Chicken Salad with Blueberries in Crispy Filo Cups
This is one of those versatile recipes that can be adapted to any size group or occasion you like. Feel free to change the ingredients around to suit your own taste. It would be nice for summer lunches, suppers, or family gatherings where you don’t want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen and can get something out there in seconds. All the prep work can be done ahead of time, which means you can have more time for chatting, cocktails, or both.
Ingredients
- CRISPY FILO CUPS
- 8-10 sheets of filo dough defrosted
- About 1 tablespoon canola oil or melted butter
- HERBED CHICKEN SALAD
- 2 large bone-in chicken breasts – enough to yield 4 cups cooked, diced chicken
- Water
- 1 large carrot and 2 celery ribs cut into large chunks, 4 scallions (halved) 2 garlic cloves, & salt/peppercorns
- About ½ cup each of: slivered sugar snap peas mini colorful peppers, fresh blueberries
- ¼ cup green onion slivered on the bias
- About 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (optional: choose two or three): Italian parsley, chives, oregano, marjoram, thyme, etc.
- ½ cup fresh blueberries
- ½ cup Mayonnaise
- ½ cup Reduced fat sour cream
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- FILO CUPS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a muffin tin (that holds 12 muffins) with cooking spray.
- Unroll filo dough. Pull off two sheets, stack on top of each other and brush the top with oil or melted butter. Pull off two more sheets and repeat.
- Using a sharp knife cut the filo stack lengthwise to form two halves. Then cut into thirds so you have a total of 6 little stacks.
- Place one stack of filo into each muffin tin. Spray each stack lightly with cooking spray. Repeat this process twice so you have 12 total stacks and all your muffin tins are full. Tear off 12, 4-inch wide strips of aluminum foil, and form each into a ball. Place a foil ‘ball’ into the center of each filo cup – this will prevent the sides of the cups from caving in during baking.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until stacks are browned and crispy.
- Cool for about five minutes in the muffin tin, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Store in a covered container until ready to use, or freeze if not using right away.
- CHICKEN SALAD
- In a large Dutch oven, add about 3 inches of water, chicken, carrots, celery, onion, garlic and salt & peppercorns. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce to simmer and cook until chicken is cooked through and reaches in internal temperature of 165 degrees.. Remove chicken and cool. Strain vegetables from broth and discard. Reserve broth for another use.
- In a large bowl, toss together your fresh vegetable, green onion, herbs and blueberries.
- Cut chicken into ½ inch cubes and toss gently into the vegetable mixture.
- In a separate small bowl, combine mayonnaise sour cream, and lemon juice. Pour over chicken mixture and toss gently, only to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- TO ASSEMBLE
- Fill filo shells to the top with chicken mixture.
- Arrange on a platter. Pass the napkins and stand back.