Chicken Salami Recipe
Chicken salami recipe was one of the recipes that has been on my to-try list for a long time. This wait time was longer than usual as I have some reservations about the chicken salami. Chicken salami was the thing I ate the most during my middle and high school years. I don't think I've ever eaten since then. In a few years, I ate the maximum amount of chicken salami a person could eat in their lifetime and closed that book. That's why I couldn't gather the courage needed because I haven't eaten for a long time and I don't know how salami tastes lately. I started from a place by saying that fear is useless.
Can It Be Made Without Using Gelatin?
Like many people, the thing I was most curious about this recipe was whether it could be made without using gelatin. I was thinking that instead of gelatin, I could use the chicken broth, which becomes gel when it cools. So this is how I did my first try. It wasn't bad. It was in a sticky consistency, but not solid enough to be salami. It was not acceptable to me. But it opened up another path for me, gave me another idea. Another option was to use starch, but I eliminated it as it didn't give the consistency I wanted and as I don't want to eat starch in salami. That's why I switched to gelatin versions without wasting time.
Before trying the gelatin, I was worried if it would give it a very jelly-like consistency, but it didn't. It turned out better than I thought. But consistency wasn't the only problem with the recipe. The bigger problem than the consistency was the flavor. The only taste obtained with chicken broth and flavorings added only when the chicken was boiled was the taste of boiled chicken. When this is the case, one can ask, "If I'm going to taste boiled chicken, why am I trying so hard? I can just eat the boiled chicken."
I already knew that I wouldn't be able to get the full taste of salami, but I was sure that it had to be something different from the taste of boiled chicken. For this, I first extracted the chicken broth, which intensifies the chicken flavor. Then I took advantage of the odor suppressing properties of vinegar and the taste softening properties of sugar. As a result, I got a very nice homemade salami, although it was not same as store bought ones. The chicken flavor is still palpable, which is good, but not uncomfortably intense and overpowering.
Salami has only one drawback, which is that it is not possible to cook it. Since it is made from already cooked ingredients, it does not need to be cooked to be eaten. But if you want to make an omelet with salami. Unfortunately, since gelatin melts when heated, salami also melts when heated. That's why the homemade chicken salami recipe is only suitable for cold sandwiches. There is a famous saying; "Two things are not done in public because it makes you feel nauseous. The first is sausage, the second is politics." I don't think it would be wrong to put salami instead of the sausage here. While this is the case with store bought salamis, it is not a too bad feature for a salami that you know what's in it and that you can make in public.
Enjoy the recipe...
Chicken Salami Recipe with Video
Ingredients
- 5 chicken thighs,
- 1/4 onion,
- 4-5 bay leaves,
- 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper,
- 1 slice of boiled beetroot,
- 2 tablespoons of any kind of vinegar,
- 1 teaspoon of sugar,
- Salt,
- 1 teaspoon of powdered gelatin or agar agar,
- 3/4 cup of water,
- Optionally ground pistachios,
- Extra water to boil the chicken.
Preparation
- To use as a mold, cut a 500 ml plastic bottle from the part that starts to narrow,
- Wash the chicken thighs and take them into the pressure cooker,
- Add enough water to cover them,
- Add the onion, bay leaves, black pepper and salt, close the lid and cook until the meat separates from the bones,
- Take the chickens out of the broth and shred their meat,
- In a separate bowl, add gelatin to 3/4 cup of water and melt it,
- Take chicken meat, gelatinous water, beetroot, vinegar and sugar in a food processor or vertical blender and blend until liquefied,
- If you want to make it plain, pour it into a plastic bottle,
- If you want to make it with pistachios, add pistachios, mix and pour into the plastic bottle that you cut,
- If you want to make half of it with pistachio, half of it plain, pour half into the plastic bottle, add pistachios to the rest, mix and pour it over,
- Cover it with cling film and put it in the fridge and let it rest until it freezes (at least 4 hours, if possible 24 hours).
Bon Appetit...