Cold Chicken and Avocado with Chile Chipotle: Pollo, Aguacate y Chile Chipotle en Frío

So, it’s summer. I made this quite a while ago - I just haven't gotten around to writing this post - but it already felt like summer here when I made this dish. This is a nice cold salad for summer dinner. It will definitely be entering our rotation. Here is the mise:

I had poached some chicken breasts the day before for another dish, and I had these left over. I know, it’s not a whole chicken, but we have to eat the chicken breast from our freezer at some point. The bread is not really an ingredient – we just served it alongside, but I really like my ciabatta, so I put it in the picture. The ramekin has a bit of the poaching liquid used to poach the chicken, so it was like a light chicken broth. The recipe calls for a slice of onion broken into rings for garnish, but I forgot to do that, so I just reserved some of the diced onion. The lettuce is from a friend of my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law (does that make me her fourteenth cousin, once removed?), who grew it in her garden. Thanks! You can see the cook’s glass of wine off to the side – not Gewürztraminer like Bayless suggests, but a decent white nonetheless.

First, I peeled and cut the carrots and halved the potatoes. I then boiled them for about 15 minutes:

I added the poaching liquid, a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar, oregano, salt, and some puree of canned chipotles to a measuring cup to make a dressing:

Then I added the onions (except for those that I had reserved) and took a blurry picture:

Meanwhile, I shredded the poached chicken breasts and put them in a bowl:

I also diced the boiled carrots and potatoes and added them to the bowl, along with the dressing:

I covered the bowl and let it stand for 45 minutes for the flavors to mingle. Just before serving, I sliced the lettuce, diced the avocado, and mixed them in. I added the diced onions I had reserves as a garnish and served it with some of my ciabatta. Bayless calls for French bread, but Italian was all I had around because I haven’t made baguettes in a while.

There it is! The dish is a great summer dish. First of all, it is served cold, which is key. It has a really nice amount of spice from the chipotles, but the vegetables and avocado keep it from being too spicy, which is not what you want on a hot summer day. It’s pretty easy preparation, too, especially if you have the chicken left over. I think it would be great for a picnic lunch or dinner.

Sources:
Ciabatta from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Lettuce from a friend’s garden
Everything else from Central Market