Chicken Wheatberry Salad with Goat Cheese and Cherries

Hello sisters,

We had our first snowfall of the New Year last night! I was up early to go to the Y this morning and now I’m relishing a few minutes with my coffee before the day gets going.

There are two reasons why the recipe I’m about to share is especially fitting for my first blog post of the year: it’s healthy, so it’s a perfect January meal, but it’s also my attempt to recreate a dish we sisters all had together a few years ago. Do you remember a holiday dinner at Lord Fletchers maybe 4 years ago with Mom and Dad and our husbands? Do either of you remember what we ate? I loved my dish so much that I scribbled a description on a little index card that I’ve kept in my cookbook ever since – and I’ve just been waiting to get the courage to try to recreate it.

The dish was a Pheasant and Wheatberry Salad and I remember that we passed it around the table, raving about how delicious and different it was. On my notecard, I wrote that it had shredded pheasant, chestnuts, wheatberries, goat cheese, spinach, cherries and choke cherry vinaigrette. The Lord Fletcher’s website currently has a similar salad with chicken and lingonberry vinaigrette and craisins…maybe the pheasant was a special thing for New Year’s Eve when we were there. Or maybe it’s not practical for them to keep it on the menu all the time. It’s not practical for me either, so you’ll see I’ve modified this with chicken. I also left out the chestnuts because of Aaron’s nut allergy, and because pine nuts are easier to find – but if you can find some chestnuts, go for it!

At any rate, I finally made the salad yesterday! I was largely prompted by a New Year’s resolution to cook through my pantry, and these wheatberries have been squirreled away in there for a few months. I also have to apologize because I forgot to take a picture of it before we ate it – by the time we realized how good it was, there was nothing left to photograph. Some food blogger I am.

Here’s my version. If you plan to make it on a weeknight, I recommend cooking the wheatberries ahead of time (like on the weekend) and saving them in the fridge to save a step. In fact, almost all the steps can be done ahead and then the salad can just be assembled at dinner time.

Let me know if you try it and how it compares to that original salad we had...

Susan

Warm Wheatberry Chicken Salad with Cherries and Goat Cheese

Serves 4

2 cups of wheatberries cooked (Put them in a dutch oven and cover them with a few inches of water, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Keep an eye on them to add more water if it all gets absorbed).

1 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded (can also be done ahead)

Dried cherries (a handful – ½-3/4 cup maybe?)

Toasted pine nuts (put a few tablespoons of pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium high heat – once the skillet gets hot, stir constantly and keep a close eye on them so they don’t burn – this is also a good step to do ahead – I toast a bunch at one time (cheap at Trader Joes!) and keep them in my pantry).

Crumbled goat cheese (4 oz)

Baby arugula

Dressing (can also be made ahead):

¼ cup raspberry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

½ cup olive oil

A pinch of salt and a grinding of fresh black pepper

(If you’re using the red wine vinegar you might want to add a pinch of sugar if the dressing is too tart)

Combine in a jar and shake vigorously.

To assemble the salad:

Combine the wheatberries and shredded chicken in a saucepan or skillet and warm them over medium heat for a few minutes, just until everything’s warmed through (this is assuming that your ingredients were prepared ahead of time and are cold – if you’ve just cooked the wheatberries and shredded warm chicken, then you could skip this step).

Combine the wheatberries, chicken, pine nuts and cherries in a bowl and mix. Pour some dressing in and stir it to combine so everything’s moistened.

On each plate, make a bed of the baby arugula. Then take a 1 cup measuring cup and pack it full with the wheatberry chicken mixture, and then invert it over your greens on the plate. (It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t hold it’s shape – it just makes a nice mound.) Then sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese on top.

Serve with some extra dressing on the side.