OK, since everybody else was too chicken
(pun so not intended! in fact, pun loudly repudiated, reviled and made to wear a comical hat, but still left in) I decided to risk $2.39 and the possibility of taking one for the team, and purchased the Bistro flavor, since the only other two flavors available where we shop contained bacon and cheddar, and we already have cheddar, and my agenda involved chicken salad, not putting bacon on my regular salad.
The Bistro flavor contains three plastic packets, one with little cubes of grilled chicken, one with mozzarella punctuated by sun-dried tomato bits, and one containing sliced, toasted almonds.
The chicken was better than I expected. It was not as good as chicken bought raw and cooked by me, but neither did it suck, and chicken salad is on the quality-dependent end of the scale. Had I used it to make something with more spices, I bet the quality gap between theirs and mine would shrink substantially, I'll try that next time, and we'll see.
The quantity of the chicken was just right, and my hopes, and real reason for buying the Salad Finisher in the first place, were realized.
Whether I made it myself, or tried the Tyson (or other brand) grilled chicken sold in the deli section, I would have spent way more than $2.39 and had way more chicken than I needed.
While that is good news for me, and my purposes, you might want or need more chicken for yours, and if your desire is to use the product as it was intended - to "finish" a salad, I should warn you that you are likely to be disappointed by the small quantity of cheese. And possibly almonds, if you like lots of those.
My normal chicken salad behavior comes in two flavors: Curry, and Non-Curry.
To test this product as rigorously as possible, I decided to behave in Non-Curry flavor, to reduce the chances of sucky chicken hiding itself behind even the small amount of spices that go into Curry flavor.
My normal Non-Curry Chicken Salad recipe goes like this:
chicken breast bits
cut up onion (Episcopal chop)
small seedless grapes
sliced, toasted almonds
Hellmann's mayonnaise (sometimes diluted with low-fat sour cream or fat-free yogurt)
cayenne & black pepper, salt
bit of Balsamic vinegar
However, on this occasion, because the only seedless grapes immediately available to me were 1) ginormous, and 2) only sold in ginormous quantities, and because when I bought granny smith apples to make tuna salad, I bought two, used one, and Mr Puff had not eaten the other one yet, I made this batch of Non-Curry Chicken Salad as above, but with a chopped up granny smith apple. The half to three-quarter inch cube size evidently preferred by Sargento's focus groups is a little larger than the chicken bits my recipe and tastes call for, so I committed some minimal chicken-chopping, but I am sure that the focus groups reflect majority opinion, so you can probably skip that step.
I was astonished to reflect that I had never done that before, and I think I like it better than with grapes! It was really good! I did not dilute the mayonnaise this time, because, well, for no reason. I just didn't.
My apple and onion were big, so I had a slightly smaller chicken-to-other-stuff ratio, but since I didn't dilute the mayonnaise, that worked out well from a calorie perspective, and my batch ended up being so large that I didn't eat it all up!
I wasn't sure how it would "keep," tuna salad is pretty resilient, but chicken can be fractious, but to my pleased surprise, my Non-Curry Chicken Salad was actually better the second day!
I also tried amanda's tuna salad honey mustard idea, except this was, of course, chicken salad, and I didn't mix it in, I spread honey mustard on the bread and made a sandwich, and it was delicious! Thanks, amanda!
All in all, I think this product works very well for individuals whose immediate goals include making chicken salad, specifically those who live alone (or just eat chicken salad alone). It makes a very satisfactory chicken salad, and using the recipe above, on the second day, the quality gap between ShimmaPuff-made and Sargento-made chicken was not, at least to me, perceptible.
I will definitely buy this product again, because I am curious to see how it will perform other traditional roles frequently played by cooked chicken, such as biryani ingredient, taquito/flauta star, fried rice cameo, etc.
The Bistro one also has the advantage of coming with almonds, which go into biryani and fried rice, and the quantity of almonds is not a whole lot less than if you bought a packet of them by themselves, which would cost $3-$4, so while at first glance, you might think of Salad Finishers as a high-priced, luxury item, for people who are cooking for just 1 or 2 people, think of it as getting the chicken and almond contingents of any dish requiring those two ingredients - for as low as 20% of what you would pay if you bought the items separately, and then you would also have to cook them - and with a bonus sprinkle of mozzarella and a few flakes of sun-dried tomato for your next salad.
Bottom line - it's a bargain, go get you some!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irishgal
Now Shimma, if one of us said we liked chicken but did not want to just cook enough for us you might fuss..I usually cook about 3 breasts on Sunday night and then use them in salads during the week.
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No way! I would recognize you as a kindred spirit far too lazy to divide chicken up and freeze most of it, and far too unpredictable, even to one's own self to be that sure that one would wish to eat 3 breastsworth of chicken over the course of the next week!
Sargento Salad Finishers - Has Anyone Tried Them? Call for Opinions Please!
