Not Your Grandmother's Waldorf

I remember my grandma's waldorf salad-- an interesting mix of both fruit and vegetables, all mixed up with a paste-like dressing. I have never been a huge mayonnaise fan, but yet I was enthralled with the waldorf dressing. A little mayonnaise, a touch of whipped cream, could it be? Sweet yet tangy, light and lustrous, this dressing seemed to have it all. I would sit at the table, a dish of the mellifluous concoction before me, both repulsed and intoxicated.

Now it's been years since I have partaken in this salad of yore. And just the thought of it, I must say, repulses rather more than intoxicates me. But the basics of the waldorf salad are good ones. It has good bones. It's just the dressing that must be updated, made more palatable for my 21st century tastebuds. And so I resorted to a vinaigrette; and I added chicken. Think of this salad an an ode to ladies who lunch.

The chicken salad, like the waldorf, harkens back to a more simple day. Let's put it this way, when ladies (because, come on, they were mostly the diners) were nibbling upon their chicken salad served on toast points, they were not then racing home to illegally download the latest episode of The O.C. onto their Powerbook G4. But that is not to say that we cannot consume the updated chicken salad during said episode.

Earlier this week I made a roasted chicken. It was delicious, steaming hot from the oven, skin crackly and brown. But it was too much for Brian and I to eat in one sitting. Enter the Waldorf Chicken Salad. Some shredded chicken, sliced celery, chucks of sweet-tart apples, toasted pecans, and the piece de resistance, blue cheese, and there you have it. I added a warm vinaigrette of sliced shallots, white wine vinegar, oil, and honey. The warmth from the dressing melted the cheese a bit, creating a rich, and sumptuous sauce.

The salad was a perfect mix of old and new. And I even thought of my grandma's staunchly sweet waldorf salad while I gobbled up my lighter version. If you would like the recipe for this Waldorf Chicken Salad, it is on the Daily Specials page.