Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, and a mustard‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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, salting to taste.

  2. When cold, cut the chickens into small pieces.

  3. Add the celery and sliced hard-boiled eggs, mixing thoroughly.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar and butter over low heat.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs, mustard, black pepper, sugar, and salt together.

  3. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the vinegar, stirring until it thickens. Be careful not to cook too long to avoid curdling the eggs.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool, then pour over the salad.

Finish and serve

  1. Add lemon juice to taste and garnish with lemon slices.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook, and add richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, softening its sharpness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, savoury crunch to the salad.
Chicken
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and bulk.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg mixture. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with heat, but overheated proteins tighten and curdle. Pour the egg mixture in slowly, keep stirring, and remove from heat as soon as it thickens.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes