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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of chopped boiled chicken, celery, mustard, egg yolks, vinegar, oil, pickles, bread crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper.

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

Prepare

  1. Chop the boiled chicken and cover with a damp towel to keep it moist.

  2. Dry the cut celery between clean cloths.

Make the dressing

  1. In a large dish, beat the mustard and raw egg yolk for 10 minutes.

  2. Slowly add the vinegar and then the oil, drop by drop, while stirring continuously.

  3. Stir the rubbed egg yolks and vinegar into the mustard mixture gently.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the chicken, celery, yellow pickle, stale bread crumbs, and oil from the chicken broth.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Add the dressing just before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and bulk.
Raw egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar into a thick, stable dressing.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Add richness and body to the dressing as they blend smooth.
Oil
Forms the fat phase of the dressing, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds sharp flavour.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the salad.

The step that matters

Add the oil slowly, drop by drop, while stirring. Oil added too fast to the egg yolk and mustard cannot be absorbed into the emulsion, so the dressing breaks and turns oily and thin. Slow addition with constant stirring lets tiny droplets disperse and stay suspended.

Swap the celery

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

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

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