Chicken salad à la GDR

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 2 kg chicken thighs
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables
• 1 bay leaf, divided
• Pepper, some crushed grains
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 gherkins, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and diced
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ liter chicken broth, defatted
• 1 apple, sour, peeled and diced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice, for drizzling over the apple
• salt and pepper
• nutmeg

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest period approx. 1 day; Total time approx. 1 day 30 minutes

without pineapple & co.

Place the chicken thighs (or 2 small roast chickens) in a cold pan with the vegetables, bay leaf, pepper, and salt and cook until the meat slides easily off the bones. Remove the chicken thighs from the stock and let it cool. Strain the stock and let it cool. Place the prepared cucumbers, onion, eggs, and apple (drizzle with lemon juice!) in a large, lidded bowl. Once cooled, remove the skin from the chicken and remove the bones. Cut it into small cubes and add it to the bowl. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Mix well. Then add the sour cream and about half a liter of skimmed chicken stock and mix well again. Cover the bowl and let it sit for at least a day. Season again to taste. The longer the salad sits, the better it tastes. Serve with baguette or toast. This salad recipe comes from my mother, who didn’t like the 1950s potato salad with bratwurst on Christmas Eve, nor did she like sweet chicken salad. And pineapples, tangerines, etc., weren’t available in the GDR anyway, so the recipe uses “simple” and readily available ingredients. Which was very important back then. And today, it’s one of the few dishes we still enjoy, and not just at Christmas!