You can never recreate your college experience. Openly complaining about having to wake up by 10am on a Thursday, or excusing yourself from a conversation to go pee against a wall are just not ok in the real world.* On the positive side, your late night bread stick deliveries, all-you-can fit in a cup daily fro-yo intake and the tri-weekly binge drinking sessions have hopefully also been left behind with your composite photo. But who is to say you can never have a taste of the past? Go ahead, drink too much on Wednesday nights – but please trade up from keystone light.
Personally, I miss the college town food. MLR can testify that I made him bring me a Lou's muffin from Hanover when I saw him in Boston, and I can never seem to find anything like the Murphy's cashew chicken salad that I lived on when I lived above the restaurant. So since I can’t relive the glory days I make my own version. May I be so bold to say it's better than the original?…
Yes, I think I may.
Cashew Chicken Salad – inspired by the Murphy’s Cashew chicken salad
Makes 2 big salads
½ cup cashews
2 large chicken breasts
Frank’s Red Hot
1 cup fat free Greek yogurt (Fage, Oikos or Trader Joes are all good)
Ranch dressing powder mix (comes in a little packet in the dressing or seasoning section)
Romane Lettuce
1 cup Snap Peas
1 tomato
1 egg (using the white only)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cover baking pan in tinfoil and spray with Pam
- Cut chicken breasts into strips (chicken finger sized)
- Chop cashews in Cuisinart until you have breadcrumb size pieces (if you don’t have a Cuisinart buy pre-chopped nuts – which you can usually find near ice cream toppings)
- Mix egg white with 3 spoonfuls of Frank’s Red Hot in a little bowl
- Dip chicken strips in egg/frank’s mixture and then coat the chicken in nut pieces and put on tinfoil-covered pan.
- Sprinkle salt over the chicken
- Bake chicken for 16 minutes.
While chicken is baking…
Dressing, Spicy Ranch
- Mix Greek yogurt with 1 spoonful of water, ½ ranch dressing packet and 1 tablespoon of Frank’s Red Hot --- stir and put to the side.
Salad
- Chop Romaine and tomato and divide into two bowls
- Chop snap peas in ½ and put them in each bowl
Cut chicken into pieces and put on top of salad, top with a big dollop of the spicy ranch dressing.
Yum.
* or outside of the AD basement
2 comments:
I've been cooking my variation on the old Murphy's stuffed portabello burger for years...nice recipe CCL.
I have actually spent most of my post-collegiate life seeking "Collis" everywhere I have lived. I have finally come close, in that my work cafeteria serves Collis pasta for lunch on Tuesdays.
And CCL, if you can figure out how to recreate those little spicy turkey rolls at the Hop, you will be my hero forever.
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