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Chicken Salad

A salad of diced chicken, rice, celery, and a creamy horseradish dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Boil the chickens until tender, adding the rice to the water to keep the meat white.

  2. Once cooled, cut the chicken into ¼ inch pieces and combine with the chopped celery.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mash the egg yolks and mix in the oil or melted butter until creamy.

  2. Add the pepper, mustard, vinegar, horseradish, sugar, and salt to the yolk mixture and beat well for 1½ hours.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the dressing with the chicken and celery before serving.

  2. Garnish with celery tops and chopped egg whites.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat, which stays tender and white when cooked with rice.
Rice
Added to the boiling water to help keep the chicken meat white.
Egg yolks
Mashed with oil or butter to form a creamy, emulsified base for the dressing.
Oil or melted butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the yolk dressing a smooth, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp pungency and aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Beating the yolk dressing. Mashing the yolks and beating in the oil or butter slowly builds a stable emulsion. Adding the fat too fast or skipping the mashing can cause the dressing to split and look greasy rather than creamy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, egg, butter, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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.

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