Shaken Chicken and Pomegranate Breakfast Jars with Kale and Pecans
Cold pulled chicken, pomegranate seeds, cucumber, and shredded kale layered into jars over a dijon lemon dressing that you shake in the jar before anything else goes in.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
I build these on Sunday evening, four at a time, and they are what the first half of my week looks like before nine in the morning. A jar of cold chicken salad is an old idea and it usually shows up at lunch, but there is no rule about that, and a breakfast you can eat with a fork while you answer email is worth having in the refrigerator. Nothing is cooked in this recipe. If you roast a chicken on Sunday, or keep a package of cooked breast in the refrigerator the way I do, everything else is a knife, a cutting board, and four wide mouth jars.
The order things go into the jar is the whole method, and it is why these do not turn to sludge by Wednesday. The dressing gets shaken first, in the jar itself, with the lid on and about twenty seconds of real effort. Dijon is the reason it holds together, since it grips the oil and the lemon and keeps them from separating back out in the cold. Then the shredded chicken goes straight down onto the dressing, where it sits and drinks it in. Cucumber and pomegranate come next, kale after that, and the pecans, hemp seeds, and chives ride on top where nothing wet can reach them.
Pull the chicken into threads with two forks or your fingers rather than cutting it into cubes. Cubes stay dry in the middle however long they sit, and torn edges catch dressing and go soft and savory overnight. Pomegranate seeds are the thing people question and then come back for, because their sweetness is what the dijon and lemon need to push against, and they are still crisp on day three when most fruit has gone soft. Kale is the one green that improves sitting in a jar, softening into the dressing rather than collapsing. A pound of chicken across four jars is a serious amount of protein, and with the pecans and hemp seeds on top these eat like a meal rather than something to hold you over.
Ingredients
- 1 lb cooked chicken breast, pulled into shreds (about 3 cups)
- 1 cup pomegranate seeds (from 1 large pomegranate)
- 1 English cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced thick
- 4 cups shredded curly kale, stems removed
- 1/2 cup pecan halves, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp hemp seeds
- 3 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced chives
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Shake the dressing in a jar: Put the garlic-infused olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard, maple syrup, salt, and half the black pepper into one of the jars, screw the lid on tight, and shake hard for a full 20 seconds. It should go from streaky to thick, pale, and creamy. Pour a quarter of it into the bottom of each of the four jars.
- Pull the chicken: Tear the cooked chicken breast along the grain into thin threads using two forks or your fingers. Aim for shreds rather than chunks, and leave the ragged edges alone, since those are what soak up dressing. Divide the chicken among the jars, right down onto the dressing, and turn each jar gently to coat.
- Seed the pomegranate and cut the rest: Halve the pomegranate around its equator, hold a half cut side down over a bowl of water, and whack the skin hard with a wooden spoon so the seeds drop out. The seeds sink, the white pith floats, and nothing sprays your shirt. Quarter the cucumber the long way and slice it into thick half-moons, then strip the kale off its stems and shred it fine.
- Layer wet to dry: Add the cucumber and drained pomegranate seeds over the chicken, then the kale in a loose band on top. Keep the layers in that order every time. Anything watery belongs low in the jar, and anything you want crisp belongs high, above the line the dressing can reach.
- Top and seal: Scatter the pecans, hemp seeds, chives, parsley, and the remaining black pepper across the surface. Seal the jars and refrigerate at least 1 hour before the first one gets eaten, which gives the chicken time to take on the dressing. They hold 3 days.
- Shake and eat: Turn a sealed jar upside down and back four or five times so the dressing runs up through everything, then eat it straight from the jar or tip it into a shallow bowl, which is easier if you want every last pecan. Taste and add a squeeze of lemon if it has gone quiet in the cold.
Variations
- Poach your own: Poach two chicken breasts, cool them completely, and shred them for a softer, juicier jar than most packaged cooked chicken gives you.
- Creamy version: Whisk 1/3 cup of plain skyr into the shaken dressing for something closer to a classic chicken salad.
- Warm spice: Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin to the dressing before you shake it, which turns the jar gold and faintly earthy.
- Strawberry and walnut: Use a cup of sliced strawberries in place of the pomegranate and walnuts in place of the pecans, eating these within two days.
- Bigger jars: Spoon a cup of cold cooked quinoa into the bottom of each jar under the chicken for a jar that carries you further into the day.
Storage & Leftovers
Sealed and upright, the jars keep 3 days in the refrigerator and the chicken tastes better on day two than it does on day one. Do not shake them until the morning you plan to eat one, because once the dressing is up through the kale the pecans lose their crunch within a few hours and the herbs go dull.
If you want to stretch them to four or five days, keep the pecans, hemp seeds, and herbs in a small container and scatter them on at the table. The chicken, cucumber, and pomegranate hold up fine that long, and so does the kale. The herbs are what fade first, going dark and losing their smell by about day three.
These do not freeze, since cucumber turns to water on thawing and pomegranate seeds collapse into juice. What you can do ahead is shake a double batch of the dressing and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator for up to a week, shaking it hard again before it goes into the next round of breakfasts.
Notes & Tips
- Shred, do not cube: Torn threads have rough surfaces that hold dressing. Neat cubes keep a dry center however long they sit in the jar.
- Shake the dressing in the jar itself: Twenty hard seconds with the lid on emulsifies better than a whisk in a bowl does, and you have one less thing to wash.
- Why garlic-infused olive oil works: The flavor in garlic dissolves into fat and the part that upsets a sensitive gut does not, so the oil carries the taste and leaves the trouble behind in the bottle. In an uncooked dressing like this it is doing all of the savory work.
- Wet at the bottom, crisp at the top: Layer in the order given every time. The dressing only travels as far up the jar as gravity takes it, which is what keeps the pecans crunchy on day three.
- Seed the pomegranate under water: Halve it, submerge a half cut side down, and hit the skin with a wooden spoon. The seeds sink, the bitter pith floats off the top, and your kitchen stays clean.
- Use wide-mouth jars: A narrow neck means you are fishing with a long spoon and losing the topping. Wide-mouth pints let you eat straight down through the layers.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Chicken, pomegranate, and pecans are doing three different jobs in this jar. The chicken gives it the substance, the pomegranate brings sweetness and a sharp little burst, and the pecans sit on top with the fat and the crunch that keep a cold breakfast from feeling thin.
- Chicken breast is close-grained and mild, which is exactly why it takes on a sharp dressing so well. It carries a lot of protein for its size along with B6 and selenium, and pulled into threads it stays tender in the cold in a way that cubed meat does not.
- Pomegranate seeds are little sacs of juice around a crisp center, so they burst rather than squash, and each one carries vitamin C and the deep red polyphenols the fruit is known for. They are what make this jar taste bright three days after you built it.
- Pecans and hemp seeds ride on the surface where the dressing cannot soften them. Pecans bring buttery unsaturated fat and a real crunch, and hemp seeds bring plant protein and magnesium in a form small enough to scatter over everything.
- Kale shredded fine sits in the dressing and turns tender rather than limp, and its mineral edge is what dijon and lemon are there to meet. A jar this size holds you through a long morning, with the chicken and the nuts doing most of that work.
- As you eat, notice how a sweet pomegranate seed and a peppery shred of kale land in the same forkful, and let yourself sit down with the jar rather than eating it standing with your bag still on your shoulder.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use something other than chicken breast?
Cooked turkey breast behaves the same way and pulls into the same threads. Shredded chicken thigh is richer and stays more tender, and canned tuna drained well makes a much faster jar, though it wants half the dressing since it is already soft and salty.
My jar was watery at the bottom by day two. What went wrong?
The cucumber was cut too thin, or it went in unseeded. Thick half-moons from a firm English cucumber hold their water, while thin slices give it all up into the dressing. If your cucumber is a seedy field variety, run a spoon down the middle first.
I do not have cooked chicken on hand. What is the fastest way?
Cover two boneless, skinless chicken breasts with cold water in a small pot, bring it barely to a simmer, then turn the heat off, cover the pot, and leave them 15 to 18 minutes until they read 165°F (74°C) at the thickest point. Cool them fully before shredding, or the dressing goes greasy.
Does this fit a low-FODMAP breakfast?
It does. Chicken, cucumber, kale, hemp seeds, and pecans are all comfortable here, and a quarter cup of pomegranate seeds per jar sits in the range most people handle well. The savory side comes from dijon, lemon, chives, and garlic-infused olive oil rather than garlic or onion, so nothing is removed from the recipe before it reaches you.