Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Salad

A salad made with shredded chicken, celery, eggs, vinegar, oil, mustard, sugar, salt, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cook and shred the chickens.

Make the dressing

  1. Make a custard by combining eggs and vinegar in a bowl.

  2. In another bowl, beat together salad oil, mustard, and red pepper.

  3. Stir the oil mixture into the custard.

Assemble and serve

  1. Add the shredded chicken and chopped celery 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. 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

Chickens
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Eggs
Thicken the custard base and help bind the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the oil and eggs.
Salad oil
Adds richness and moisture to the dressing.
Liquid mustard
Helps the oil and vinegar stay blended as an emulsion.

The step that matters

Stirring the oil mixture into the custard. Egg and mustard help hold oil and liquid together as an emulsion. If the oil is added too quickly or not well blended, it can separate and leave a greasy, broken dressing.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

More chicken salad recipes

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

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes