Author: Monda Rosenberg

Looking for a stunning, light, summer dinner? Marry crisp cool greens – or more substantial grains if you want something heartier – with moist chicken, whether it’s pulled from a rotisserie bird, hot off the grill or left over from last night’s feast. Here are some awesome combos to get you started.

1. PARTY COBB

A Cobb salad – not tossed and not shaken – is the perfect choice for a party because it’s laid out in rows so people can choose only the things they love. (Don’t like red onion? Don’t take any!) There are no must-haves – but I have never seen one that didn’t include chicken. Other suspects often appearing in the lineup include crisp romaine, julienned peppers, chopped tomatoes, avocado chunks, cucumber slices, crisp bacon and crunchy croutons. Add a current touch with rows of arugula, roasted peppers, shaved fennel, pickled jalapenos and a mix of olives. Offer at least 3 dressing choices: an ultra-creamy Caesar, a classic vinaigrette laced with fresh herbs and a homemade green goddess dressing.

2. ROYAL CURRIED CHICKEN

There’s something about a curried chicken salad that makes me think of the impressive Taj Mahal. Just mix curry powder or curry paste into mayo, and add some ground cumin for extra oomph. Besides chicken, you must have chopped apple, raisins or dried apricots, diced celery and some chopped almonds. Remember, it gets better if it sits in the refrigerator overnight – making it perfect for lunch boxes. Another road to take is to simply add chicken to last night’s curried cauliflower along with fresh coriander.

3. GRILLED CHICKEN CAESAR

Take your fave Caesar salad and ramp up the flavour and protein quotient by adding slices of hot barbecued chicken, garlic bread that’s been grilled on the BBQ and then cut up into chunky croutons;use prosciutto strips in place of bacon. Oh yes, boost the creamy dressing with anchovy paste, capers and fresh lemon juice.

4. SMART FRUIT & NUT TOSS

Since chicken goes with just about everything, it’s a natural to add chicken chunks to a spinach salad with sliced strawberries, nectarines or peaches. Toss with a honeyandcider vinegar dressing. Scatter with spicy sugared almonds for a healthy crunch.

5. THAI MANGO SALAD

Shred chicken and combine with slivers of mango, shredded carrot, strips of red pepper, fresh mint and coriander. The dressing is important: Combine 2 tbsp (30 mL) each of fish sauce, oil and sugar with the juice of 2 limes. Add some softened rice noodles if you like, or serve on greens.

6. GRILLED VEGETABLE SALAD

You’ve probably cooked up a mess of grilled vegetables before to use as a side dish. Well, add cut-up chicken from pieces that you grilled along with the veggies, then toss it all up with zesty Italian dressing and some torn fresh basil leaves…and dinner’s done! Marvelous warm, at room temperature or chilled.

7. SUPER - GRAINS SALAD

Brighten up cooked quinoa, farro or barley with a sherry-vinegar dressing – and besides tossing in shredded chicken, consider add-ins such as olives, cucumbers, marinated artichokes and sliced cherry tomatoes or halved green grapes.

8. ASIAN RICE SALAD

Start with brown or basmati rice. Make an Asian-flavoured dressing with rice vinegar whisked with sesame oil, grated ginger and hot-garlic chili sauce. Add shredded chicken with blanched snow peas, chopped mango or papaya, red peppers and cilantro.

9. SOUVLAKI GREEK SALAD

Take your favourite Greek salad over the top by adding skewers of chicken that you’ve grilled up on the barbecue. Begin by marinating chopped tomatoes and chunks of Greek feta in a garlicky Italian dressing for at least a couple of hours or overnight. Then chop cucumber and add with salad greens and wine-marinated kalamata olives plus lots of fresh mint and fresh oregano. After tossing add the hot barbecued chicken pieces.

10. NOT-SO-CLASSIC NIÇOISE SALAD

Sub chicken for the tuna in a traditional Niçoise salad, and

marinate both the chicken and potatoes in a traditional French vinaigrette livened up with chopped anchovies and lots of capers. Be sure to add tender-crisp green beans. Once you’ve plated the salad, sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves and serve with slices of olive focaccia bread. Yum!

Every week, we answer real questions from readers like you, This is another installment in the Dear Chicken Farmer series. If you’ve got a question about chicken or chicken farming in Canada, send us a note to Dear Chicken Farmer and we’ll do our best to answer it. Dear Chicken Farmer: Is bruised chicken okay to eat? No, it isn't harmful to eat as long as the chicken is cooked to the proper internal temperature (74ºC for parts and 85ºC for a whole chicken). If it happens often, I would consider talking to your grocer about it. You should also know that blood spots or bruises are not a result of how the chickens are raised. Check back next week for more questions and answers, or take a look at past questions.

Every week, we answer real questions from readers like you, This is another installment in the Dear Chicken Farmer series.

Every week, we answer real questions from readers like you, This is another installment in the Dear Chicken Farmer series. If you’ve got a question about chicken or chicken farming in Canada, send us a note to Dear Chicken Farmer and we’ll do our best to answer it. Dear Chicken Farmer: I have several questions about chicken:

1. What should we know about chicken?
2. Where is chicken produced in Canada?
3. Under what conditions are chickens raised?
4. How is chicken processed?
5. How is chicken transported?

This is another installment in our ongoing series Dear Chicken Farmer. Real questions asked by Canadians and answered by the Chicken Farmers of Canada. If you’ve got a question about chicken or chicken farming in Canada, send us a note to Dear Chicken Farmer and we’ll do our best to answer it. Dear Chicken Farmer: We bought a fresh chicken, approximately 10 lbs, and put it in the freezer. It took one and a half days to thaw in the refrigerator and when we cooked and cut it, the breast meat along the bone was green. Should we be concerned? It’s hard to say definitively what caused the meat to be green, but it was likely from a damaged blood vessel. This isn’t a food safety concern, even if you ate it. It’s something that rarely happens and cannot always be detected at the processing plant. It’s kind of like a bruise, except that it’s from a high level of exertion like strong flapping of the wings. Chickens in the barn will flap their wings and perhaps that chicken did it hard enough to damage a blood vessel. If this ever happens again, you should take the chicken back to the grocery store or butcher for an exchange. Check back next week for more questions and answers.

This is another installment in our ongoing series Dear Chicken Farmer - real questions asked by Canadians and answered by the Chicken Farmers of Canada. If you’ve got a question about chicken or chicken farming in Canada, send us a note to Dear Chicken Farmer and we’ll do our best to answer it. Dear Chicken Farmer: I have an ongoing problem with roasting free-range chickens. I brine them and roast them on a rack until the internal temperature reaches 170ºF. Despite reaching the doneness temperature, there is always red around the joints. I am reluctant to roast them to 190ºF or so as they would be so dry. What should I do? Regardless of whether your chicken is free-range or traditionally raised, you should be roasting a whole chicken to 185ºF or 85ºC. It won’t dry out, especially with the brine. Our cooking temperature for whole chickens is the same as that recommended by Health Canada. We carried out a study about 10 years ago now that indicated that 185 was the appropriate temperature; however, Health Canada is doing some further testing and the temperature might be lowered just slightly. When I cook a whole chicken at home, I do cook it to that temperature. I use a leave-in thermometer while it is cooking and when it reaches 185ºF I take it out of the oven. It hasn’t been dry. You can also try putting lemon halves in the cavity, which helps keep it moist. Check back next week for more questions and answers.

We get real questions about chicken every day from people like you, so we figured we would share some of those real-life questions and answers with you here every week. If you’ve got a question about chicken or chicken farming in Canada, send us a note to Dear Chicken Farmer and we’ll do our best to answer it. Dear Chicken Farmer: Does any of the chicken sold in Canada come from China? Canada does not import any chicken meat from China. In 2007, the four countries of origin for chicken meat imports were, in descending order: the U.S., Brazil, Thailand (cooked product only) and Chile. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is currently examining the Chinese chicken industry in response to import requests, but as yet no veterinary agreements, necessary for the paperwork that accompanies food imports, have been signed. Canada’s chicken industry provides most of the chicken consumed in Canada through a system called “supply management” which matches production to demand to ensure a consistent amount of high quality chicken is available to consumers. Check back next week for more questions and answers.