Chicken Salad and Coffee Mud Pie à la Cork ‘N Cleaver
Someday I’ll tell my grandkids that back in the day I drove a car (with an internal combustion engine no doubt) 40 minutes to an office building every Monday through Friday and worked in a cubicle all day. Maybe that already dates me, but it pretty much describes my early corporate career. I worked in public relations for a big tech company back when out-of-town editors would visit and it was our job to treat them to fancy lunches (and wine in the middle of the day). Discovering all the nice restaurants on an expense account in Phoenix and Scottsdale was definitely a perk of the PR job. Working for a large company also meant lots of coworkers’ birthdays to celebrate with team lunches. Cork 'N Cleaver was the default birthday restaurant in the 90s for my department. A group of us ladies always ordered the same thing: chicken salad that came with banana bread and a big piece of shareable mud pie with an uninhibited round of happy birthday.
As they say, all good things must come to an end. Only three locations remain of what used to be a national chain with 80 locations, and I haven’t worked in a corporate environment with official “lunch hours” since late 2003 (and don’t get me started on how PR has changed). Since leaving Phoenix, I have recreated the chicken salad multiple times and it always brings back fond memories of the team of people I worked and laughed with for so many years.
Lagoon Chicken Salad
This chicken salad, if my memory serves me right, is adapted from a recipe I found in the Arizona Republic. The restaurant served a scoop of chicken salad on a bed of lettuce along with fresh veggies and a sliced hard-boiled egg with a side of Ranch dressing for dipping. And a big chunk of banana bread was on the plate. I’ve served it pretty much the same way over the years, but the salad is great on croissants as well.
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, boneless
1 ½ cups unsweetened apple juice
1 ½ cups seedless green grapes, halved
1 cup chopped unpeeled apple
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup pineapple tidbits
¾ cup chopped walnuts
Dressing:
½-¾ cup mayonaise
¼-½ teaspoon seasoned salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Dash black pepper
Note: I don’t really measure the dressing. Taste it before putting on the salad. And remember, you can always add more mayonnaise, but you can’t take it off.
Directions
Submerge chicken in apple juice in deep saucepan. Cook over medium heat until done; about 15 minutes. Remove chicken, dice and chill. Alternately, you can cook the chicken in 1+ cup of apple juice in an Instant Pot, which is what I did this time.
Toss diced chicken with grapes, apple, celery, pineapple and walnuts.
Mix dressing and toss with chicken mixture. Cover and chill about 30 minutes before serving.
In my mind, this salad needs to be served with a yummy carb. I made Joanna Gaine’s “After school” Banana Bread that’s not really “bread’ because it’s baked in an 8x8 pan. I guess that’s why I’d never made it because I coulldn’t get past the small detail that it wasn’t in a loaf pan. Silly me. Wish I’d made it sooner. It was delicious and so easy. The simple addition of sprinkling sugar on top before baking gives it a nice crunchy sweet topping. Serve it warm with a slather of butter. Turns out a thick chunk of this bread was the perfect accompaniment to the chicken salad.
Coffee Almond Fudge Mud Pie
If it was someone’s birthday, we’d order a serving or two of the coffee ice cream Mud Pie to share. (Because, as we all know, one can not live on banana bread alone.) I did a quick search and the mud pie is still on the dessert menu of at least one of the locations. Ahh, but my version is so much better thanks to the Tillamook Coffee Almond Fudge Ice Cream that I’ve been addicted to lately.
Ingredients
Oreo Crust:
2 dozen whole Oreo cookies
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
48-oz carton of Tillamook Coffee Almond Fudge ice cream
Jar of hot fudge sauce (I used good old Hershey’s, but use your favorite)
½ cup heavy cream, whipped
Slivered almonds, for garnish
Directions
In a food processor, pulse Oreo cookies until finely ground. Add melted, cooled butter and process until mixed well and you have wet crumbs.
Press the crumbs into a 9” round spring form pan with a removeable bottom, pressing evenly along the bottom and up the sides. Bake it for about 5 minutes, then let it cool on a rack. Once it’s cool to touch, place it in the freezer.
Set the ice cream on the counter to get a little soft.
Toast the almonds in a dry skillet on medium-low heat until you smell them getting toasty and turning brown. This should take about 5 minutes. Watch closely so you don’t burn them.
Once the ice cream is soft enough to scoop out easily, remove the oreo crust from the freezer and fill it with the ice cream. Even out the top with a knife or offset spatula and place back in the freezer until it’s solid.
Stir the fudge sauce and spread over the frozen ice cream. Put back in freezer for 15 minutes.
Whip the cream until stiff, adding a spoonful of sugar and ½ tsp. vanilla. Before serving, top the ice cream pie with a smooth layer of whipped cream and sprinkle with the toasted almonds.
Try it, and you’ll agree. This mud pie is the best, especially if you’re a coffee lover. Nothing like starting your day with a good cup of coffee and ending it with a scoop of coffee ice cream … or slice of this mud pie.
