Paul's Buffalo Chicken Salad

Friday lunch isn't Friday lunch if it's not at the V-dub. We're pretty sure by now that the location of the V-dub is no longer a secret and neither are its gorgeous deep fried strips of tender poultry goodness. What might not be so obvious, however, are the creative applications in which one can enjoy this beloved Friday lunchtime staple.

Voila, Paul's Buffalo Chicken Salad! Special thanks to Paul Martino for sharing his go-to recipe for jazzing up what might be Brown Dining's most heavily sought after menu item. It is an exquisite interplay of tangy/creamy crunchy/savory goodness, all on a top of a leafy bed of romaine and veggies for added vitamins; a meal that will surely satisfy your taste buds, your muscles, your brain, and your soul.

Paul's Buffalo Chicken Salad
romaine lettuce
3 chicken fingers (sliced, diced, or whole, I usually just chop them up as I eat the salad)
shredded carrots
chopped egg (from the salad bar)
2 ladles of buffalo sauce
2 tablespoons of bleu cheese cressing
cucumber slices

Place the chicken fingers, egg, and carrots over a bed of the romaine lettuce. Add the cucumber slices, pour on the dressing and drizzle with buffalo sauce. Try it, it's great! 

Cajun Chicken Broccoli Pasta

Mmmm the creamy goodness of Cajun Chicken Pasta. We love how the fusilli catches all the luscious spicy sauce in its gorgeous corkscrew curls. We thought, what else has little nooks and crannies for sopping up sauce? It's green and starts with a b and ends with a roccoli. To extend the sauce a little further, you can spice up your pasta with  fresh chopped tomatoes from the salad bar and a dash of black pepper. 

Cajun Chicken Broccoli Pasta

1 dish of Cajun Chicken Pasta

fresh chopped tomatoes

broccoli

basil infused olive oil

paprika

garlic powder

salt

pepper

Steam the broccoli by placing them in a single layer on a dish and drizzling on some basil infused olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, and a sprinkling of salt. Cover with an inverted plate and microwave 100-120 seconds, until broccoli is just cooked through. Top the pasta with tomatoes and microwave 30 seconds to warm everything through. Toss the broccoli over the pasta and sprinkle everything with salt and pepper to taste. 

Local Food Forum 2013

Mark your calendars for Wednesday 2/6, the yearly networking event for Rhode Island food producers, buyers, students, community members, and local food enthusiasts in between! More info about the event here.

In the spirit of this year's theme - Center of the Plate: What Makes Meat and Seafood Sustainable? - we would like to highlight some of the ongoing efforts in sustainability happening inside the Ratty.

Seafood - sourced from Clipper Seafood, a locally based company committed to sustainable fishing and conservation of local fish species

Chicken - supplied by Warwick Poultry, a local distributor in RI

The best part about cooking with fresh, local ingredients means you usually don't need to do a whole lot to make it taste good. Simply dress up a Rhode Island Chicken Salad with some fresh lettuce and tomato, or garnish a filet of local tilapia or sustainable salmon with seasonal veggies, and you'll have yourself a healthy, hearty, and delicious local meal in no time.

Sam's Chicken Finger Friday Chicken and Waffles

Happy Chicken Finger Friday, everyone! We received this recipe from Sam Heft-Luthy. Yes, it's V-dub not Ratty Gourmet, and you should give it a try! In Sam's own words, it's a "simple yet elegant twist on a Southern staple." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Sam's Chicken Finger Friday Chicken and Waffles

4-5 V-Dub chicken fingers

1 V-Dub waffle
1-2 Tbsp Tobasco sauce
liberal drizzle of pancake syrup

This is pretty self-explanatory, but put the chicken strips on the waffle, then drizzle the tobasco and syrup over them. Add a cup of coffee and a copy of the New York Times for a Sunday brunch experience on a Friday afternoon.

Cheesy Broccoli with Rhode Island Chicken Salad

What does that look like to you? A cyclops? Ah, great minds think alike. Yes, it is the Cyclops Salad. Odysseus would be proud.

Cheesy Broccoli with Rhode Island Chicken Salad

1 plate of raw broccoli from the salad bar

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup shredded cheese from burrito bar

1/4 cup Rhode Island Chicken Salad (the one with grapes and apples!)

1 cyclops pupil (tomato slice for Greek mythology non-fans)

1. Put broccoli and mushrooms on a plate, and cover with another plate. Steam on high power in the microwave for 80-90 seconds, until broccoli is just barely cooked through (you don't want mushy broccoli, do you?).

2. Top with shredded cheese, and microwave, uncovered, for 30 seconds to just melt the cheese.

3. Put a dollop of chicken salad on top, and garnish with a beautiful slice of tomato. Admire the cyclopsness of the dish before you, and take a moment to be thankful for both of your eyes.

Fruity Chicken Caesar Salad

With finals approaching, it may be tempting to skip lunch for that review session, but listen to your stomach and brain when they cry out for nourishment. Try whipping up something quick such as this Fruity Chicken Caesar Salad, inspired by the talented chef Yanqiang Tan. Crispy bites of chicken pack the protein and energy while raisins and fresh cherry tomatoes give a vitamin-rich boost. Your brain (and maybe even your GPA) will thank you.

Fruity Chicken Caesar Salad

1 plateful of shredded romaine lettuce
5-8 cherry tomatoes
6-7 croutons
2 tablespoons raisins
2-3 pieces chicken fingers
2 tablespoons Caesar salad dressing

With a butter knife, dice the chicken fingers into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss the lettuce, tomatoes, and raisins with Caesar salad dressing and top with croutons and diced chicken.

Cilantro Grilled Chicken with Apple Butter Mushrooms

What's the difference between regular ol' grilled chicken and Gourmet Grilled Chicken? The secret is in the Mushroom Sauce. There might be a few secrets in the grilling too, but for those of us who aren't in charge of the grilling, we can still make a hot buttery sauce to dress up our bird.

With some white space on the plate and a healthy dose of imagination, you might just trick yourself into thinking you're dining at l'refectorie Sharpe.

Cilantro Grilled Chicken with Apple Butter Mushrooms
1 large piece of roasted sweet potato
broccoli rabe
1 Cilantro Grilled Chicken breast
Apple Butter Mushrooms (see recipe below)

Scrape out the flesh of the sweet potato and mash with a fork. Discard the skin. Place mashed sweet potato on plate, then top with broccoli rabe and grilled chicken. Finish with a spoonful or two of Apple Butter Mushrooms.

Apple Butter Mushrooms
1/4 cup apple juice
2 butter packets (1 Tbps)
5-6 mushroom slices
pinch salt

Put all ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute or until butter melts and mushrooms are cooked.

Festive Cajun Chicken Pasta

This dish was put together in a matter of minutes using the Ratty's spicy Tastes of the World Cajun chicken pasta, tater tots, corn salad, steamed peas, white beans from the salad bar, and mixed greens. The spicy pasta sauce provides a nice flavor contrast to the salty crunch tater tots and sweet corn and peas. As a cheesy Food Network host would say, "It's a flavor party in your mouth!"

Festive Cajun Chicken Pasta

1 serving of Tastes of the World Cajun Chicken Pasta (or any pasta with spicy sauce)

1/4 cup steamed green peas

1/4 cup corn salad

1 Tbsp white beans

4 tater tots, broken in half

mixed salad greens for garnish

1. Mix in with the pasta the peas, corn, beans, and tater tots.

2. Garnish with greens and enjoy!

Rhode Island Chicken Salad with Broccoli

We love the Ratty's Rhode Island Chicken Salad because it has juicy grapes, crisp fresh apples, plump raisins, large chunks of chicken and creamy mayo. One way to stretch the flavor of chicken salad is to include steamed broccoli florets and sliced mushrooms, and to serve it with crisp lettuce and tomato slices.

Rhode Island Chicken Salad with Broccoli

a small handful of raw broccoli and mushrooms

1 serving of Rhode Island Chicken Salad

1 leaf of fresh lettuce

2 slices tomato

1. Place broccoli and mushrooms in a small bowl, cover with a plate, and steam on high power in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or until veggies are just cooked.

2. Carefully remove the plate and add the steamed veggies to the chicken salad, mixing to distribute evenly.

3. Serve with lettuce and tomato.

Herb Baked Chicken Garden Salad

Sunday brunch getting repetitive, you say? Mix things up with a mixed greens salad!

Herb Baked Chicken Garden Salad

1 piece of Herb Baked Chicken*

mixed greens

baby tomatoes

cucumbers

olive oil and lemon wedge, if desired

salt/pepper

Use a fork and knife to shred the chicken. Toss with other ingredients. A little squirt of lemon adds some nice contrast to the fat from the chicken, as do a shaking of salt/pepper.

*the drumstick pieces are the best. (but don't tell anyone I told you that)

Baked Chicken and Garden Greens

Why are they called garden greens? Do they grow in your garden? Maybe someone just made it up because mesclun mix didn't sound appetizing enough. Anyhow, these leaves are pretty delicious especially when tossed with cranberries and pumpkin seeds, and a chicken leg! You can add a simple vinegar and oil dressing if you like; if not, it's delicious as is.

Baked Chicken and Garden Greens

1 bed of garden greens

cranberries

pumpkin seeds

chicken leg

vinegar and oil (optional)

1. Put everything on one plate. Drizzle with vinegar and oil, if desired.

"Oyako" Chicken & Egg Sandwich

"Oyako" means parent and child in Japanese - if you've seen "oyako donburi" in Japanese restaurants, you'll know what I'm talking about (a rice dish topped with chicken and egg - bonus points if you can figure out which is the "parent" and which is the "child")

"Oya-ko" Chicken & Egg Sandwich

1 slice of whole grain 7 Stars bread

1 leg piece of spicy herb-baked chicken

mixed salad greens

1 egg over light

cranberries for garnish

Take the meat off of the chicken leg and arrange on bread. Top with salad greens, fried egg, and cranberries. Enjoy!

Chicken Salad Bacon Sandwich

The Ratty does a pretty special chicken salad with grapes called "Rhode Island Chicken Salad." To honor the spirit of local eating, we sandwiched it between Seven Stars wheat bread and added lettuce and bacon. The sweetness of the grapes, creaminess of the mayonnaise-rich chicken salad, fresh crispness of the lettuce, salty bacon-y-ness of the bacon, and earthy soft wheaty bread really bring this sandwich together.

Chicken Salad Bacon Sandwich

2 slices Seven Stars Bakery wheat bread

Rhode Island Chicken Salad

lettuce

bacon

1. Spread chicken salad on bread.

2. Top with lettuce and bacon.

3. Cut in half and enjoy!

Broccoli Chicken Salad

This salad was almost too big for the plate.

Broccoli Chicken Salad

1 plate of mixed greens

cucumbers

broccoli, steamed

red bell peppers

northern beans

1 baked chicken thigh, shredded

Asian Sesame Ginger Dressing (recipe follows)

1. Combine everything on a plate.

Asian Sesame Ginger Dressing

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp old-fashioned peanut butter

1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce

3 turns of ground black pepper (in the soup station)

1/4 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp onion powder (3 shakes)

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp honey (optional; I didn't put it b/c peanut butter was sweet enough)

Grilled Chicken Rice Pilaf

Colorful things are fun to eat. Like Lucky Charms. Wanna know why? It's because long long ago, when Geico Neaderthals roamed the earth, the ones whose brains were wired to be attracted to colorful fruits and veggies and rainbow squirrels reaped the nutritional benefits that these foods had, whereas their color-insensitive cousins missed out on the essential vitamins and died before they could reproduce. So, eat colorful things. Just make sure they are naturally colorful - artificial colors don't have nutrients.

Grilled Chicken Rice Pilaf

1 grilled chicken breast, torn into pieces

broccoli florets

yellow corn kernels

brown rice

garlic infused olive oil

black pepper

1. Mix everything together.

2. Cover with a plate and microwave for 1 minute.

3. Sprinkle with black pepper.

"The Cook" Arroz Con Pollo

Buy tickets for "The Cook" online: brown.edu/tickets.

Have you seen the TAPS play, "The Cook," yet? It's not too late! Go see it on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday at 8pm or on Sunday at 2pm. Buy tickets online: brown.edu/tickets.

This Cuban recipe was adapted from TLC Cooking.

"The Cook" Arroz Con Pollo

1 cup brown rice

sliced olives

roasted tomatoes

scallions

peas

orange bell peppers

red onion, cut

spicy pepper, diced

1 chicken leg

black pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients except the chicken leg and black pepper together on a plate.

2. Microwave to heat it up, if desired.

3. Place chicken on the bed of rice, and sprinkle with black pepper.