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Festive table
Bull salad with chicken and pineapples

Bull Salad with Chicken and Pineapple

A photogenic centerpiece for your New Year's table! This festive salad doesn't just dress up the spread—it might just bring you good luck. Since the coming year is the year of the white ox, it could become your good-luck charm. We turn to the Eastern zodiac more and more these days, and why not? Let's believe in a little luck!

BlueEyed

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Chicken breast

500

Hard cheese

110

Pineapple (canned)

240

Canned corn

200

Eggs

Walnuts

Garlic

Mayonnaise

100

Hard cheese

Processed cheese (Druzhba spreadable cheese)

Carrots (fresh)

Garlic

Mayonnaise

Egg (white, for the eyes)

Cooked sausage (for the ears, nose, and lip)

100

Olives (or black grapes, for eyes, eyebrows, and nostrils)

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 39 % 13 g

Fats 48 % 16 g

Carbohydrates 12 % 4 g

198 kcal

GI: 20 / 80 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make a Bull salad for the New Year's table? The coming year is the year of the white ox, so I'm making a light-colored salad. For a nice presentation I'll need three different salads that still complement each other in flavor. For the bull's head, a salad of chicken, pineapple, and corn with a mayo dressing works great. The chicken can be boiled, smoked, or fried—your call. Use whatever cheese you like; I went with a mild semi-hard cheese. Hard-boil the eggs.
Step 2:

I'm making the salad with pan-fried chicken breast. If you'd like to do the same, first rinse the meat and pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels. Trim off as much fat and membrane as you can. Cut the breast into thin strips with the grain, then cut those strips across the grain into squares about 1.5 x 1.5 cm (½ inch). Put the meat in a colander and add a little flour. Toss the pieces to coat them well, then shake off the excess flour. The meat will fry up fast and stay juicy.
Step 3:

Heat a skillet, then pour in a little refined oil and let it get good and hot over high heat. Only add all the meat at once when the oil is really hot. Don't rush to stir it—let a crust form and lightly brown first. Then stir, and stir a couple more times after that. Thin pieces of breast fry in just 3–4 minutes. Take the cooked meat off the heat and season with salt and pepper. Let it rest, covered, for a bit, then cool it completely.
Step 4:

Put the cooled meat in a deep bowl. Add the drained corn and finely chopped pineapple, along with finely chopped walnuts. Grate the eggs on the coarse side of a grater and the cheese on the fine side. At this point you can cover the bowl and refrigerate it overnight, dressing and tossing it only just before serving or shaping the bull. For the dressing, press the garlic into the mayonnaise—or you can just add it straight to the bowl.
Step 5:

For the horns and forelock, you'll need a cheese salad. For the horns, finely grate the two kinds of cheese, press in the garlic, and dress with mayonnaise. Divide the salad and stir finely grated fresh carrot into one-third of it—that portion will become the forelock.
Step 6:

Start turning your prepped salads into the bull as close to serving time as possible, so the decoration stays looking its best. Begin with the head's features. Cut the nose and ears from cooked sausage or a brighter-colored ham. Use egg white for the whites of the eyes. The nostrils, eyebrows, and eyes can be made from black grapes or olives. I sketched the design first so the salad would fit the platter, then checked each cut-out piece against the sketch and adjusted its size.
Step 7:

For serving, I chose a flat egg-shaped platter, 26 x 30 cm. Dot the platter with mayonnaise to mark the outermost points of the figure. I marked where the horns and ears would go, plus the overall outline of the head.
Step 8:

Toss the main chicken salad and start laying it out along the outline. Gradually build up volume, making the forelock area taller. Then shape the horns from the cheese salad with your hands and set them in place. Your hands should be clean, of course.
Step 9:

Next, finely grate the leftover egg white and a little hard cheese over the top of the main salad. This mimics the bull's coat, and—just like in nature—it can look a little uneven. Set the eyes, eyebrows, ears, nose, and lip in place. Last, add the cheese-and-carrot salad to form a playful forelock. Don't forget to clean any stray crumbs off the platter—everything should look tidy.
Step 10:

Before serving, fringe the edge of the platter with fresh herbs to create a little "meadow." Tuck a flower or a sprig of greenery into the slightly open mouth. Dust a little grated cheese on the ears to suggest fur. That's it—serve it up! And may this fun little bull bring you everything you wish for in the New Year!

For a New Year's themed salad, any other salad recipe with a mayo dressing will work too. The key is that the salad mixture be thick and firm.
There are countless ways to picture the bull. It can be a kind, cartoonish little fellow or a strong, willful animal—just the head, or a whole bull in a meadow, or even a stylized, tattoo-like graphic.
It all comes down to your taste, imagination, and skill! Have fun creating your own version.
It may not turn out exactly as you pictured, but it'll look cute and homey either way. It'll delight your loved ones and bring smiles—and that's its own kind of happiness!
It's best to make the mayonnaise yourself; it'll taste better and be healthier. You can also use sour cream or plain yogurt instead of mayo, on their own or blended with it in any ratio you like—that'll cut the calories.