Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Salad

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Chicken Salad

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 chicken until tender, then let it cool.

  2. Set aside the cooking water to cool and skim off the oil for later use.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the yolks of the eggs until smooth.

  2. Add the oil, black pepper, salt, mustard, and vinegar to the yolks.

Assemble the salad

  1. Chop the cooled chicken and celery, then combine them in a bowl.

  2. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture.

  3. Chop the egg whites and mix them in with the salad.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 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. Pepper + mustardtop 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

Chicken
Forms the main body of the salad and supplies its protein and meaty texture.
Eggs
Yolks bind the dressing and help hold the oil and vinegar together as a smooth emulsion.
Mustard
Acts as an additional emulsifier that helps keep the dressing from separating.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the oil and yolks.
Celery
Adds crisp, crunchy texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.

The step that matters

Mixing the yolks into the dressing. Egg yolks contain lecithin, which helps oil and vinegar stay combined as a smooth emulsion. If the yolks are not mixed smooth before the oil and vinegar go in, the dressing can separate and look greasy.

Swap the celery

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

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

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