Chipotle Chicken Salad 

This chicken salad is a take on ensalada de pollo, a dish my mom used to make when I was growing up in Mexico City. She would either use cooked chicken from our weekly caldo de pollo — a tradition I religiously continue to this day in my home in Chevy Chase, Md. — or she would use rotisserie chicken. Soft potatoes, sweet carrots and snappy peas combine with satisfying bites of chicken and plenty of mayonnaise. My spin is to make it smoky and spicy with chipotles in adobo sauce and add a splash of vinegar that brightens everything up. I make it at least a couple of times a month, and since it keeps beautifully for up to five days, there's almost always a batch waiting in the fridge (it might be even better the next morning straight from the fridge). Now, just like when I was a teenager, I am amazed at how satisfying, filling, and tasty it is, while being ridiculously easy to pull together with the most basic ingredients you surely have at home (no day goes by in my house without at least five backup cans of chipotles in adobo sauce). You can eat it in a bowl, serve it alongside saltines or other crackers, pile it onto a tostada, or wrap it in a flour tortilla with shredded lettuce. It's fabulous tucked into a bolillo or baguette for a satisfying torta — but in my mind, nothing beats eating it by itself in a bowl.