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Chicken Salad

Chicken salad made with boiled chicken, lemon juice, celery, mayonnaise, whipped cream, and seasonings, served on lettuce leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Lemon and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Clean the chicken and dress it.

  2. Place the chicken in boiling water.

  3. Add onion, bay leaf, cloves, and mace to the pot.

  4. Bring the water to a boil.

  5. Let it boil for five minutes.

  6. Reduce the heat.

  7. Cook until the chicken is tender.

Make the salad

  1. Once the chicken is cold, cut it into half‑inch cubes.

  2. Remove all fat and skin from the cubes.

  3. Add one tablespoon of lemon juice per pint of chicken.

  4. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the chicken.

  5. Place the chicken on ice.

  6. Mix the chicken with two‑thirds as much chopped celery.

  7. Dust the salad with salt and pepper.

  8. Mix mayonnaise with whipped cream to taste.

  9. Pour the mixture over the salad.

Serve

  1. Serve the salad on lettuce leaves.

  2. Garnish with celery leaves and capers.

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. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 body of the salad.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the rich dressing.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and moisture that bind the chicken into a creamy salad.
Whipped cream
Lightens the dressing and gives the salad a softer, creamier texture.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch to the salad.

The step that matters

Reduce the heat before the chicken is tender. Once the water has boiled, lowering the heat keeps it at a gentle simmer. Vigorous boiling toughens the chicken's muscle proteins, so the meat stays firmer and drier.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, clove, lemon, celery, cream, lettuce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, clove, lemon, celery, cream, lettuce. 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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