Skip to main content
Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of shredded chicken, celery, eggs, and a dressing of olive oil, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 and eggs

  1. Chop the white meat of the chickens and celery, maintaining a ratio of one-third chicken to two-thirds celery.

  2. Hard boil the eggs, then remove the yolks and mash them smoothly with a silver spoon.

Make the dressing

  1. Gradually mix in the olive oil, mustard, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Add sweet cream until the dressing reaches a batter-like consistency.

Combine and serve

  1. Just before serving, combine the dressing with the chicken and celery, and moisten with sharp vinegar.

  2. Add lemon juice for extra flavor, if desired.

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. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  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

Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.
Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks mashed into the dressing give it richness and a creamy body.
Olive oil
Emulsifies with the yolks to form the fat base of the dressing.
Sweet cream
Thins the dressing to a smooth, spreadable consistency with added richness.
Sharp vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil to the yolks. Oil must be added gradually so it emulsifies with the yolks; adding it too fast causes the dressing to separate and turn greasy.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, egg, olive, 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

Salad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipesBoiled Salad DressingBoiled Salad Dressing67 recipes