Sandwiches

2 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked, trimmed and diced

Perfectly cooked. Still moist, but cooked through.

2 pieces of celery, finely diced

4 green onions, finely chopped

2 dozen red seedless grapes

¾ C mayo

¾ C sour cream

Salt

Cracked black pepper

classic, always good

For chicken: place chicken in a stock pot and cover with cold water. Add 2 t salt and bring to a boil, uncovered. Once boiling, cook for about 5 minutes. Remove chicken from heat and cover for 20 minutes. Place cooked chicken on a plate and chill in the refrigerator. Trim and dice for salad.

Once chicken is prepared, add the remaining ingredients. Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. (I like lots of pepper in mine!) Chill for several hours before serving. Good the next day too.

High’s chicken salad has been around since we opened. Maria makes pounds and pounds of chicken salad every week. She is the steadiest hand in our kitchen.

Serve on a sandwich with lightly toasted bread, leaf lettuce and a slice of red onion. Or, many prefer it on spring greens with our raspberry chipotle dressing.

Caution: be very careful when handling raw chicken. Wash hands and cooking surfaces with soap and water.

(makes 12 medium-sized cakes)

1 pound super lump crab meat, drained

1 egg

3 T mayo

1 T whole grain mustard

1 T Old Bay seasoning

1 slice of toasted white bread, crust removed and finely diced

½ red bell pepper, finely diced

2 stalks celery, finely diced

Zest of ½ a lemon

Pinch of salt and black pepper

Combine all ingredients, except the crab, in a bowl and mix well. Add the crab and gently break it up. Leave big pieces intact, if possible. Very gently fold ingredients together. Using an ice cream scoop, place 12 portions into a prepared muffin tin. Spray the tops of the crab with canola spray. Place in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes, rotate and cook an additional 10 minutes. The cakes will be slightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Place muffin pan into the refrigerator and allow the cakes to cool completely before handling. The day before is great. Once cooled, the cakes will hold their shape much better. This recipe is so good because the binder material is minimal. The crab is the star. Cakes can be reheated in the oven or sautéed in a small amount of olive oil on the stove top. Once warmed through, serve immediately with remoulade, capers, and sliced lemon.

Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray. Smaller muffin tins are good for cocktail sized portions. At High’s, we use a pasteurized crab meat that we purchase at Costco. It is sweet, wild caught, always dependable and it is shell free. Nothing more tedious than picking through crab meat. Since the crab meat has been cooked, the cooking time in the recipe is simply used to pull the ingredients together and form the cake.

This cake is ready for a close up. Note the chunks of crab!

For the open-faced sandwich: split open an English muffin and toast, layer on red leaf lettuce, sliced tomato, red onion, crab cake, remoulade, capers, chopped parsley. Garnish with lemon wedges.