This red cabbage and chicken Waldorf salad is part of a plan, starting the week with a whole poached chicken, to stretch a medium chicken to last a family of four all week. Twenty eight portions!

What do I need to make red cabbage and chicken Waldorf

For 4 portions, you will need:-

• 140g chicken , chopped small
• 260g red cabbage, shredded very small
• 2 apples, cored and diced, do not peel
• 200g grapes, halved
• 2 stalks celery, chopped small
• 100g walnuts, toasted
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• pinch salt
• Dressing
• 6 tblsp mayonnaise, or half mayonnaise, half thick Greek yogurt

 

How to make a red cabbage Waldorf salad

• start off by preparing the fruit and vegetables
  • shred the red cabbage as finely as you can
  • core and dice the apples, don’t peel them
  • put in a bowl and mix with the lemon juice, this helps stop them going brown
  • halve the grapes
  • finely slice the celery
  • toast the walnuts
  • chop the chicken quite small, you only want small pieces of it in this
  • mix everything together well
  • this mixture will sit and wait in the fridge, don’t add the dressing yet, the salt will draw out water and make your salad watery
• For the dressing you can use all mayonnaise or half mayonnaise and half thick Greek yogurt. Mix it well if using half and half
• when you are ready to serve, mix the dressing with the vegetables

This salad is great or slimmers who can control how much dressing to use, it is less than 500 calories a serving as it is. If taking as a packed lunch, pack the dressing separately as the salt will draw out moisture from the vegetables and make it watery

What changes can I make to this Waldorf salad with chicken

• the red cabbage can be green or white cabbage, Chinese leaves or any kind of lettuce
• make a bed of the shredded cabbage or lettuce and pile the rest of the salad on top
• change the nuts to whatever other nuts you want to use, or leave them out
• use any colour grapes you have, it won’t make much difference to the flavour, just the look
• add some Aleppo or black pepper
• use another crunchy vegetable in place of the celery – thinly sliced radish or mooli, fennel slivers, beetroot or carrot matchsticks

This recipe is from a series of 7 recipes, starting with a poached chicken

1. 1. Poached chicken
   2. Spaghetti with olives, sultanas and lemon 140g chicken
   3. Oaty, nutty, seedy chicken and mushroom crumble 140g chicken
   4. Chicken and rice salad – red peppers from a jar, peas, gherkins, raisins 140g chicken and some of the stock
   5. Chicken and something Pizza, sweetcorn, onion, red pepper, mozzarella and cheddar 140g chicken
   6. Coronation Chicken Jacket Potato – 140g chicken
   7. Red Cabbage Waldorf with apple, walnut and dressing –  140g chicken, this recipe
   8. Chicken Tart with Butternut Squash, Lemon Zest & Parmesan –  140g chicken

this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which is amazing!

There is also a series of 7 recipes starting with a roast chicken

If you liked this series, have a look at the series starting the week with a roast chicken. They are all different recipes to those in the poaching a chicken series, which you could swap in and out in either week.

How to stretch a chicken to last the whole week

You may think that the recommended amount of chicken in each of these frugal recipes doesn’t look like it would be enough.  I have tested every one of them several times and believe me when I say that they taste of chicken – and are delicious! I wouldn’t recommend them to you if they weren’t.

Adjusting the recipes to accommodate 977g of roast chicken, each making 4 servings, I was able to stretch it to do the following:-

1. Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
2. Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables butter and parmesan, 4 portions
3. Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
4. Spicy Pasta Bake, white sauce, 120g chicken, onion, spices, stuffing, 4 portions
5. Tart, 100g chicken, onions, sweetcorn, couple of eggs, no cheese, stuffing, 4 portions
6. Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
7. Soup with the remaining half of the stock, red lentils, onion, spices, 4 portions

this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which I think is pretty good!