Chicken Salad Recipe
101 Ways to Make Chicken Salad
Making chicken salad on a hot summer night couldn’t be easier especially if you have leftover roasted chicken from the night before. Whether you roast the chicken yourself or buy a rotisserie chicken at your local market, one of the best ways to use up leftovers is cut it up to pieces and make chicken salad.
There must be 101 ways to make chicken salad depending on what you have on hand to toss into it. I’m sure everyone has a favorite recipe from his or her mom or great aunt but in our house, we usually go with what’s on hand or in the refrigerator and get creative.
Basically, chicken salad is chicken, chopped up vegetables; some sort of fruit and a dressing that typically has mayonnaise associated with it. A classic chicken salad could be just chicken, celery, mayo and salt & pepper. That’s it. That simple.
Instead of giving you exact recipe with measured out ingredients, I’d wanted to give you some ideas as to what you can try in your own recipe. I’m not giving you measurements because I never make the same chicken salad twice and really don’t have them. I suppose if you come up with the most amazing homemade chicken salad recipe ever, you may want to write it down so you can make it again some time.
This list is by no means exhausted but it’s a good start. I encourage you to experiment with all your favorite ingredients and if you come up with something special, add it to the comments below.
A Few Simple Suggestions
- Don’t add too many additional ingredients. – Sometimes less is more. You want to combine various ingredients that work well together but don’t completely overpower the flavor of the chicken. They are there to add flavor, color and texture but if you put too many of them together, it will really confuse your taste buds.
- Prepare all the non-dressing ingredients together separately from the dressing ingredients. – You want the chicken, vegetables and fruit to be balanced just like you want the dressing to be balanced. If you are simply using mayonnaise, the task is easy, but if you start adding other ingredients to the mayo, it gets a little trickier.
- Don’t add all the dressing to the chicken mixture at one time. You don’t want to overpower the chicken with dressing. It is easier to add more than try to remove excess dressing and remember nothing is worse than an over dressed salad.
- Customize the mayonnaise by adding ingredients that you like and will work with the rest of the ingredients.
- Check for seasonings at the end especially salt and pepper.
- Chicken salad makes great sandwiches, you can also serve it with a salad or on a bed of lettuce. – The art of making a great chicken salad sandwich has as much to do with the type of bread you are serving it on, but that’s a subject for another blog. Since my wife isn’t eating bread these days, we typically serve it with a salad. I eat the leftovers on bread the next day if there is any left.
Classic Chicken Salad Ingredient Suggestions besides the Chicken and Mayonnaise
Celery
Onion
Carrot
Peppers
Seedless grapes
Alternative Ingredients
Toasted almond slivers
Capers – drained
Chopped sweet pickles or pickle relish
Water chestnuts
Hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Nuts – walnuts, pecans, cashews, pine nuts, sesame seeds
Fruits- apple slices, pear, raisins, cranberries, craisins, tomato, avocado, olives, mandarin oranges, cherries
Vegetables – asparagus, cucumber,
Cheese – hard cheese, grated or thin slices of soft cheese
Mayonnaise Additions
Herbs – basil, parsley, tarragon, chervil, chives, sage, mint
Spices – ginger, dry mustard, honey mustard, paprika, oregano
Chutney
Jam or preserves
Honey
Citrus juice – lemon, orange, grapefruit
Peanut butter
Vinegar
Soy Sauce
Hot Sauce
Maple syrup
Yogurt
What Are Your Favorite Ingredient Combinations
Let me know how you like your chicken salad in the comments section below.
on June 29th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Just found your site, it’s great! Fave chicken salad is chicken, toasted almond slivers, grapes, green pepper and green onion in mayo w/lots of chopped tarragon. Any suggestions for low-fat mayo that doesn’t turn runny in the salad after the second day?
on June 29th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Chicken salad is rather like a blank canvas to me. All sort of possibilities and no shortage of new ideas. I always cut my mayonnaise by 1/2 and replace with low fat sour cream. It has a really fresh creamy taste without being oily or too high in fat!
on July 1st, 2007 at 11:23 am
I put curry and raisins in my basic chicken salad.
on July 2nd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
I have my brother, Joe, to thank for this chicken salad variation. Start with leftover roasted chicken meat. Saute some diced bacon (1/2 cup or so) until chewy, or crispy, depending on how you like it. Remove bacon from pan, drain onpaper towels. Remove all but 1 Tbs bacon grease from pan. Saute finely diced red pepper and onion until soft in bacon grease. Meanwhile, roast some pecan pieces until lightly browned. Toss all ingredients together with mayo, salt and pepper and maybe throw in some dried cherries. Each time I make this, it is a little different, but the combination is fantastic and always better the next day after the flavors have had time to marry. Enjoy!
on August 21st, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I am working to try and replicate a delicious chicken salad my cousin made and will not share. It had grapes and cashews and was very sweet with a little tangy buzz. Any suggestions to make my quest shorter? right now I am just doing trial and error and I think my problem is in the spice arena (I am terrible at detecting exact spices) Any Ideas on a spice combination that will add a sweet tangy flavor? I wish I could be more specific.
on August 24th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I add chipotle chili powder to the mayo- it adds a nice sweet and smoky element with a slight bit of heat.
on October 23rd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
i just found your site and I got 2 recipe’s to take home and try and hopefully they will be as good as they look. I’m looking forward to trying them. thank you
on February 14th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I love your recipes. I found your site 3 yrs ago and love love the recipes. Very simple and yummy. Thanks!
on May 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I love to add sour cream with my mayo to cut out the richness and tang. Also, tarragon adds a nice flavor. Don’t forget the grapes and toasted pecans. Yummy!!!!
on June 5th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
um, for a sweet tangy flavor use pineapple bits and the juice. This goes great with chicken salad that has dark purple grapes and nuts