Chicken Salad - Shredded or Sliced, Diced, Cubed?

[lindag]

@heidih No offence intended, I'm basically  a country kind of girl.

[Kim Shook]

15 hours ago, gfweb said:

I make a smoked turkey salad with slivered red grapes that is excellent. Crumbled candied bacon on top and pickled onions

That sounds lovely.  I need to get Mr. Kim doing some turkey soon!  What is it dressed with?

 

22 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Are you two from California? What next, slivered almonds??? (Oh shit,I see you said that!)

From VA/NC - the South is the spiritual home of church lady chicken salad - often mixed with fruit and nuts.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Kim Shook (log)

[MokaPot]

I'm more likely making / eating turkey salad sandwich (rather than chicken). I like small dice (maybe 1/4 inch), mixture of white & brown meat (more white), mayo, S&P, celery & onion.

[gfweb]

15 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

That sounds lovely.  I need to get Mr. Kim doing some turkey soon!  What is it dressed with?

 

From VA/NC - the South is the spiritual home of church lady chicken salad - often mixed with fruit and nuts.

 

A bit of mayo. Not too much. salt. a splash of jalapeno vinegar (don't go crazy).

 

Turkey is cold smoked and cooked sous vide.

 

Use way more grapes than seems necessary. You need one or two per forkful

[Kim Shook]

5 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

A bit of mayo. Not too much. salt. a splash of jalapeno vinegar (don't go crazy).

 

Turkey is cold smoked and cooked sous vide.

 

Use way more grapes than seems necessary. You need one or two per forkful

Thank you!  You know I won't be going crazy with the jalapeno vinegar.  😄

[heidih]

33 minutes ago, lindag said:

@heidih No offence intended, I'm basically  a country kind of girl.

I know. I do live on 4 acres with no sidewalks or street lights

[kayb]

Chicken salad. Their names are legion. There's one that has apples and pecans and curry powder. That's good. Then there's one that has chicken, avocado, fresh whole kernel corn and a yogurt/cilantro/pimenton dressing. That ain't half bad. One of my faves comes from a local catering service; it's shredded chicken, a sweetened mayo (I think with pineapple juice), and green onions. I bring that home and add almonds, or pecans, and chopped grapes and/or apples.

 

Point of interest. Chicken should be shredded. It spreads easier on a sandwich, or scoops easier on a chip.  Grapes, apples, nuts, et. al., should be chopped relatively finely.

 

All additions are game. Except green bell peppers and raw onions. Get thee behind me, Satan. If you want onions, have the decency to soak them in ice water first, before adding them. And don't be bringing no GBPs up in here.

 

And scoop me out a couple of scoops of that on a romaine leaf or two, and let me go.

 

[BeeZee]

As it turned out, I made the chicken salad with about 3/4 small dice and 1/4 shredded, I like this hybrid’s texture for either plating or putting on bread. Little bit of minced celery. Mayo and a spoonful of plain Greek yogurt.

[FeChef]

I prefer shredded. Its great for both making chicken salad sandwich/wraps and it also works great on club crackers. I once tried a sous vide version with diced/cubed, and the texture was horrible. Had to toss two pounds of chicken salad. In hindsight, i should have tested a small sample before adding the entire two pounds of chicken breast. I could have cooked it a bit longer so i could have at least shredded it. When you think about it, why would you care how much moisture the chicken breast retains when you are adding mayo? The irony is, an extreme moist chicken breast would not absorb mayo, or any liquid for that matter. 

Thats what makes tuna salad so good, its dry, it absorbs the mayo which makes the salad.

Edited May 11, 2021 by FeChef (log)

[weinoo]

Last night decided to try the hand shredded route...

 

 

Which is, at least in this kitchen, more time consuming than the diced.

 

 

With celery, house-roasted red pepper, chives, scallion, parsley, mayo, lemon, mustard, s & p.

 

I like this version (shredded) more than the diced versions.  In addition to many of the reasons mentioned above, I think the chicken gets better integrated with the dressing, if that's possible.

[scubadoo97]

Often shredded, sometimes cubed.  Usually  with mayo.   Though my wife is not a mayo fan.  Me I love it.