Coronation Chicken

One recipe that I forgot to post earlier was one that was inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953...

(cue the music, "Hail Brittania")

I first had my first taste of Coronation Chicken at Shakespeare's Corner Tea Shoppe during tea with my daughter and the neighbor girls...

I thought it tasted a bit like the curried chicken salad I make for parties, but with a kick and without celery and water chestnuts. The Coronation Chicken at Shakespeare's tea was served in a sandwich. For KD's party, I just had it served as a salad...

According to wikipedia's entry on Coronation Chicken,

"Constance Spry, a florist, and Rosemary Hume, a chef, are credited with the invention of coronation chicken. Preparing the food for the banquet of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, Spry proposed the recipe of cold chicken, curry cream sauce and dressing that would later become known as coronation chicken.

Coronation chicken may have been inspired by jubilee chicken, a dish prepared for the silver jubilee of George V in 1935, which mixed chicken with mayonnaise and curry. Additionally, for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, another celebratory dish was devised, also called "jubilee chicken".

Although there are many recipes out there, I kind of mixed and matched and for the sake of time, used the canned chicken from Costco instead of fresh chicken breast (which probably would have tasted better but I was cutting some corners with prep time).

Coronation Chicken

Ingredients:
2 cans of canned chicken breast (or you may use two large skinless boneless chicken breasts, boiled)
mayo
mango chutney
curry powder
diced mango (I eyeballed the amount; try not to over do the fruit)
sultana raisins (these are yellow; I didn't have any so I used regular raisins)
salt and pepper to taste
toasted cashews

Directions:
Cut the chicken into strips (I chunked and then lightly shredded mine instead)
Add the mayo (I eyeballed the amount, maybe a little more than 1/3 cup)
Add a few tablespoons of the mango chutney
Add one teaspoon of curry powder
Add the raisins
Add salt and pepper to taste
Mix to combine the ingredients
Top with toasted cashews

*One recipe I saw called for a tiny bit of lemon juice. I didn't use any but you can try it if you like

(photo courtesy of Sharwood's)

I had to add the cashews at the last minute so they wouldn't get soggy. This filling would taste so good in a sliced croissant. The mango chutney I used was procured from Fresh and Easy's British food section (it's on sale now too). There aren't as much mango bits in there but you can taste it in the chutney which does have a sweet bite to it.

Here are a few variations on how to make Coronation Chicken:
BBC
Guardian UK - This article delves into how this dish became wildly popular and became known as Britain's "first TV dinner" as the recipe was devised to be easy to prepare in advanced and eaten easily whilst glued in front of the TV...
AllRecipes.Com
British Food - About.com
and Retro Food Recipes - this is the original recipe which uses apricots and cream

Until the next tea party!