Skip to main content
Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken and celery dressed with a vinaigrette of egg yolks, butter, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the chicken and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Cut the celery into small pieces.

  3. Mix the chicken and celery, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, combine the egg yolks (or whole eggs), butter, and cider vinegar.

  2. Beat in the thick cream and cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

  3. Just before removing from heat, stir in cayenne pepper, mustard, salt, and sugar.

  4. Cool the dressing and pour it over the chicken and celery mixture half an hour before serving.

Finish

  1. Add walnut kernels or any kind of nuts to the salad.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set during gentle cooking, giving it body and richness.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing smooth and rich.
Thick cream
Adds fat and body, making the dressing smoother and softer in texture.
Walnut kernels
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft chicken and celery.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing gently over a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set, but over direct or excessive heat they can scramble and turn grainy. Constant stirring and gentle heat keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, cider, vinegar, egg, butter, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, cider, vinegar, egg, butter, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More chicken salad recipes

Dressing 31Sandwich 8with Mayonnaise 6Cream Cheese 5Moulded 5Chinese 4 See all 638 →

You might also like

Salad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipesBoiled Salad DressingBoiled Salad Dressing67 recipes