Guilt-free Chick­en Sal­ad (serves four)

three whole bone-in chick­en breasts
salt and pepper
half stick of butter

1 large bag or bunch of baby spinach, or mixed leaf salad
8 very small toma­toes (prefer­ably on the vine)
1 avo­ca­do, sliced prettily
dress­ing of your choice

Place 1/4 stick but­ter on each chick­en breast and salt and pep­per it. Roast at 425 degrees for an hour, then five min­utes under the broil­er or until nice and crispy (if you real­ly want it a diet sal­ad, remove the skin after roast­ing; remov­ing it before roast­ing will make it dry out). While the chick­en cools, arrange the greens on a large plat­ter, pre­pare your avo­ca­do, quar­ter the toma­toes and mix your dress­ing. Remem­ber this basic rule, taught to me by the moth­er of the French fam­i­ly I lived with when I was six­teen, nev­er for­got­ten. Three parts oil to one part vine­gar (or oth­er acidic liq­uid like fruit juice. Then you can add what­ev­er oth­er things occur to you with aban­don (mus­tard, Tabas­co, mayo, pesto, you name it). Slice the chick­en breasts and arrange them on the greens, then scat­ter the toma­toes and avo­ca­do all over and around. Driz­zle a min­i­mum of dress­ing on just before serving.

After din­ner, if you’re feel­ing at all ener­getic, put the breast bones in a stock­pot and cov­er with water, and quite a bit of salt. If any sal­ad is left, you can throw that in too. Boil pret­ty high for at least an hour, strain through a colan­der (throw the bits away tak­ing care not to attract skunks!) and refrig­er­ate. In the morn­ing you can take the fat off the top of the pot and you’ve got chick­en broth, good on its own or per­fect as the basis of any good chilled sum­mer soup!

Mmm. We’re going out for din­ner tonight, but right now I’m pret­ty sure it won’t get bet­ter than that! Enjoy what­ev­er is on your plate tonight…