hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with Peruvian potato and chicken
salad that's right I love potato salad and chicken salad and absolutely adore
approve en cuisine which is why this amazing dish that my friends improve
would call causa is one of my all-time favorite things to eat especially when
the weather gets hot and you might be thinking making a potato salad with
mashed potatoes sounds crazy well it is crazy good so with that let's go ahead
and get started and the first thing we're gonna do is make a chicken salad
and what I have here is one leftover cooked chicken breast that I diced up
even though shredding the meat would have been more traditional but either
way we're gonna need some cooked chicken usually from leftovers and then to that
we will add some green peas either fresh ones we blanched or frozen ones we've
thought and then we'll also do a little bit of diced carrot which i've cooked
until soft and tender okay I guess you could use raw veggies for this but I
prefer something softer and sweeter and then we'll also toss in a little bit of
finely minced shallot which could also be a little bit of red onion or green
onion and then if you have some some diced roasted red pepper would be nice
as would some freshly chopped cilantro and then for a little bit of acidity we
will add some freshly squeezed lime juice but just a touch because there's
going to be lime in our potato we don't want redundant seasoning so
just a hint and then we'll go ahead and finish up with some salts and a couple
shakes of cayenne and then last but not least enough mayonnaise to bind this all
together and I will go ahead and take a spoon and give that a mix and once we
have everything combined feel free to go ahead and taste it but as you might know
for things like this we generally don't want to do the final seasoning
adjustments until right before we're gonna serve it and everything's nice and
cold so we can sample it now but we're definitely also gonna check it later and
adjust if we need so we'll go ahead and wrap that up and pop it in the fridge
and by the way I usually have a clock towel under these bowls so they don't
move around on the table but this time I just used a damp paper towel I fold it
up which looks really weird in the shot which is why I mentioning but anyway
once our chicken salad is set and in the fridge we can move on to the potato
component starring this a little something called
aji amarillo which I'm going to use in this pace form and it really is this
gorgeous orange chili the Gibbs causa its signature flavor so hopefully you'll
find some but if you don't don't worry I'm gonna tell you how to substitute
it's gonna be almost exactly the same and then what we'll do is peel and
quarter some Yukon Gold potatoes and add them to some cold fresh water with a
generous amount of salt and then what we'll do is place those over medium-high
heat and bring them up to a simmer and we will cook them until very very tender
all right not so soft they all start falling apart but very very tender so
that when we mash them we don't have a bunch of little undercooked chunks and
once those are done we'll let those drain very well before transferring them
to a mixing bowl where we will proceed to mash those extremely smooth and of
course if you want to use a ricer go ahead but I find the potato masher works
just fine and by the way why is it called a ricer and not a potato er as
Steven Reich might have asked one time but anyway we'll go ahead and mash that
until there's no lumps or as close to lump fries we can get at which point
we'll go ahead and spoon in some of our aji amarillo and how much exactly we'll
be up to you but I'm thinking we need at least a couple tablespoons oh and not to
spoil the blog post a combination of sweet bell pepper with a red jalapeno
would also work i mean besides our chili we will also add a little bit of olive
oil as well as a whole bunch of freshly squeezed lime juice and again all these
amounts are going to be up to you but as usual i will tell you what i used and
then we'll finish this up with a little bit of cayenne and more than a little
bit of salt and then we'll go ahead and mash and stir all this together and as
you do it's gonna take on the most glorious gold color you've ever seen at
least in a mashed potato salad and then once that's been accomplished I like to
switch to a spatula and then work this over for another minute or two until
we're sure everything's beautifully smooth and luxurious and that's it other
than check in the seasoning we are ready to start assembling which I'm going to
be doing as you can see in some plastic line ramekins although any size and
shape mold will work and by the way the recipe I'll give you is probably going
to make about for this size although I only did two for the camera
but anyway we'll go ahead and start by scooping in some potato and then we'll
use our fingers or a spoon or a spatula to smooth it out and press it down and
then once that set if we want we can now top it with an optional layer of avocado
which not only tastes good and pairs perfectly with the lime in Chile but
when you want mul DS it looks really cool as well and then once our avocado
layer set we'll go ahead and top that with our chicken salad and of course the
ratio between potato and chicken salad is gonna be up to you this time added up
with a little more potato than meat well you go ahead and adjust those
proportions any way you want and is ratting these layers we want to make
sure we're really pressing it down and sort of pulling up the plastic on the
sides to make sure we don't have any gaps or air pockets and then what we'll
do once our chicken salad layers been completed is finish up with one last
layer a potato which might seem impossible since we've pretty much
filled this all the way to the top but it's not we're just gonna go ahead and
pile some on anyway because it's perfectly fine to go like a half inch
even more above the top right this potato is very soft and moldable now but
once it chills it's gonna firm up and hold its shape and once we flip it over
its gonna look great so please don't feel like you're over filling this okay
as long as we kind of flatten it out and sort of pull everything together with
the plastic so at least everything's inside the edges of the ramekin it's
gonna work beautifully and that's it once tacked and wrapped these are now
ready to transfer into the fridge for at least an hour I'd say or until
thoroughly chilled at which point we can go ahead and pull it out and we will
unwrap the top and then once we've made sure all that plastics out of the way
we'll go ahead and grab a plate and center it over the top and then we will
carefully but confidently flip it over and remove the ramekin and then
eventually the plastic and if everything's gone according to plan you
should see some beautifully defined layers and then if you want you can
serve this as is and it would be amazing but if you did want to serve it with
some kind of sauce that would also be very appropriate maybe it's a beautiful
garlicky aioli that you spiked with some of that chili pepper or maybe it's a
thinned out sour cream with a little bit of lime all right you know it works so I
did spoon a little bit of a sauce around mine
and then I finish up with some purple cherry tomato halves and a little sprig
of cilantro to warn those people that don't like that that there's some in
this and that's it my take on Peruvian potato and chicken salad is done and
looking very inviting if I do say so myself so I grabbed a fork and dug in to
this highly unusual but extraordinarily delicious dish and once you get past
that you're eating cold mashed potatoes and you open your mind and really let
yourself enjoy what's going on here you realize just how brilliant this dish is
all right we have that slightly spicy bitter sweetness from the peppers
playing off that tangy eNOS from the lime which all perfectly complements our
veggie spike chicken salad and I really can't think of anything else I'd rather
eat on a hot summer day oh and by the way I went with chicken salad here but
tuna is also a delicious and popular choice and something like grilled shrimp
would also work beautifully so please feel free to use this same technique
with different cells in the center I mean you are throughout the Aubrey Plaza
of your causa and speaking of Parks and Recreation these things would be perfect
to make a head pack in your cooler and pull out at that cookout or picnic and
while you may initially confuse some people eventually they will all be
smiling and nodding knowingly and from that point on you'll be known as the
person that convinced people that eating cold mashed potatoes with chicken salad
it was a good idea and not just a good idea but an absolutely great idea so
whether you plan to shock and amaze your friends under the Sun this summer or
just your family on some dark weeknight I really do hope you give this a try
soon so head over to food witch's dot-com for all the ingredient amounts
of more info as usual and as always
you