Chicken salad with ground elder

This is a classical recipe with a touch of wild taste from the ground elder, fresh and spicy, and a cruchy touch given from the phyllo pastry.

I found some ground elder in my spring walks, and I cooked it for my friends. It might be that we were hungry, or the beautiful sunny day, the table on the mountain terrace… but needless to say,  the salad was over in a few minutes!

Aegopodium podagraria

Aegopodium podagraria (commonly called ground elder, herb gerard, bishop’s weed, goutweed, gout wort, and snow-in-the-mountain, and sometimes called English masterwort and wild masterwort) is a perennial plant in the carrot family (Apiaceae) that grows in shady places. It tastes like a mild sweet parsley, celery, carrot, with a slight touch of tangerin.

Its laeves were largely used in the past, cooked like spinach. It was regarded as a delicious vegetable. Worth trying it!

Chicken salad recipe

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 2-3 handful of ground elder leaves (Aegopodium podagraria)
• 1 chicken
• 3 green celery sticks
• phyllo dough
• 1 bay leaf
• Pink pepper

Ingredients for the Greek Yogurt Mayonnaise:

• half lemon juice
• 1 egg
• ½ glass of oil
• ½ glass of greek yogurt
• Salt to taste

 Preparation:

Boil the chicken in pressure pot for 30 minutes, together with 1 celery stick and the bay leaf.

In the meantime make the mayo. For this recipe I like to keep it smooth, no too thick, in order to blend better with the chicken (I use the immersion blender).

Now’s the time for the phyllo nests: cut square pieces and brush them with oil, then overlap them in the ramekin, put them in oven at 160°C (320°F) for 2-4 minutes, until they become brown and crispy.

Be careful, they burn very quickly!

Now the wild dressing: the ground elder sauce. Wash and blanch the leaves in salt water for some minutes, squeeze them and put them in the immersion blender with 1 spoon of oil and 1 spoon of water. That’s it!

Now that we have it all, it’s just a matter of making up the plate. In a large bowl season the pulled chicken with the mayo and chopped celery sticks. If you let it sit for some hours it will get better, because the chicken will soften absorbing the mayonnaise. Just before serving it, fill the phyllo nests and pour over some ground elder sauce. Some crumbled peppercorns will add the final touch.