Chicken Salad

We love chicken salad! In fact, Kyra and I make fresh, yummy chicken salad nearly every day… but ours is a little different than the recipe in your favorite cookbook. In fact, we should probably call our concoction “Salade Pour Des Poulets” instead, since it’s not about us eating chickens, but rather about our chickens eating salad.

For years, we have taken in hens that a neighboring egg farmer has classified as “past their prime” (i.e. headed for slaughter).  While these feisty hens don’t lay as regularly or vigorously as their youthful counterparts, it is enough to supply us, our neighbors, our friends, and our extended family with plenty of bright, fresh, free-range eggs.

And, Kyra and I have found that supplementing our hens’ diet with our special Chicken Salad improves the health of the chicken as well as the taste of the egg.  So, what is this Chicken Salad recipe?  In a word (or rather two) “veggie scraps".

We prepare lots and lots of fresh veggies for our family meals every day.  This means that we have lots and lots of ends, peels, and not-so-fresh vegetable pieces to dispose of every day, particularly at the end of the gardening season in Iowa.  Since I abhor wasting nutrient-rich foods, what could we do with those scraps?  Feed our chickens!

The first time Kyra and I tossed veggie-scrap “Chicken Salad” toward our flock, we were met with suspicion and fear.  The chickens dispersed quickly, afraid of Kyra’s wheelchair and my checkerboard garden boots.  But Kyra and I persisted, collecting our veggie scraps and tossing them to our hens, day after day after day.

Slowly, our hens began to accept us as allies in the pursuit of good nutrition.  They began to take notice, cluck happily, and scurry toward us when the wheelchair and checkerboard boots came strolling their way.

Today, we have 30-something “post-prime” hens that follow us around the yard, waiting expectantly for their daily ration of Chicken Salad, helping us harvest over-due veggies,  scritching and scratching to prepare our garden for next spring, and generally being under-foot and amusing.

Caring for my chickens reminds me of bringing up small children.  I wouldn’t trade either experience for the world.

If you don’t have chickens available to eat your own veggie-scrap Chicken Salad, I recommend you thoroughly wash all vegetables before preparing them.  Then freeze the ends, peels, pieces, and scraps in zippered baggies or air-tight containers.  When the freezer container is full, empty it into a simmering kettle of water, along with a bit of basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper (or your favorite herb combo).  An hour or two later, strain the mixture into jars or other containers, and refrigerate or freeze to use in broth or vegetable stock recipes.


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