Chicken Salad Three Ways
Three ways to make Chicken Salad, including a Southern Style version from My Number One Fan.
Like many so-called classic recipes, Chicken Salad and its origins are debatable. Food historians generally believe that the dish came about after the invention of mayonnaise, which is placed sometime in the early 18th Century in France. Etymology of the name is obscure but some believe it originated from the French Provence town of Mahon. It is a historical fact, however, that the first printed use of the word "mayonnaise" in English occurred in 1815. Sometime thereafter, the idea of mixing mayo with cold meat or seafood came about with the first printed recipe for Chicken Salad in 1847 from a cookbook called The Carolina Housewife. The author's recipe was more about how to make mayonnaise from scratch before adding it to chopped chicken combined with white celery.
Purportedly, the first commercially prepared chicken salad arrived on the U.S. culinary scene in 1863 in Rhode Island at Town Meats Butcher Shop, later turned into a delicatessen in the city of Wakefield. Leftover cooked chicken was mixed with mayonnaise, tarragon and grapes. It wouldn't be until mayonnaise became commercially available in the early twentieth century in New York City by the Hellman family in 1912, trademarked as Hellman's Mayonnaise in 1926, that Chicken Salad began gracing the tables and lunch counters of America.
Today, limitless variations of ingredients in chicken salad can be found on the Internet, some without mayonnaise, but the most popular and widely used recipes for Chicken Salad contain the cornerstone three ingredients of the first printed 1847 recipe, namely, chicken, mayonnaise and celery. Other common add-ins are green onions, boiled egg, bell peppers and pickles or pickle relish. And grapes. Many recipes still tip their hat to the Town Meats Butcher Shop in Wakefield, Rhode Island that began the trend.
Summery Chicken Salad
This was a serendipitous discovery of a recipe that would incorporate some things in our pantry we needed to eat sooner than later, namely a bag of Sun-Maid Golden Raisins, some Granny Smith Apples, an opened bag of Pine Nuts and a can of Swanson's Chunk White Chicken. The latter would be the big departure from our two other chicken salad recipes, both of which make use of fresh cooked chicken.
To be honest, I had a slight aversion to using canned chicken. I got over my aversion once I tasted how well it works in this bright, fresh recipe that My Number One Fan said when she read the ingredients, "Wow, sounds cool and summery!" So, there ya go.
Needless to say, you could easily substitute your own cooked chicken or even use leftover store-bought rotisserie chicken. But for convenience and keeping it easy, the canned version works very well here.
My Number One Fan’s Southern Chicken Salad
My Number One Fan contributed her version of Chicken Salad which include hard boiled eggs, a more common recipe in the South. Her personal twist on the recipe was the addition of capers, which isn't traditional in the South, but is certainly delicious, and might be the best recipe of the three for a Chicken Salad Sandwich.
My Version of the Original Town Meats Chicken Salad Recipe
This is my take on the original 1863 version of the first Chicken Salad recipe, which included mayonnaise, grapes and tarragon. I’ve added a few more flavor enhancers and this is a delicious way to use up leftover store-bought Rotisserie Chicken, or you can cook your own chicken breasts for the recipe. Although delicious as a sandwich, I like it stuffed in a large fresh garden tomato.
Summery Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 12.5-oz can chunked chicken (like, Swanson's Premium White Chuck Chicken Breast)
- 1 medium Granny Smith, Honeycrisp or Fuji apple, peeled, cored and diced
- 2-3 celery stalks, finely diced
- 2-3 green onions, finely chopped
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp course sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp dried dill
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 cup golden raisins (like, Sun-Maid)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
Instructions
- Add the diced apples and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl and toss well to coat the apples. This will keep them from turning brown while you finish preparing the recipe.
- Drain the canned chicken well, and then lay it out on a cutting board. Cut the chicken chunks into more or less uniform diced pieces.
- Add all the remaining ingredients except the mayonnaise and stir well to combine.
- Add the mayonnaise and fold it into the mixture so that everything is coated.
- Refrigerate for a couple of hours before eating.
My Number One Fan's Southern Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 3-4 cups cooked chicken thighs, skinned, de-boned and roughly chopped
- 5 heaping tbsp mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp green onion - green tops only, finely minced
- 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
- 1- 1/2 tsp nonpareil capers
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 2 boiled eggs, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- fine sea salt
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together except the hard boiled egg in large mixing bowl and stir well to combine and coat all ingredients.
- Add the hard boiled eggs and gently fold into the mixture.
- Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- If you need to cook the chicken thighs, simply simmer them in chicken broth with a teaspoon of chicken bouillon for 20-25 minutes. Drain and allow to cool before chopping.
My Version of the Original Town Meats Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, or two cooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts, roughly chopped
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 finely chopped green onions
- 2 stalks finely minced celery
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp dried tarragon
- 1 tbsp dried chives
- 1 cup seedless white or red grapes, halved
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together except the grapes in large mixing bowl and stir well to combine and coat all ingredients.
- Add the frapes and gently fold into the mixture.
- Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- If you need to cook the chicken breasts, cut them into quarters and simply simmer them in chicken broth with a teaspoon of chicken bouillon for15-20 minutes. Drain and allow to cool before chopping.
