Adapted from The Foster’s Market Cookbook, by Sara Foster (2002). I started to prepare this chicken salad on a winter Saturday. The bowlful of peppers and coconut and scallions was so beautiful that I could not leave Dick out. Half the ingredients went into one bowl with a large can of tuna and half went into another bowl with 2 cups of shredded chicken left over from a Curry Nite. Really good.
If you want straight Curried Tuna Salad, substitute two large cans of tuna, drained, for the chicken.
If you use Penzey’s Madras Hot curry powder in the Curried Dressing, it will be spicy enough–no need to add a Thai Dragon hot pepper or Sweet ‘n’ Hot pickles.
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
4 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
7 scallions, trimmed and chopped
1 ripe mango, seeded and diced
½ cup golden raisins
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 cups Curried Dressing (recipe below)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
Spread the coconut evenly on a baking sheet and toast in the oven 5 minutes, or until light brown around the edges. Remove from oven and cool.
Mix chicken, peppers, scallions, mango, raisins, parsley and coconut in a bowl. Add the dressing, season with salt and pepper, and toss to mix. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.
Curried Dressing
1 ¼ cups mayonnaise
½ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup curry powder
¼ cup honey
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Combine the mayonnaise with the parsley, curry powder, honey, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl and whisk to mix until thoroughly blended. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to use or up to 5 days.