The Greatest Chicken Salad I Will Never Make Again

This post is in response to Kitchen Wench's one-off event challenging bloggers to share a recipe attached to some event in your past in a substantial, yet bittersweet way. When I read this challenge, I knew immediately the recipe and its story that I wanted to share even though I cannot include a picture (you will see why!). It is the story of the greatest chicken salad I will never make again.

I can't even remember now where I got this recipe, it must've been from a person, because it is neatly copied on one of my beautiful 4x6 recipe cards for a set that included a recipe box with matching cards that I received as a gift back when I and my family was young. Most of my recipes are torn from magazines, cut from a newspaper, scribbled on random bits of paper, or typed by friends or acquaintances, printed out from Food Network or Epicurious. A recipe had to be really special in order for me to use one of the 50 cards that came with my set, and it had to be something that I was sure would be a permanent addition to my culinary reperatoire.

This recipe is everything a recipe should be - delicious, light, healthy, easy to make, filled with complex, swett-hot flavors and very portable! In fact, I made this Szechwan Chicken Salad several times when I needed to take something to a pot luck and there were never leftovers. Everyone in my family loved it and were always suggesting it, particularly during the dog days of Tidewater summer!

There was nothing unusual on a day, so long ago, when I made a big double batch of this salad. The weather was going to be warm, lending itself to a light salad, and I was planning to take any leftovers for lunch at work in the next week. I had just placed the covered bowl of salad in the fridge when we got a call from the hospital that my husband's father was near death. The Colonel, as he was affectionately (and respectfully) called by all, was an incredible man, with a sharp memory and a knowledge for world history that would have shamed any history professor 4 decades his junior. He had served in three branches of the service during his military career, had served in the esteemed 1st City Troop, and danced with Lucy Mercer in the Roosevelt White House as a young officer. He was full of stories for anyone who would listen, and since most of his family had heard them all (multiple times) , as the newest daughter-in-law, I was a welcome audience. As our family grew, he was a doting grandfather with all of the grandchildren, bouncing them on his knee to the tune of "Gary Owen". The older Dowd grandchildren remember to this day their "Grandpapa" blowing the bugle. He was always an ally to a grandchild who wanted an extra dessert or to stay up past bedtime. A man who was sometimes remembered as stern by his own children, was a marshmallow to his grandchildren.

I will never forget the first time that I met him. It wasn't long after the movie Patton had come out. My father-in-law, who was at that time the Superintendent of the Winchester National Cemetary, was strolling among the headstones and when he turned around, I thought I was dating the son of George C. Scott!! He had the bearing and demeanor (and the posture) of a career military officer. You could imagine that he cut a dashing figure in his younger years (and he delighted in telling you so!).

As young newlyweds, my husband and I moved in with my in-laws in order to save money to buy a house, and allowing our mother-in-law to travel to wherever my sisters-in-law were having their children (and for awhile there was a steady stream). In the years that we lived there I never saw my father-in-law in any state other than either fully dressed (to the nines I might add) or in his pajamas, robe and slippers. When I had my own first child, my mother-in-law was away, so I brought my daughter home to a house run by the Colonel and my husband, who had gone to the commissary to get all manner of food for a new mom... and Guinness stout because he was sure that would help with my nursing!

His pet peeves- Cheap suits or shoes, runs in a lady's stockings, adults or children who were disrespectful, lazy or dishonest people. When he was told by his doctor (he was a Type 2 diabetic) that if he was good, he could have a half-cup of ice cream a night, he picked the largest mug in the cabinet and then used about about 600 psi to spoon in as much Breyer's chocolate ice cream as could be accomodated by the laws of physics!

My mother-in-law told me about his one cooking experience, when she came home from the hospital after the birth of one of their children. She said that he was determined to make her a meal and serve her (despite the fact that, to my knowledge he could only cook hot dogs and toast!). This was when TV dinners were brand new and he said he would make her one. Despite her offers to help (and her strong conviction that he had no idea how to use the oven!), he insisted that he could do it. She ate her words when he marched proudly up the stairs with the foil plate with a turkey dinner golden brown and steaming, smelling delicious and inviting. As he ran to get her a drink, she stuck her fork to take the first bite... and found that beneath the golden brown steaming surface, the food was still frozen in the middle!

The days leading up to his funeral, we put the Szechwan Chicken Salad that I had made what seemed like an eternity ago out with the other food brought by family and friends, and as always, it disappeared. My husband has, since then, associated that chicken salad with his father's death and even though I and my children have tried to convince him otherwise, I have not ever made it again.

While it may seem strange, this blog event gives me the opportunity to share not only my fond memories of the Colonel, and his incredible life, but to share with anyone who reads this a great recipe that you and our family can enjoy. I hope that you will make it and enjoy ...and also remember, in a fond way, a man you never met except through my words.

Szechwan Chicken Salad

Dressing:
1/4 cup peanut or sesame oil (I used sesame)

4-5 tbsp red wine vingar

1-2 tbsp honey

2 tsp sesame seeds

2 cloves garlic
3/4 tsp hot pepper sauce, adjust to taste

1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients above until well mixed and then toss with the following:

1/2 lb bow tie pasta, cooked and drained

3 cups broccoli florets

2 cups cooked chicken cut in chunks

1 cup fresh or frozen snow peas

2 green onions, cut up

Once combined, salad is best if it sits for 4-8 hours or overnight.