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Chicken Salad

A salad made with boiled chicken, celery, egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 the chicken and celery

  1. Boil the white meat of the chickens until cooked.

  2. Chop the cooked chicken coarsely.

  3. Chop the white part of the celery.

  4. Combine the chopped celery with the chicken, using slightly more chicken than celery.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Slowly add the oil drop by drop while continuing to beat.

  3. Add the lemon juice, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt to the mixture.

  4. Beat the egg whites.

Finish the salad

  1. Fold the beaten egg whites into the dressing.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main bulk and meaty body of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild vegetal flavour.
Egg yolks
Act as an emulsifier, binding the oil and lemon juice into a smooth, thick dressing.
Oil
Supplies fat for richness and a creamy, silky texture in the dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dish and balances the richness of the oil.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add air that lightens the dressing's texture.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while beating. Oil must be added drop by drop while beating so the yolk can emulsify it. If poured in too fast, the dressing will separate and stay oily and runny.

“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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