Most versatile dish that can be served on croissants with lettuce and tomato, or a hearty sourdough bread, spoon it over a tortilla and make into a wrap, or just simply serve it on a bed of lettuce.
Origins
An early 19th century English recipe for chicken salad can be found in the Mrs Beeton book of household management. This is a dish of cold roast chicken placed on lettuce and drizzled with a salad dressing made from mixed mustard, sugar, salad oil, milk, vinegar, cayenne and salt. It is garnished with hard boiled eggs, cucumber slices and boiled sliced beetroot.
Early American chicken salad recipes can be found in 19th-century Southern cookbooks, including Sarah Rutledge's The Carolina Housewife: Or, House and Home (1847) and Abby Fisher's What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking (1881). Rutledge details a recipe for "A Salad To Be Eaten With Cold Meat Or Fowl" that explains how to make a mayonnaise from scratch, before adding it to cold meats (chicken and seafood).
A SALAD TO BE EATEN WITH COLD MEAT OR FOWL. The yolk of a raw egg, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, (it is better if mixed the day before,) half a tea-spoonful of salt. The mustard and salt to be rubbed together; then add the egg. Pour on very slowly the sweet oil, rubbing hard all the time, till as much is made as is wanted. Then add a table-spoonful of vinegar. When these ingredients are mixed, they should look perfectly smooth. If it curdles, add a little more mustard, or a little vinegar. With shrimps or oysters, a little red pepper rubbed in, is an improvement.
— Sarah Rutledge, The Carolina Housewife: Or, House and Home (1847)
How to make Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- Chicken: I like to use boneless and skinless chicken breast. You can either boil, bake, or use your instant pot to cook the chicken. For a quick time saver, purchase a rotisserie chicken, debone and shred that.
- Craisins: the craisins add a fruity sweetness that helps balance out all the flavors. You could use fresh grapes instead of the craisins but be mindful of the freshness. Grapes tend to go bad more quickly.
- Pecans: I love to add toasted nuts to this dish. It enhances the flavor of the pecans and add a nice little crunch. You can substitute with walnuts if you prefer. You can also just use raw nuts without toasting. It's completely optional.
- Celery: I use 2-3 stalks in this recipe but feel free to add or take away according to your liking.
- Mayonnaise: Dukes it my favorite but any good quality mayo will work.
- Sour Cream: I love a good full-fat sour cream.
- Rotisserie Seasoning: this adds a nice flavor to the chicken. If you don't have this, just use season salt.
- Garlic Powder
- Kosher Salt
- Pepper
- Celery Salt
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and toast chopped pecans for about 10 minutes or until nuts are slightly golden and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
While nuts are toasting, shred the cooked chicken. I like to use my stand mixer to make quick work of the chicken shredding process. Just pop it in the bowl, grab your paddle attachment, and turn it on low until the chicken is nice and shreddy. If you don't have a stand mixer, place your chicken in a large bowl and using your hands, shred the chicken.
To your mixing bowl, add mayo, sour cream, rotisserie seasoning or season salt, garlic powder, kosher salt, pepper, and celery salt. Mix together.
Stir in toasted pecans, celery, and craisins. Give it a taste or two and then give yourself a pat on the back.
Recipe Tips
Adding fresh fruit gives this dish a lovely crisp taste. Just be mindful that the quality of the fruit will diminish quickly over time so if you're not serving the chicken salad that day or the following day, the fruit will continue to just get icky. If you make it to serve the day of, then I say GO FOR IT!! Your guests will love it.
You could also make the chicken salad ahead of time and then stir in the fresh fruit before you serve it.
Favorite Mix-ins
- Granny Smith Apples
- Red or Green Grapes
- Marshmallows: i know that sounds weird but it's good
- Red Onion
- Cucumbers
