The statement chef salad.
This would feed six to eight people.
So, you might want to make half
of my statement salad.
Upfront here, let's break it down.
We've got the ham, the Swiss, the turkey,
the roast beef and the provolone.
Back here we're going to bake up some bacon.
Always in the oven, right?
(metal clangs)
400 degree oven, until the bacon is nice and crisp.
You don't have to flip it,
doesn't make a mess of your stove.
Cooks evenly and perfectly.
Put it on a wire rack.
So, while the bacon's baking,
let's make the dressing for our salad first.
We start with sour cream or Greek yogurt.
Your choice and we add a splash of vinegar
to thin it a little bit, I'm using wine vinegar.
You could use cider vinegar or white distilled,
whatever you have in the pantry.
Couple tablespoons to thin that out a bit.
To the base of sour cream or yogurt,
we're going to add oh, about a third of a cup or so
(bottle splatters)
of ketchup.
I'll put a little Worcestershire in,
couple of shakes over the top.
Hot sauce, a little or a lot.
I'm using a cayenne pepper sauce that I find fairly mild.
If I was using Tabasco, it's a little spicier
also cayenne pepper.
But this one I have in the fridge.
So, I'm going to go a little heavier
'cause this one's a little milder.
(bottle clanks)
So, you can do a teaspoon,
you could do a couple teaspoons,
it's really up to you and the tolerance you have for heat.
Then a couple big ol fat spoonfuls,
oh, I'd say about a third of a cup of relish.
(bottle clanks)
I add garlic to everything
because that's how my family rolls.
They like garlic.
Okay, so now we're going to add,
oh, a third of a palmfull of smoked, sweet paprika.
Salt and pepper.
We're going to add the classic ranch combo
of dill, chive and parsley.
About a cup is what I started with of the whole leaves.
It chops down to about 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup.
And I'm just, kind of, bouncing that down in there
so we get it evenly distributed
all the way to the bottom of the bowl.
Lovely.
And that is our dressing.
Our other toppings,
pickled onions, teaspoon of sugar, teaspoon of salt,
little bit of pepper,
two tablespoons of any vinegar you like,
and I added one very thinly sliced red onion.
One.
That's going to get scattered on top.
Semi-dried tomatoes.
You can also use just sliced or chopped or diced
fresh tomato or cherry tomato.
I like the tangy factor of this.
And it sets up just beautifully on the salad
and it has that deep red color
and kind of a sweet tart taste.
Semi-dried tomatoes next.
Smoked blue cheese, oh my god.
Yum.
So, I have some store bought hard boiled eggs
that I've quartered and tossed with a little scallion,
or you could use chive.
And then I have some jardinera, hot pickled vegetables
to go next to the provolone and the roast beef.
So, I love good ol iceberg.
And that's how we core it.
You knock it on the counter
and you just pop that sucker out.
And then I cut it into slabs.
Now, if your making just a lunch for one
or a lunch for two,
this is what I would do, I would literally put the slab
on the plate.
And arrange your meats or toppings of choice.
Put the dressing on first,
or put the dressing underneath.
And arrange everything on top.
And that fills the center of a dinner plate.
We're making a giant salad on a board.
So, I'm going to take our slabs and quarter them.
(knife clatters)
(lettuce squeaks)
This is two giant heads of that crunchy, crispy-
Listen to that, doesn't that sound so refreshing
and delightful?
So, I'm scattering this all over so that as we serve,
everybody's getting some of that delicious,
really ridiculously rich dressing.
Going across, we have jardinera, provolone, roast beef,
crumbled smoked blue cheese, hard boiled eggs
with green onion, then we have our ham, our Swiss cheese,
our tomatoes, our turkey, and more of our dressing.
And next to our turkey,
we're going to put all of our crispy bacon from the oven
that I was just coarsely chopping.
So, this is like a turkey club really,
down on this end.
And then we take our pickled onions as our final garnish
across the entire salad.
(logo tinkles)