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Chicken Salad

A salad of diced chicken, celery, and dressing of vinegar, oil, pepper, salt, mustard, and mayonnaise, garnished with celery, eggs, beets, or anchovy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Boil the chicken until tender, then let it cool.

  2. Remove the skin and gristle, then cut the meat into small dice or square pieces.

  3. Cut the celery into pieces about ½ inch long.

  4. Mix the chicken and celery together.

Dress and rest

  1. In a separate bowl, combine vinegar, oil, pepper, salt, and mustard; stir into the chicken and celery mixture.

  2. Set aside for at least 2 hours to absorb the dressing.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, mix in a good amount of Mayonnaise sauce.

  2. Heap the salad into a mound and cover with more sauce.

  3. Garnish with sprigs of celery, slices or quarters of hard-boiled eggs, cold cooked beets, or strips of anchovy.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 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 protein and bulk of the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and seasons the chicken as it rests.
Oil
Carries flavor and adds richness and moisture to the dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the salad.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds creaminess and moisture that binds the salad and coats the pieces.
Fresh white celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch against the soft chicken.

The step that matters

Set aside for at least 2 hours to absorb the dressing. Resting lets the vinegar, oil and seasonings penetrate the cooled chicken and celery. Skipping the rest leaves the salad bland and the dressing sitting on the surface rather than flavoring the meat.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

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