Chicken salad is a quick and easy dish to create. Its versatile appeal makes chicken salad desirable for many occasions. From the neighborhood picnic to your best friend's baby shower, creamy, delicious chicken salad is a winner every time. And there's no need to spend hours preparing it; you can whip up this dish in less than half an hour.
Tools and Ingredients
Preparation is the heart and soul of easy chicken salad. You don't need many items to create this dish but there are key ingredients and tools to obtain.
Select one large mixing bowl, one small bowl, wire whisk, cutting board and a sharp knife. Buy two or three chicken breasts, celery, scallions, fresh dill, fresh parsley, mayonnaise, two lemons, Dijon mustard, kosher salt and ground black pepper. One shortcut is to use leftover chicken, or you can pick up a package of pre-cooked, diced chicken from the supermarket.
Prep and Create
Chop and measure your ingredients before you mix the chicken salad. Use small bowls or cups to hold your ingredients once you've chopped and measured them.
Measure 4 cups diced chicken, dice one celery stalk, finely slice 4 scallions, measure 1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped dill, 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, 1 cup mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard and 2 teaspoons kosher salt.
Combine the chicken, celery, scallions and herbs in the large mixing bowl. Set the bowl aside. Whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt and a few shakes of freshly ground pepper in the small mixing bowl.
Add the mayonnaise mixture from the small bowl to your large bowl of chicken and herbs and combine using your whisk. Refrigerate for a few minutes to allow the chicken salad to set.
Serve and Eat
Although some chefs would prefer to eat their chicken salad right from the bowl while standing by the kitchen counter, others would rather create a chicken salad sandwich with an attractive presentation.
The chefs from The Food Network suggest serving the chicken salad on a bed of lettuce, surrounded by sliced tomatoes with a half an avocado. They also recommend piling chicken salad on artisanal bread topped with a few slices of smoked bacon, vine ripened tomatoes and lettuce.
Tags: chicken salad, mixing bowl, celery scallions, chicken salad, diced chicken