Kickin’ Chicken Salad

Chicken breast / Red Onion / Corn / Avocado / Tortillas / Minor’s Flavor Concentrates & Base
by Chef Alexis Sicklick (New York, NY)
This recipe is made in partnership with Minor’s.

The Flavor Factor

Craveable menu specialties are all about flavor, pure and simple. A particularly delicious or distinctive flavor profile helps set a recipe apart and creates a memorable experience for the guest. There are other elements to a successful menu item, of course—including cooking technique, texture, presentation and value—but it really always comes back to flavor.

One strategy for creating a signature recipe: give a familiar customer favorite, like chicken salad, a twist with an exciting or unexpected flavor element that enhances innovative ingredient substitutions.
This recipe for Kickin’ Chicken Salad shows how conveniently Minor’s products work in high velocity kitchens to create one-of-a-kind menu specialties. In this comfort food makeover, chicken salad gets a complete upgrade, showcasing creative ingredient swaps and bold, authentic Latin flavor. Instead of traditional white bread, there’s a crisply fried tostada carrier. Lime-marinated red onion and whole-kernel corn stand in for the more predictable celery. Mashed, cold-smoked avocado is the creamy binder, enhanced with the smoky tang of Minor’s Ancho Flavor Concentrate and rounded out by Minor’s Sautéed Vegetable Base Mirepoix for additional depth of flavor.

Adding authentic flavor, in new and interesting ways—Minor’s Latin Flavor Concentrates were developed with this principle in mind. They bring layers of complex flavor that otherwise would require time-consuming kitchen preparation and knowledge of Latin cuisine and cooking methods. Minor’s products provide the kind of skilled labor support operators need today to produce craveable food.
These fresh-tasting, spoonable pastes are crafted from authentic ingredients like smoked, dried or fire-roasted chiles, sofrito of onions and garlic, and flavorful herbs and spices. They’re just as convenient and easy to use as dried seasonings, but because Minor’s Flavor Concentrates are protected in refrigeration, their flavor integrity and consistent quality are locked in.

Minor’s Flavor Concentrates are also tested ready-to-eat, meeting USDA and FDA safety standards for ready-to-eat foods. All 10 Flavor Concentrates varieties—along with Minor’s Bases and Sauces—can be used in both hot and cold applications, without the additional step of cooking.

This is particularly significant for cold items, like the mashed avocado used in the Kickin’ Chicken Recipe. Many dry seasonings need heat to unlock their flavors. Ideally, dried ancho chile would be bloomed in hot oil, then chilled, before adding it to the avocado. Minor’s Ancho Flavor Concentrate, on the other hand, can be used as-is, saving both prep labor and time, for a fresher-quality end result.

Pantry utilization is maximized as well. A single Minor’s Flavor Concentrate can be used across the menu—in dips, spreads and salad dressings, soups, marinades, sauces and even beverages. This versatility makes it easy to add bold Latin flavors such as Ancho, Fire Roasted Poblano, or Red Chile Adobo to a variety of dishes, without having to worry about sourcing hard-to-find ingredients or the need for skilled back-of-house labor.

It’s the flavor factor that helps create craveable signature menu items.