A timeless Chicken Salad recipe that’s easy to make, thanks to the use of rotisserie chicken from your local grocery store. Details below!
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Chicken salad is a dish made from pulled or cubed chicken. Mayonnaise is used as a binder for the ingredients, and it is served cold as is, over salads, or commonly in the form of a sandwich.
The dish has a lot of history in the United States, most commonly associated with the South where some of the earliest recipes can be found. If you’d like to make your own mayo for the binder, read Sarah Rutledge’s 1847 cookbook titled; “The Carolina Housewife: Or, House and Home.”
In the 1860’s one of the earliest records of chicken salad being sold at at a restaurant was done so by Liam Gray in Wakefield, Rhode Island. His style of chicken salad would later breathe life into Waldorf variations thanks to the use of fruit (grapes more specifically) as opposed to just vegetables.
At our house, mom used the same ingredients for chicken salad as she did for tuna fish sandwiches with the exception of changing the protein from chicken to tuna.
It’s funny to think of what mothers of four children and one husband… make that five children, would do to rotate meal ideas from week to week while keeping it streamlined. And we didn’t care, we were so hungry from running around all day in the woods and fields. We didn’t come home till the sun went down and we heard mom calling for dinner. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I wore shoes until school made me do it. We were some wide open kids, back in the days before technology. No personal computers, no internet, no cell phones. We did have Nintendo however. Still know the original Legend of Zelda like the back of my hand.
Anyway, back to the present moment… Oh wait, one more past moment!
When I was in my mid thirties I roomed with a female, a very close friend of mine but we’re just friends, and she made her chicken salad “chunky” and baked chicken breasts at home instead of using pulled rotisserie chicken. I ended up liking hers so much that it’s my preferred way of having chicken salad. If I get her permission to make that version someday I’ll definitely post a video!
Okay so for this recipe I’m giving a very simple instruction on how to break down a rotisserie chicken. Some of you are much better at this than I am, and if you’re new to it that’s okay just remember it doesn’t have to be perfect as long as you’re happy with it.
From there I’ll fast forward to making the actual recipe for chicken salad once the chicken is pulled, then I’ll finish by showing one of my favorite presentations for chicken salad which is chicken salad as a sandwich.
So without further ado, let’s get to it!
Ingredients: (Makes 5 Sandwiches)
- 2 lbs. (32oz) Whole Rotisserie Chicken
- 1 Cup Mayonnaise
- 1/8 Cup Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Celery
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Yellow Onion
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Green Onion (scallion)
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- Bread of Choice
- Roma Tomato
- Bibb Lettuce
Nutrition Facts: (Per 1 Sandwich)
- Calories: 340.8
- Total Fat: 18.7g
- Cholesterol: 92.5mg
- Sodium: 967.4mg
- Total Carbohydrates: 10.4g
- Dietary Fiber: 1.4g
- Sugar: 2.7g
- Protein: 29.6g
- Vitamin D: 0%
- Calcium: 7.2%
- Iron: 3%
- Potassium: 127.8%
- Vitamin A: 9.2%
- Vitamin C: 8.2%
Directions:
- Break down Rotisserie Chicken, then pull enough meat to make 1 lbs. (16oz) of meat in a large mixing bowl. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes while veggies are prepped.
- Ready and prepare the following ingredients: 1/2 teaspoon of Salt, 1/2 teaspoon of Pepper, and 1 full teaspoon of Garlic Powder. 1 Cup of mayonnaise, and 1/8 Cup of Dijon mustard. Chop celery, yellow onion, and scallions into 1/2 Cup portions each. And set out sliced bread, slice your tomatoes, and pull leaf from lettuce head to make ready sandwiches.
- Remove pulled chicken bowl from fridge and add the following ingredients; Mayo, Dijon, salt, pepper, garlic powder, celery, onion, and scallions. Combine all ingredients by mixing together with your hands or a spoon.
- Build sandwiches! Bottom slice of bread, lettuce, then tomato… Chicken salad, then top slice of bread. Serve, and enjoy!
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