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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled minced chicken mixed with celery, dressed with mustard, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, egg yolk, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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. Boil the chicken until tender and remove all fat, gristle, and skin.

  2. Mince the chicken into small pieces, but do not hash it.

  3. Mix the chicken and celery thoroughly and set aside in a cool place.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine dry mustard, powdered sugar, olive oil, vinegar, salt, yolk of raw egg, and red pepper.

  2. Stir the mixture with a fork until smooth, adding olive oil gradually until 4 ounces are used and the dressing thickens.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, tossing to mix thoroughly.

  2. Set aside in a cool place until ready to serve.

  3. Garnish with parsley and sliced hard-boiled eggs.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing the main texture and protein.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Raw egg yolk
Emulsifies the olive oil and vinegar, helping the dressing thicken and turn smooth.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, and with the yolk forms the body of the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil and yolk.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps stabilise the emulsified dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil gradually while stirring. Oil must be added slowly to the egg yolk so it disperses into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving a runny, separated dressing instead of a thick, smooth one.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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

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