesn’t keep in place as nicely). It additionally provides the hen salad extra textural variation, with raggedy edges to seize the mayo.
McConaughey begins the bottom for his hen salad the identical approach he begins his tuna salad: with a mixture of mayonnaise, olive oil and Italian dressing. You’ll be able to both select a superb model of Italian dressing or strive home made Italian dressing. Simply be sure to have one thing with acidity from lemon juice and/or vinegar plus herbs like oregano and basil.
What else does he use within the recipe?
Like his tuna salad recipe, it’s all about utilizing no matter you’ve readily available. His household hates throwing away meals and takes a zero-waste strategy to meal planning at dwelling. “On Sunday night time, on the finish of the week, you don’t order something. You don’t have a deliberate dinner,” McConaughey says to Meals & Wine. “You open up the fridge, and every little thing that’s nonetheless clearly good, that’s within the fridge, that’s leftover, and also you get all of them out. You begin to say, nicely, what sort of meal can we make out of this?”
Matthew has put every little thing from chopped pears to hearts of palm into his hen salad, so it’s really an anything-goes recipe. What’s so masterful about his strategy is his understanding of stability when combining leftover components. He brings equal sweetness, saltiness, warmth and acidity to his hen salad and tuna salad creations.
The ethical of the story? It doesn’t matter what you select to place in your recipe, whether or not it’s a standard hen salad with grapes and nuts or extra left-field with wasabi and agave, stability is essential.