Chicken salad

[Chris Cognac]

cheddar cheese, apples, red bell pepper, celery and macadamia nuts...with mrs dash "garlic and herb" blend and grated parmesan cheese, then kens italian dressing...let it sit for a few hrs in the fridge...oh yea

[prasantrin]

mayonnaise, Penzey's Sunny Paris, toasted almonds or walnuts, salt, pepper, and cranberry sauce (which is mixed in, not layered). I like to to stuff it into a toasted petit boule (which has camembert in it). The perfect bend of sweet, savoury, soft, and crunchy! Except I usually end up putting too much mayonnaise--I abhor dry chicken salad, so I err on the side of overkill.

[markk]

I make mine by hand-picking a still warm whole roast chicken - and I use everything from it, the dark and white meat, and the crispy skin torn into tiny pieces as well. If there's any juice accumulated from the chicken, I toss the meat with that. I add fresh, shelled peas (raw), diced celery and diced celery leaves, and back when I was able to digest them, fresh yellow and red bell peppers cut into dice. Toss the whole thing with mayo and a sprinkling of salt fresh black pepper, and serve it (not chilled) on some big, chewy country bread slices. (Sometimes I toss the entire thing with a little extra-virgin olive oil first before I add the mayo, and sometimes I use a teeny bit of ground celery seed as well.)

[rooftop1000]

Like Mark for my own eating pleasure I use a whole roasted or poached chicken..for me I use diced onion, celary, salt&pepper,dash of apple cider vin and Hellmans mayo.

At work it was poached chicken breast, raisins, dried cranberries, and apricots with pecans and equal parts Honey - Dijon and Mayo, S&P

tracey

[Gifted Gourmet]

These are giving me some great incentives to try out all these cool variations!

Keep them coming please!

[Bill Miller]

I pull apart and shread breast meat. Hellmans mayo, dill relish, chopped water chestnuts, a lot of curley parsley, worchestershire sauce ( a dash), white, black, and cayenne pepper, chopped celery and chopped onion.

[Margo]

Leftover white meat from a roasted chicken, olive oil and white wine vinegar, chopped fresh tarragon.

I'm a chicken salad minimalist.

[Pam R]

Wolfgang's Chinese Chicken Salad =

I make several versions - I don't usually follow a recipe. Either grilled or roasted and shredded chicken. And a selection of shredded/chopped veggies. Lettuce and/or Napa cabbage, carrots, green onion, cucumber, bell peppers. Sometimes I'll throw in some segmented oranges. Toasted almonds, peanuts or sesame seeds.

Dressing can be light - never mayo - vinaigrette. Rice wine vinegar, a splash of soy, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, honey, dry mustard or dijon - maybe some lime or lemon juice. For a heavier dressing I'll add some peanut butter.

[christine007]

shredded chicken, sweet and sour pickles, onion and celerly, all very finely minced, salt and pepper, mayo.

I'm pretty minimal too.

[Kouign Aman]

Chicken, dried cherries, apple, nuts, other dried fruit as appeals (cranberries are good, apricots can be), water chestnuts. Mix curry powder & mayonnaise to taste. Mix in the solid stough.

Chunky serve on lettuce, in shells, on crackers or in hearty sandwich. If chopped very fine, can be used to fill crustless tea sandwiches. I think I know what's for dinner tonight...

[ludja]

Leftover white meat from a roasted chicken, olive oil and white wine vinegar, chopped fresh tarragon.

I'm a chicken salad minimalist. 

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I love fresh tarragon (or thyme) in chicken salad.

I'd usually add some chopped green onion and celery and usually mayonnaise.

Sometimes, walnuts.

I like the idea above for fresh peas.

I definatelly favor the savory over the sweet in this situation.

I never heard of "chinese chicken salad" until I came out West but I like that too. Sesame oil, ginger, etc makes a completely different but great chicken salad.

Edited May 10, 2006 by ludja (log)

[jsolomon]

I usually make mine with duck, but whatever I have at hand can be delightful.

Chicken, torn or roughly cubed. Skin, dark meat, little bits that tried to stick to the bones, it all goes in. Chopped onion, grated carrot, some shredded cheddar if I have it. Dash of worcestershire, drizzle of olive oil, dollop of mustard, and enough mayo to make it creamy, but only after I've ground several grinds of cracked black pepper over it.

If I'm really feeling magnanimous, I'll also add some sriracha or tabasco, too.

[cathrynapple]

dressing: half mayo, half sour cream, basil, tarragon, lots of black pepper, salt

white meat chicken, pecans, halved red grapes, chopped celery

but the truth is...i'm not a huge fan of this recipe.

[liamsaunt]

I like curried chicken salad best. My usual recipe has mayo, curry powder, mango chutney, scallions, cashews, a mix of golden and regular raisins, leftover roast chicken, both white and dark meat, and salt and pepper.

[goldie]

My quick and dirty is Brianna's Poppyseed Dressing, chicken, minced red onion, toasted pecans, and diced peaches or nectarines. Another fast one is chicken, green apple, mayo, a pinch of sugar, and enough curry to make it yellowy. I also have made a ton of Martha Stewart's tarragon chicken salad. To my mind, chicken salad is something that should be easy to make on a hot summer day. I'm enjoying reading everyone's rifs on it.

[kellytree]

I use the leftover chick from chicken broth and make "chicken of the Sea" chicken salad/spread.

Blend in the food processor (to give it that tuna texture) with some mayo , s&p -- and that's all

spread on bread.

Simple and easy going.

If you like onions you could also add some chopped in the mixture (one of my big no nos is onions and mayo - but it is just a personal mI don't like the taste thing)

Sometimes I mix in a grated carrot which works well (especially when you think you have to make sandwiches for 3 and along come 3 of your childrens very best friends in the world and "mom can they stay for lunch???")

[purplewiz]

Another curried variation: mayo, hot curry powder, a small amount of currants rehydrated in very little water (water tossed in, too), celery, onions, almonds, and whatever leftover chicken meat is around.

What makes this salad so odd for me is that I generally despise fruits in my meat salads, and I generally despise dried fruits. Yet a few currants make a huge difference in flavor without making it too sweet.

Another favorite is cubed/shredded chicken, chopped celery, and chopped almonds, with a dressing of tamari and balsamic vinegar. That's it. This needs to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours so the chicken absorbs the dressing. It's a loose salad, so it's best as part of a salad plate or served in a pita, but it's also much more than the sum of its parts.

Marcia.

[annachan]

I like mine simple. Just chicken with celery and onion (prefer red), dressed with seasoned rice vinegar and lime olive oil. To dress it up, may add some herbs like chives and/or parsley. Sometimes I makea curried version - chicken, celery, onion, almond, curry powder, mayo.

[Toliver]

Anyone have a recipe for hot chicken salad?

There was a local grocery store (long since out of business) that had a deli in it and they served this tasty hot "chicken salad". For the life of me I can't even remember the ingredients other than chicken, water chestnuts and some cheese but not a lot of it. I'm pretty sure it had some sort of white sauce, too.

Anyone? Beuller?

[judiu]

Anyone have a recipe for hot chicken salad?

There was a local grocery store (long since out of business) that had a deli in it and they served this tasty hot "chicken salad". For the life of me I can't even remember the ingredients other than chicken, water chestnuts and some cheese but not a lot of it. I'm pretty sure it had some sort of white sauce, too.

Anyone? Beuller?

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These recipes are not "officially" mine, but I pass them on it that spirit!

http://www.about.com/food/hubsearch.htm?SU...+salad&x=13&y=6

HTH!

[alligande]

I make one with mayo, honey mustard, apricots, almonds, rosemary and a hint of curry powder.

[Toliver]

These recipes are not "officially" mine, but I pass them on it that spirit!

http://www.about.com/food/hubsearch.htm?SU...+salad&x=13&y=6

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Thanks for posting this. Some of them sound like they might be close to what the deli served.

[Lan4Dawg]

much depends on my mood. The other day it was a tad warm and I was in the mood for some chicken salad so decided to raid the herb patch and make use of some left over smoked chicken so I made a smoked chicken/pasta/pesto salad w/ shredded carrots and halved grape tomatoes. I also like to do what I call a Bloody Mary chicken salad w/ chunked chicken, celery and fennel seed, chopped celery, coarse ground black pepper, a hint of horse radish & garlic, and I mix some V-8 juice w/ the mayo and mustard.

My all time favorite, however, and I am a huge fan of rosemary, is a smoked rosemary chicken salad. I smoke chicken breasts and throw some green rosemary stalks on to the smoker. Then I take the chicken and make a standard chicken & pasta salad w/ a hint of shredded rosemary (depends on how much rosemary smoke the chicken absorbed) and a touch more Dijon mustard than usual in the binder. Add halved grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, diced celery, a hint of garlic and just a few rinsed, minced capers to the mix.

[racheld]

OLD South Contingent checking in---for most of the thread, I thought I'd be the ONLY below-M/D recipe in the bunch. I know it's just a weird Southern thing, and I've been gasped at and EWWWWW'ed on another thread for it, but here it is:

Chicken, roasted (now my preference) or of days gone by--

Chicken, poached with chunks of carrot and celery and onion, with a couple of crushed toes of garlic thrown into the pot; Drain and bone the chicken; save all that broth for later, as well as the smooth, creamy, flavourful vegetables for soup or cook's treat.

Chop chicken and place in a big bowl.

Celery, strung and cut on the diagonal

Boiled eggs, chopped

Seedless red grapes

Diced apple

Chopped sweet pickles (preferably homemade lime pickles, or the "cheat" kind, with sliced dills drained, jar filled with sugar and a scatter of cloves and allspice, left in fridge several days to melt into syrup and crisp the pickles

Mayonnaise, a good strong brand, such as Duke's or Blue Plate (mixed with about a tablespoon of powdered sugar per cup, with celery seeds scattered in)

Toasted pecan halves stirred in just before serving, or toasted sunflower seeds scattered atop

This was our most requested party/luncheon/reception recipe, served on lettuce chiffonade or pretty leaves of butter lettuce or parsley (NOT, as one client learned to her regret, on whatever-comes-to-hand-because-it's-pretty-and-abundant. The great sheaves that she gathered from her prolific mint bed, piling a big pillow of them on each plate to receive the servings of chicken salad, so overpowered the whole plate that the entire luncheon tasted like toothpaste. Well, she HAD plenty of mint, and it made a lovely garnish, but this particular party was talked about under hairdryers for a long time after. And I could never eat from Quimper again. Overkill to the extreme.

For sandwiches and choux puffs, we always left out the grapes, minced the celery separately, and tossed everything else except pecans into the Cuisinart and gave it a whiz. This is the recipe I remember from my childhood, made by my Mother for countless showers and church doings and morning Coffees.

A Coffee-capital-C was a thing unto itself, a morning affair attended by the wives and mothers and young matrons of the community, usually for introducing a visitor or new bride, for fund-raising, for planning committees to show off their best hats, and involved all sorts of polishings and preparations and doilies. And chicken salad was de rigueur for all such gatherings, whether served open-faced on daintily-cut bread, made into fingers, or (fanciest of all) stuffed into choux puffs.

And the Southern taste accounted for a couple of tons of the stuff carted out of my kitchen over the years. My sons sat down one day and figured it out in pickup loads (Bubbamath), counting on smoothing off the top with a huge spatula like leveling a flour measure...their calculations then ran to about twelve pickups full. Or would it it be pickupfuls? I've lived up here too long.

Something about the amalgamation of the apple, celery, egg, chicken, pickle flavours just is the essence of a teaparty or lovely luncheon on the lawn with white tablecloths and festive umbrellas. And hats.

[hazardnc]

poached chicken, tarragon, toasted almond slivers, minced onion, hellmans.

My son's version is grilled chicken served over a green salad with hearts of palm, avocado, green onions and ranch dressing.