Napoleon Salad Cake with Chicken
Gorgeous, showstopping, and absolutely delicious — perfect for a party table! This Napoleon salad cake with chicken is an unusual savory appetizer, with layers of salad stacked between thin sheets of puff pastry. It suits any celebration and makes a fun change from the usual menu.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make a Napoleon salad cake with chicken? Start by baking the pastry layers. Take a deep bowl and sift in the flour — this not only removes any bits but also aerates it, making the pastry lighter.
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Step 2:
Grate the cold butter on a coarse grater into the flour. It needs to be well chilled, so put it in the freezer an hour ahead; rolling it in flour first helps it stick less to the grater. Quickly rub the butter into the flour with your hands until you have a coarse crumb.
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Step 3:
Make a well in the flour mixture, pour in the ice water mixed with vinegar, and stir.
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Step 4:
Knead the dough. Work quickly so the butter doesn't melt from the heat of your hands — that keeps the dough soft.
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Step 5:
Divide the dough into equal pieces — how many depends on the size of layers you want. I split it into 6. Chill the dough in the fridge for half an hour.
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Step 6:
Take the dough balls out of the fridge one at a time, right before rolling. On a floured surface, roll each piece out very thin (about 1/8 inch / 3 mm). Transfer the sheet to parchment with the help of a rolling pin — no need to grease the parchment. Trim it to shape right away and prick it all over with a fork so it doesn't puff up while baking. I made a small salad cake from 6 square layers, about 5.5 inches (14 cm) on a side.
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Step 7:
Bake the layers in an oven preheated to 350–375°F (180–190°C) for 8–10 minutes, until golden.
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Step 8:
Make the filling. First, boil the chicken breast: drop it into boiling salted water, add the peppercorns and bay leaf, and simmer over medium heat until cooked through, 30–40 minutes depending on size.
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Step 9:
Lift the chicken out of the broth and let it cool, then cut it into small pieces. Save the broth for other dishes.
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Step 10:
Wash and dry the mushrooms, then chop them finely. I used button mushrooms, but others work too — fresh, frozen, canned, or dried.
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Step 11:
Peel the onion and cut it into small cubes.
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Step 12:
In a skillet with a little vegetable oil, sauté the mushrooms and onion until tender, stirring now and then. Salt the mushrooms as they cook. Let them cool.
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Step 13:
Grate the cheese on a fine grater. Choose a tasty, good-quality, natural cheese, with no milk-fat substitutes. Hard-boil and cool the egg.
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Step 14:
Assemble the cake. As you build it, spread mayonnaise over each pastry layer and each layer of filling, using as much as you like. So: first pastry layer, then mayonnaise.
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Step 15:
Spread on half of the chopped chicken and top it with mayonnaise.
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Step 16:
Cover with the second pastry layer and spread the grated cheese evenly over it.
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Step 17:
Another layer, then the sautéed mushrooms. I skipped the mayonnaise here, since the mushrooms were rich enough on their own. Cover with a pastry layer.
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Step 18:
The next layer is the rest of the chicken.
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Step 19:
Then a pastry layer and the hard-boiled egg, grated on a coarse grater.
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Step 20:
Spread cream cheese over the top pastry layer and the sides. To make it less stiff, mix in a spoonful or two of cream. Press crumbs made from the pastry trimmings onto the sides. Decorate the top however you like. I tinted the leftover cream cheese with carrot juice and piped a border around the edge, then added olives, parsley, and a carrot rose. Chill the finished cake in the fridge for 6–8 hours so the layers soften and meld. Enjoy!
- You can use ready-made Napoleon pastry layers for this salad cake. I left mine in the fridge overnight, and it soaked through beautifully — delicious and quite filling.
- Instead of fresh mushrooms, you can use frozen or dried ones (you'll need 5–6 times less of the dried). Thaw frozen mushrooms however is convenient (for example, in the microwave on the right setting — check your manual) and drain off the liquid. Or, if a little extra liquid won't hurt the recipe, use them without thawing. Dried mushrooms should be rinsed well, since they aren't washed before drying, then soaked in cold water for at least 2–3 hours.
- It's worth making your own mayonnaise; it tastes better and is better for you. You'll find some good homemade mayo recipes here. And you don't have to use mayonnaise alone — sour cream or plain yogurt work too, on their own or mixed with mayo in any ratio you like to cut down on calories.
- Keep in mind that every oven is different, so your temperature and baking time may vary from what's given here. For baked dishes that come out right, read up on how ovens behave!
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Wild mushrooms - 21 kcal/100g
- Chicken egg - 157 kcal/100g
- Egg white - 45 kcal/100g
- Egg powder - 542 kcal/100g
- Egg yolk - 352 kcal/100g
- Ostrich egg - 118 kcal/100g
- Dutch cheese - 352 kcal/100g
- Swiss cheese - 335 kcal/100g
- Russian cheese - 366 kcal/100g
- Kostroma cheese - 345 kcal/100g
- Yaroslavl cheese - 361 kcal/100g
- Altai cheese, 50% fat - 356 kcal/100g
- Sovetsky cheese - 400 kcal/100g
- Steppe cheese - 362 kcal/100g
- Uglich cheese - 347 kcal/100g
- Poshekhonsky cheese - 350 kcal/100g
- Lambert cheese - 377 kcal/100g
- Appenzeller cheese, 50% fat - 400 kcal/100g
- Cheshire cheese, 50% fat - 363 kcal/100g
- Edam cheese, 40% fat - 340 kcal/100g
- Cheese with mushrooms, 50% fat - 395 kcal/100g
- Emmental cheese, 45% fat - 420 kcal/100g
- Gouda cheese, 45% fat - 356 kcal/100g
- Amadeus cheese - 364 kcal/100g
- Dom Blanc cheese (semi-hard) - 360 kcal/100g
- Lo Spalmino cheese - 61 kcal/100g
- Etorki cheese (sheep's milk, hard) - 401 kcal/100g
- White cheese - 100 kcal/100g
- Fatty yellow cheese - 260 kcal/100g
- Altai cheese - 355 kcal/100g
- Kaunas cheese - 355 kcal/100g
- Latvian cheese - 316 kcal/100g
- Limburger cheese - 327 kcal/100g
- Lithuanian cheese - 250 kcal/100g
- Lake cheese - 350 kcal/100g
- Gruyère cheese - 396 kcal/100g
- Bay leaf - 313 kcal/100g
- Butter 82% - 734 kcal/100g
- Unsalted butter - 709 kcal/100g
- Unsalted farmhouse butter - 661 kcal/100g
- Salted farmhouse butter - 652 kcal/100g
- Clarified butter - 869 kcal/100g
- Salad mayonnaise, 50% fat - 502 kcal/100g
- Light mayonnaise - 260 kcal/100g
- Provençal mayonnaise - 624 kcal/100g
- Provençal mayonnaise - 627 kcal/100g
- Table mayonnaise - 627 kcal/100g
- Wine vinegar (3%) - 9 kcal/100g
- Vinegar 9% - 11 kcal/100g
- Balsamic vinegar - 88 kcal/100g
- Apple cider vinegar - 14 kcal/100g
- Vinegar - 11 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Black peppercorns - 255 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Onion - 41 kcal/100g
- Wheat flour - 325 kcal/100g
- Chicken breast (fillet) - 113 kcal/100g
- Cream cheese - 223 kcal/100g
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