"Farm Fresh Butt Nuggets" is what the label says for the cartons I prep for my customers. It took some time to come up with the customers and the chickens had already been laying like crazy; this left me with several dozen "old" eggs needing used up. Since it was time to make some food to have on hand again; I decided yesterday was the day to get that done.
I sorted the eggs using the float test and set those aside for fertilizer for the garden this spring. (Float Test: putting eggs in water and whichever eggs float are considered bad/too old to use.) Then I washed them all up and, a dozen at a time, cooked them using the Instant Pot. I had to dig for the rack for the Instant Pot and placed it in the bottom of the insert pan. I added the washed eggs ontop of the rack and poured in a measured cup of water. Then I set the Instant Pot to high pressure, the vent to pressurize, and the timer to 5 min. I did a quick release of the steam when it was done and then placed the eggs into cold water. (A soup ladle is very effective at getting the hot eggs out of the pot.) When making boiled eggs, it really helps to use older eggs; atleast a couple weeks old. Otherwise, they peel like crap. These peeled so nicely!
I used my egg slicer and sliced up all the cooled, peeled, boiled eggs and then thought; what in the world am I gonna make with all these? I hurried up and put together some Egg Salad for a quick supper. It's pretty yummy. It's basically deviled eggs but without the work of stuffing the empty whites and all that fuss.
Then I went hunting for more ideas.... I came across the frozen split chicken breasts that we were given in the Christmas basket. The first time I baked them, I thought they were boneless skinless (duh, CJL, read the package first) and we were shocked to find bones in them when we went to eat them. Aunt taught me to never refrigerate meat with the bone still on; it discolors and gives the meat a funky taste. I hadn't cooked anymore of the package just because I didn't want to fight with the bones. I thought they would make great chicken salad though! So I ran those through the Instant Pot for 45 min. I added extra water to get start on broth. Then I cooled and deboned the meat. Today, I've been running batches of broth through the Instant Pot to can up later.
Chicken Salad, it turns out, is rather subjective. My favorite chicken salad that we get at the grocery store is made with leftover fried chicken; they want almost $8 a pound for it now. I was going for a similar taste to theirs but I can't duplicate it with pressure cooked chicken versus fried chicken flavors. I cobbled this recipe together from memory and suggestions online. ALOT of folks add fruit to chicken salad and that is not the flavor profile I personally enjoy. This recipe is tasty, it IS missing something and neither Handsome, nor I, can figure out what. But now there's food to eat off of for a few days and our (mine mostly) bellies will be full.
What have you made with an excess of eggs that was tasty?
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