The Right Reverend John C. Bauerschmidt made his annual visit to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church last Sunday to baptize babies, officiate at the services and, most importantly, eat finger sandwiches and meatballs at the Gala Reception in his honor. Well, maybe only I think that last one is the most important.

The Bishop wasn’t always so willing to graze at the reception table. In fact, for the first few years he visited he never ate a thing. I cannot tell you how disconcerting that was to the Women of St. Paul’s, who spend days coordinating and cooking. Not that we were spying on him from the kitchen or anything like that. I wonder if he saw us?

And then a couple of years ago, I made him pose for a photo with a cheese straw. And he ate it. The next year, Leslie Fraser made her award-winning 7-Up biscuits and ham. I believe Bishop Bauerschmidt may have gone back for seconds. And while the Bishop never shows favoritism of any sort I do believe he may now look forward in a somewhat special way to our gala receptions. “Nothing exceeds like excess” is our motto.

So, this year after the reception the Bishop came back to the kitchen to thank the ladies and asked this simple question: “Who made the coronation chicken?”

The coronation chicken? Maybe that’s something bishops get when they – I don’t know what you call it – get their pointy hat and big purple ring. Consecration. I think that’s it. Here’s your staff and a chicken salad sandwich – now go out there and lead your flock.

It turns out that coronation chicken is just curried chicken salad. And it was mine. MINE!

Catherine and the Bishop

So of course I had to get a photo of this. I would not say the Bishop showed favoritism of any kind other than towards a particular kind of chicken salad he likes. And I will make it each and every year from now on.

I understand that the Bishop hits refresh on his computer every minute until his most recent visit is chronicled on this blog. Okay. That’s a lie. Oops. I think that might be a venial sin, meaning I won’t get excommunicated but I might get a good talking to.

However, I have now changed the name of my curried chicken salad to Coronation Chicken. Yes, Capitalized.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Coronation Chicken
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Ingredients
  • ½ cup sliced almonds
  • ½ cup dried cherries
  • 2 cups roughly chopped cooked chicken breast
  • 1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • ½ teaspoon curry powder
Instructions
  1. Preheat a small skillet to medium heat. Add the almonds, stirring frequently, until they are light brown. Remove from heat and cool.
  2. Add the almonds to a food processor and pulse several times to break them into pebble-sized pieces. Remove the almonds from the processor bowl and add the dried cherries. Pulse them until they’re coarsely chopped.
  3. Remove the cherries and add the chicken and celery to the processor bowl. Pulse until the chicken and celery are finely minced. Remove and add the chicken, celery, almonds, cherries, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and curry powder to a bowl.
  4. Blend thoroughly and adjust the amount of mayonnaise and curry powder depending on your tastes.
 

One Comment

  1. Julie Reinhardt
    Julie ReinhardtReply
    April 24, 2015 at 2:11 pm

    That must have been quite a moment. How I hate that I missed it!!

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