Chicken Deviled Eggs

Nearly all of the deviled egg recipes I have tried so far seem to follow a simple pattern. Mash up the yolks, add in some combination of mustard, mayonnaise, maybe a liquid like vinegar or relish, garnish with parsley or paprika. Maybe bacon here, maybe cheese there, maybe even some cream cheese. But these chicken deviled eggs seem to move beyond that simple deviled egg paradigm. Totally unique and delicious. Here's the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs

1/2 cup finely chopped cooked chicken

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon grated sweet onion

1 tablespoon capers, drained and finely chopped

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon minced parsley

paprika, for garnish

Cook one chicken breast at 350 F for 20 minutes, then chop into very small pieces. Next grate sweet onion, drain and chop capers, and mice parsley. Add chicken, mayonnaise, sweet onion, capers, mustard, and parsley to the mashed yolks. Fill egg white halves with filling and garnish with paprika.

Above: adding the chicken, mayonnaise, and sweet onion to the mashed egg yolks. (Note: at the suggestion of a reader, I have mashed the yolks more finely.)

Above: adding the capers, mustard, and parsley.

Above: the finished product, garnished with paprika.

So there were a lot of interesting things going on in this recipe. First, the filling is basically a chicken salad - and this chicken salad is very good. It has a lot of ingredients, yet none of the ingredients dominate and each contributes something. Most deviled egg recipes I have tried that use parsley use it as a garnish, and here it goes into the filling and paprika is used as the garnish. Yet I think the parsley is needed - maybe it adds just a dash of green, maybe it's just for texture - who knows?

But I really liked these, in spite of the large amount of ingredients and the fact that so many ingredients have to be chopped. The texture, also, is perfect - thick enough to stand up in the egg halves, but not so thick that it can't be easily moved from the bowl to the eggs.

Overall: 77 out of 100 out of 100

Texture: 19 out of 20 (nearly perfect)

Flavor: 18 out of 20

Uniqueness: 17 out of 20

Appearance: 15 out of 20

Ease of preparation: 8 out of 20

Comments?

Horseradish and Black Pepper Deviled Eggs

This recipe has been quite an adventure. I have made it twice so far and I'm STILL not totally satisfied. Unlike the disastrous Sour Cream and Lemon Deviled Eggs from July, I see potential in this recipe. It might not be perfect, but it continues to be worth tinkering with and trying again.

So here is my Horseradish and Black Pepper Deviled Egg adventure:

When I made these the first time three weeks ago, I was never comfortable with the horseradish I was using. The original recipe called for "prepared horseradish" and I used some horseradish that I had in my refrigerator. According to http://www.horseradish.org/facts, prepared horseradish loses its potency and turns slightly brown as it ages. I think this is what happened with the horseradish I used in my first crack at this recipe (this attempt is represented in the pictures).


The second time I made this, I used "horseradish sauce" rather than prepared horseradish. Although horseradish.org does not distinguish between "prepared horseradish" and "horseradish sauce," I think the horseradish sauce that I used was horseradish cut with some mayonnaise. The result is that the horseradish is not nearly as hot as it was in the first attempt, and not nearly as hot as I think the recipe intends, but is actually a nice flavor. The problem, however, is that the texture is too runny when using "horseradish sauce."



So I'm going to make this recipe again, a third time, using a little less mayonnaise and using prepared horseradish that I know is fresh. But I'm going to try a couple of new recipes first. Perhaps the third time will be the charm.


Recipe:


6 hard-boiled eggs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons (or more) prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon sweet pickle juice from jar of sweet pickles
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 fresh parsley leaves

Above: adding the mayonnaise and the original prepared horseradish

Above: adding the pickle juice, the freshly ground pepper, and the salt

Above: the finished product, with the parsley garnish

Overall: 65 out of 100

Texture: 8 out of 20 (just too runny)

Flavor: 14 out of 20

Uniqueness: 17 out of 20 (the pickle juice bumps this up a couple points)

Appearance: 12 out of 20

Ease of preparation: 14 out of 20

Comments?

Mom's Simple Deviled Eggs

So first, an update. I haven't updated this blog in more than a month for several reasons. Here they are:

1. I have been traveling quite a bit, and haven't been able to try as many new deviled egg recipes as I would have liked.

2. I HAVE made two new recipes, I just haven't had time to put them up on the blog. Today's addition is the first one, and by the end of the week I will add the second one.

3. Once I made the "Bacon and Cheese Deviled Eggs", I felt like I had found deviled egg perfection. I've made them several times since then, and sometimes it's hard to try new deviled egg recipes knowing they won't measure up to the "Bacon and Cheese Deviled Eggs" that are (so far) the best I've tried since creating this blog.

Nonetheless, here are "Mom's Simple Deviled Eggs."

Mom must LOVE salt! Her ankles must be bloated, because MAN this had a lot of salt. I actually had to make this recipe twice, as the first time, both I and my taste testers felt that the eggs were great, but just WAY WAY too salty. I wondered if I had accidentally added too much salt, but when I remade the recipe using much less salt, they STILL were kind of salty. Not so overwhelming as the first attempt, and the recipe here reflects my changes to the salt, although the pictures reflect the original recipe as I received it.

Recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
pinch salt, to taste
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
paprika for garnish


Above: adding mayonnaise and mustard


Above: adding the vinegar and the 1/4 teaspoon of salt (reduced to just a pinch for the final recipe)


Above: the final result, after dusting with paprika for garnish.

These deviled eggs are actually very good. Not perfect, of course - they are a bit simple, I had to reduce the salt, and they are a tad runny. All in all, a simple, easy deviled egg recipe that isn't TOTALLY banal since it at least has a little bite from the vinegar.

Overall: 68 out of 100
Texture: 10 out of 20 (just a little runny)
Flavor: 17 out of 20
Uniqueness: 8 out of 20
Appearance: 16 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 18 out of 20

Comments?