Shredded Chicken and Walnut Sauce

WI Cheesehead's Note:

This is from a Penzey's cooking magazine. I think I'll be trying it very soon!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 (3 1/2 lb) chicken, cut in 8 pieces
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 1/2 cups walnuts
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 slices white bread or 2 pita breads
• 1 teaspoon paprika, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• sliced black olives, to garnish

Directions:

1. In a large pan, simmer the chicken with water and 1/2 tsp salt until cooked, 20-50 minutes, depending on whether it is bone in or not.
2. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine strainer and set chicken aside to cool.
3. Boil the water stock down until you have 1 1/2 cups.
4. Remove the cooled chicken from the bones while the stock is reducing and chop into 1-inch pieces.
5. In a food processor or blender, blend the walnuts, onions and cooled, reduced stock.
6. Break the bread into chunks and add to the blender, along with 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp salt and the pepper.
7. Blend to a smooth paste.
8. Put the chicken pieces in a bowl, pour the walnut paste over, and toss gently to combine.
9. Garnish with the remaining paprika and sliced black olives.
10. Particularly nice served with fresh fruit.

Reviews

[Retro Kali]

This was good. It definately has sort of a baby shower/tea room brunch kind of taste. I added a little minced garlic and toasted the walnuts first for more flavor. While I cooked some noodles to pour this over, I got out the pita chips and dipped into it. I think it would make a lovely dip with maybe some melted feta over the top. I agree with a previous reviewer that this recipe has a lot of possibilities.

[Sydney Mike]

Makes for a very tasty chicken dish! I used chicken breasts & winter wheat bread then followed the directions! It was great served over brown rice & with a fresh fruit salad! And by the way, it even does well as a chicken/rice/fruit tortilla wrap! Many thanks for this great recipe! [Made for Please Review My Recipe Cooking Game]

[puppitypup]

This was very good! I had cut the recipe in half and used leftover cooked chicken from another dish, so I had to use chicken bullion. I ended up using twice as much bullion as I should have, but I'm glad I did. It made a very cream delicious sauce on the chicken. I also omitted the salt since I was using bullion. Went well with with Deluxe Rice Amandine. Thanks WI Cheesehead, this is a keeper!