I’m not sure if this is a sign of hitting a certain age — like a sudden interest in bird feeders (check, and please tell me about yours), or beekeeping (well, in the TikTok sense, not sorry), and animated conversations on the best pillows (I hate mine) — but I’ve found over the last year that I have very strong opinions on chicken salad and the correct way to make it, which, naturally, is my way. I hope I’m in the right place to release them into the world.
Most of my previous experiences with chicken salad, save one that briefly charmed me in my early SK years, are merely coincidentally the reason I have trust issues with chicken salad. I want to know who made it, and with what vintage of chicken. I need to know their views on curry powder, raisins, grapes, and aggressive levels of tarragon. I need to know where they fall on the mayo meter, as in, do they believe it should cling gently to pieces of chicken or should it be a pond that the chicken wades in? In essence, I know chicken salad is one of those things that’s easy to love when it’s made your way, at home, by you, and it’s okay if not all beloved things are meant for wider consumption. But I see no reason to let that stop me.
To wit, here are the elements of my perfect chicken salad:
→ More celery than anyone asked for: I really, really like celery in my chicken salad and I put a lot in — seriously, it’s like 50% celery, which is to say crunchy, fresh, and delightful. I get this right out of the way in the title, as I know it’s not for everyone. But if it’s for you, I hope you’re halfway to the kitchen right now.
→ Juicy, flavorful chicken from bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts: “Why not just use boneless, skinless cutlets?” you are about to ask me and while I agree that sounds more practical, they’re simply never as moist and delicious.
→ Extra crispies: Plus, if you’re a little odd like me, you might also not find it necessary to waste the skin. You could, perhaps, put it back in a 400-degree oven with a little extra salt and bake it for 5 to 10 minutes, until it’s fully crisp, then cut into strips that you use to top your sandwich. Kind of like nature’s potato chip.
→ Seasoning early: I season the diced chicken directly, before adding anything else. It’s like wiring flavor into the foundation. Because both Dijon and jarred mayo have salt, I often find it needs little to no extra at the end.
→ And finally, minced scallions, for onion that’s not too onion-y. Herbs? You can, but I just don’t.
And while you can eat this any way you wish, I’m sure you’re not surprised I have specific preferences here too. I like to toast still-hinged slider rolls in a small amount of butter in a skillet before layering them with a piece of crisp lettuce, a scoop of chicken salad, and then any toppings your heart desires, from thinly-sliced pickles to red pickled onions, or those aforementioned bits of crispy chicken skin I know you’re still thinking about or horrified by, depending on your orientation. [A 65-word sentence? AI could never.] To lure in children, I often set out each of these options in bowls so everyone can fix their own sandwich. Ruffled — not flat — potato chips are also nonnegotiable on chicken salad nights, which have turned into a monthly thing, a favorite dinner on days where we’re all on different dinner schedules.
Chicken Salad for Celery Enthusiasts
- 2 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 to 4 large ribs celery, diced small (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 3 scallions, all parts, minced
- 1 tablespoon (15 grams) smooth Dijon mustard, plus more to taste
- 3 tablespoons (40 grams) mayonnaise, plus more to taste
Remove meat from chicken breasts and cut into 3/4-inch (2-cm) pieces. Place in a large bowl and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. I pour any juices/drippings from the baking pan back over the chicken here too. Add celery and scallions and stir to combine. Dollop the Dijon mustard into the bowl and stir so that it’s distributed over the chicken and vegetables. Add the mayo and stir to combine. Season with additional salt, if needed, and more grinds of black pepper. Add more Dijon or mayo to taste.
→ If you’d like to make crispy skin pieces for your sandwiches, flatten the skin as much as possible on a baking sheet, season with a couple more pinches of salt, and bake in a 400°F (205°C) oven for 5 to 10 minutes, keeping an eye on it, until it’s darker in color and mostly crisp throughout. Cut into strips.
Previously
6 months ago: Crunchy Brown Butter Baked Carrots
1 year ago: Eggs Florentine
2 years ago: Perfect Blueberry Muffin Loaf
3 years ago: Smashed Chicken Meatball Sliders
4 years ago: Simplest Mushroom Pasta
5 years ago: Classic Shortbread
6 years ago: How I Stock The Smitten Kitchen
7 years ago: Braised Ginger Meatballs in Coconut Broth
8 years ago: Fig Newtons and Crispy Tofu Pad Thai
9 years ago: Granola Bark
10 years ago: Caramelized Brown Sugar Oranges with Yogurt and Potato Pizza, Even Better
11 years ago: Why You Should Always Toast Your Nuts (Please!) and Obsessively Good Avocado-Cucumber Salad
12 years ago: Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons and Baked Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms
13 years ago: Spinach and Smashed Egg Toast and Bee Sting Cake
14 years ago: Over-the-Top Mushroom Quiche and Banana Bread Crepe Cake with Butterscotch
15 years ago: Blackberry and Coconut Macaroon Tart
16 years ago: Baked Kale Chips and Almond Macaroon Torte with Chocolate Frosting
17 years ago: Artichoke-Olive Crostini and Chocolate Caramel Crackers
18 years ago: Spring Panzanella and Lemon Yogurt Anything Cake
19 years ago: Arborio Rice Pudding and Gnocchi with a Grater
Okay, this is my ideal chicken salad, and I always thought I was weird for just going ham on the celery, not making it soup (why so much mayo people?!?!) and liking skins in mine! Thank you for sharing this – I hadn’t thought about green onions but I’m trying it today!
My mother would occasionally take me to the tearoom in the flagship department store in the town we lived in at the time. I always ordered a chicken salad sandwich which was the same delight in every city. I have never been able to duplicate this ambrosia cut in quartered triangles. Any idea what their magic was?
I love every part of this, except the mayo! I know it’s a horrifyingly off-base question, but does anyone have any bright ideas about holding it together without mayo? A lemon vinaigrette is delicious, but doesn’t exactly keep it contiguous. Apologies to Deb, whose recipe doesn’t deserve this kind of bastardization — I fully realize I’m a freak hater about mayo.
I too love adding lots of celery to my chicken salads!
So many near endless combinations of flavors.
About mayo: I agree and for years would avoid it. Depending on the dish I will substitute plain greek aka thick yogurt for all or most of the mayo. Olive oil based dressings can work too when there is something else to help bind like mustard, cheese, hard boiled eggs etc. Think potato salad fixings but with chicken instead of potatoes.
I would try blending silken tofu, oil, dijon, and lemon to make a mayo-free dressing and see what you think.
Sour cream
greek yogurt
Jamelle Bouie, the NYT political columnist, makes his with tahini, and I’ve been meaning to try it. No mayo in sight.
I was trying to find a way to work cottage cheese into my diet, and I found a chicken salad recipe that used blended cottage cheese and Greek yogurt.
I hate mayo. I won’t eat it in anything. I use a little whole milk yogurt as a binder and moistener in chicken or turkey salad (but I’m likely to add curry powder, minced candied ginger and/or chutney to chicken salad — I like sweet and savory contrasts. I’ve also made plainer chicken salad with vinaigrette.
How about adding a hard boiled egg yolk to your favorite dijon vinaigrette-it gives it more viscosity to cling to the ingredients. Maybe worth a shot.
I’ve done a curried chicken salad with greek yogurt and well, I like it at least! I also don’t like mayo at all.
Chicken salad must be the vibe right now, because I made some on Monday and my husband commented that I had never made it in our 26 years together! Total opposite of this one, though. Poached chicken breasts, more greek yogurt than mayo, curry powder, toasted pecans, scallions, and dried cranberries. Served over a second salad of baby arugula and sliced apples lightly dressed in vinaigrette and with pita chips on the side. I’m already planning to do it again soon!
That sounds delicious!
I was just chopping celery for a chickpea salad. My dog approached, apparently looking for handouts, and I offered him a small slice. He took it gingerly, and after a moment I asked, “what do you think?” He left it on my foot! I might be the only celery enthusiast in my house. I will definitely try the chicken salad your way!
Since you asked about our bird feeders, mine’s a veritable community center right now with lots of adorable juveniles! There’s a tiny chickadee, active wrens, purposeful tufted titmice, and countless house finches. A joy to behold.
He left it on your foot! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Give me all the head notes, Deb. Yours are always fun and on point. Yes on the 50/50 celery to chicken ratio. (My tuna salads are always about 50% celery and red onion.) I want that crunch.
“To lure in children” got me. Simply a Hansel and Gretel reframing of my attempts to get my toddler to eat. Eager to try this!
I thought the same thing. How Hanzel and Gretel to get them to eat chicken salad.
I was always indifferent to celery, until I started buying it from my local farmer’s market. I don’t know what they do, but this celery has like 3 times the flavor compared to supermarket celery. And it stays crips for 3+ weeks when the root is stored in water. I’ll pick some up this weekend to make this.
I have also been getting into hummingbird feeders. We just added a bunch of pollinator plants to the garden to give them more variety.
It must be kismet that you posted this today. I woke up with chicken salad on the brain, picked up a rotisserie chicken AND a fresh bag of celery from the grocery store this morning (because cooking anything in 92 degree weather is a big ol’ nope) AND two suet cakes for replenishing one of my bird feeders!
This is exactly my way of making chicken salad, except I’ve never thought to add chicken skin, so I’ll be doing that immediately.
Deb, AI could never do you in general. Your prose is a joy to read and your longest sentences flow beautifully and naturally
Hear hear. Reading Deb’s ramblings is (almost) the best part of her recipes!)
I love celery anyway I can get it! Have not added Dijon but even tho i love mustard, not in my chicken salad. I like to switch up mine with curry powder, cilantro, and almonds sometimes!
I’m excited to try this! I am also a lover of a high ratio of celery in my chicken salad. And I want to know more about the pillow conversation haha, I want a pillow recommendation that isn’t an ad (although I would buy one from an affiliate link)
Regarding celery, which I agree must be abundant in chicken salad, this is important: use those celery leaves! They provide the celery flavor, and act as a soft herb in the final product. I dig deeply into the bunch to get the really tender leaves, as well as using whatever bright green leaves that are on the outermost stalks.
This is a great tip
I have found that if you “pull” the cooked chicken (ie shred it by pulling it apart with two forks) the salad hold together much better than if you cube it. The one thing that always bothers me about cubed chicken salad is that so much of it tumbles out of the sandwich.
“Nature’s potato chip”
Yes, a thousand times, yes!
Ojai Cook’s Lemonaise is a great option for a better mayo addition—it’s got lemon and mustard seeds already in it. We use it for chicken or tuna salads, or in lobster potato salad. It’s perky and bright and you can get away with using less. We are in Maine and it’s our lobster roll go-to.
Sounds great – I’ll look for it here on West Coast – gotta be here…
Enticing! Chicken Salad is a staple in our house and your description and recipe sounds delightful – can’t wait to make this.
I’ve never commented on any of Deb’s recipes with an alternative–and I’ve been reading since before that first baby arrived with his perfect swirl of hair. But when a 45-minute bake isn’t in the cards, I’ve found this method for cooking chicken breasts pretty fabulous, and I use it any time I make chicken salad. Offering for those who might need it. Carry on with the rest of the recipe! https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-moist-tender-chicken-breasts-every-time-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-36891
Unrelated to recipe, but these Nike ads are quite disruptive – they dynamically interrupt the reading experience, take up the whole page, and don’t have an apparently way to close. I’m all for ad-supporting this work but this design missed the mark for me.
Agreed.
If I close the ad by clicking the x as soon as it appears at the bottom of the page, it is much less disruptive to reading the recipe. If the ad takes over the page, I can only get back to the recipe by refreshing the browser. Uber annoying.
But I love this site so much! I hope Nike is writing you big checks equal to the level of annoyance they’re causing. :)
Apologies for the ad trouble. We’re aware and have blocked it a few times but it slips back in. The issue is, of course, not that the ad exists but that the close button isn’t rendering/working correctly. We will get it fixed, promise.
Love chicken salad, this sounds delicious, perhaps a bit of curry powder instead of mustard as an option
Now to bird feeders….
I have 2 Duncraft All-weather feeders with wire cages. They last for years and it’s easy to get replacement parts.
Unrelated to chicken salad, but all about aging…I grew up with a good friend whose father kept bees in their attic. So don’t rule out the honeymakers quite yet!
I think I’ll make myself a big bowl of chicken salad now…with celery AND cranberries. Don’t throw away the old to make room for the new!
I put up a trifecta of bird feeders (tube, suet w/ a woodpecker tail prop, and hummingbird) this year and it made our home feel so much more like an interesting place – especially during the winter when windows were otherwise gray, sad places to look. Hooray for birds! Hooray for trees! Hooray for the incredibly intricate, beautiful works of art that are the designs of the creatures that sur pound us if we give them our attention and love.
Also, thank you for more chicken salad. ;-)
When celery is in season and I can buy it at the farmers’ market, I use the leaves instead of lettuce with chicken salad. The leaves are always so lovely and huge (and the stalks are relatively narrow) from my local farms and it feels like such a waste to not use them.
I love celery. Always have. I feed the birds, photograph them, and pull out the Merlin app so I can get excited over warblers and Thrushes (not the kind that need cream).
Having tried all forms of pillows, I highly recommend wool. They have stood the test of time for me.
Just came on to talk about the Merlin app! It identifies the birds by the sounds they make. I just turned 40 and am so into it 😉
Yum!! I always add the tiiiiniest dashes of both ground cloves and allspice in chicken salad, something I learned from Kentucky chef Ouita Michel. I love the celery ratio here.
Also, on the subject of pillows: my husband got a buckwheat filled pillow and I covet it. It isn’t fluffy or soft but it locks your head into place and helps you sleep so well.
I too love Ouita’s cooking. Thanks for the tip about the dashes of seasoning.
This is exactly how I love (LOVE) my chicken salad! Thanks for reminding me that I need to make it…right now! Thank you!
I love celery in chicken salad, so I was very excited for this! However, I prefer my chicken shredded, rather than cubed. I feel like I am able to get a little bit of everything in each bite that way! Either way, so pleased to see celery-forward chicken salad on my favorite cooking website.
I like my celery with a little chicken and mayo.
I honestly use a similar formula for egg salad these days.
I feel like this recipe was made for me! I’ve been thinking and thinking about making chicken salad, but couldn’t decide which vibe to head (curry, more traditional with raisins or crans) but either way it was really just figuring out way to use a crap ton of my beautiful farmers’ market celery. Why didn’t I just think of this, my two favorite flavor/texture providers to star in the show. How do you know what I know I knew before I knew it? Making this over the weekend!
I like a crunchy chicken salad. I add plenty of celery but also cubed apple to it. I add mini-penne pasta so I can grab a snack of it when I’m a little hungry. I use equal amounts of mayo and sour cream as the binder.
This site has become unusable for me due to current Nike ad, which takes over the screen and can’t be disabled. Can you fix this please? I’ve never experienced this before here
Deb – long-time user and lover of your site and recipes. Unfortunately the pop up Nike ads are now making it impossible to access your content. The x in the upper right corner you need to access in order to dismiss the ad is blocked by your header with the surprise button. It is making your site unusable because ad blocks the entire page and there seems to be no way to make it go away. I’m so sad about it, thought you should know in case other are having the same issue.
Agreed. I am exclusive Smitten Kitchen recipe user, but this site is becoming almost impossible to use. It took me three separate browsers to even scroll down to the comment to post this. I’m all for ad revenue, but these Nike ads are something else!
Same. I’m not in the US and the ads are not for Nike, but in general recipes are now smaller bits of text broken up by giant adverts which make reading the site far less enjoyable.
Same ☹️
Hmm. I use an ad blocker. I’ve never seen the Nike ad.
Apologies for the ad trouble. We’re aware and have blocked it a few times but it slips back in. The issue is, of course, not that the ad exists but that the close button isn’t rendering/working correctly. We are getting it fixed, promise.
Deb,
Is it the crunch or the flavor of celery? Might I invite you to try lovage? I grow this in my community garden plot, it is quite prolific. It has been described as celery on steroids—it has a lemony peppery tinge to it. It the end of the season, when it goes to seed, I save the seeds and use it in cooking. This year I am thinking of making the tender leaves and stalks into a sort of agresto or pesto. I hope you give it a go!
Did something happen to the website? A Nike ad kept taking over the page and was nearly impossible to get rid of to get back to the recipe page. I hope that this was just a me problem this morning and not a new advertising model. I’m not against advertising but if it makes reading your website hard, it will sorely test my loyalty to your site.
Apologies for the ad trouble. We’re aware and have blocked it a few times but it slips back in. The issue is, of course, not that the ad exists but that the close button isn’t rendering/working correctly. We will get it fixed, promise.
I’m sorry to report that there is an intrusive Nike ad that keeps popping up and inhibits my ability to read this (much anticipated) new episode of “the smitten kitchen diaries”
According to the comments, it seems like this started to become a problem on May 23. I hope it gets fixed soon!
Apologies for the ad trouble. We’re aware and have blocked it a few times but it slips back in. The issue is, of course, not that the ad exists but that the close button isn’t rendering/working correctly. We will get it fixed, promise.
“AI could never.” Lol! Deb, this is why I have always and will always love you and your writing. Can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks!
This sounds like THE best chicken salad ever!!! It never occurred to me to further cook the skin and use it as a topper (and why not??!!). Now I can’t imagine chicken salad without those mouth-watering crispy strips!! Genius Deb!!!
This does sound like the most excellent chicken salad imaginable. And the gribenes on top sound like perfection. This will be my week’s lunches very soon. Thanks for the inspiration. And hooray for lots of crunch!
For the vegetarians in the crowd, I like quorn chicken pieces in “chicken” salad or baked crumbled tofu. If using tofu, it really benefits from sitting overnight.
Since this chicken salad uses dijon which I always use as well, it’s a good time to mention that my goto dijon, Maille has recently undergone some kind of recipe change. It is quite spicy hot, unpleasantly. I was one who ate this mustard right out of the jar so I am qualified to make this statement. Has anyone else experienced this?