Creating chicken salad recipes your family will love
Every family has its favorite recipes. Many times it is Mom or Grandma that passes them down, but sometimes Dad has a hand in it, too. Family favorites are determined by the unique tastes of the people in your family.
When I search for recipes online, I rarely follow the recipe exactly. Sometimes it’s because I don’t have the items on hand, but my family’s tastes come into play a lot. Certain vegetables they enjoy, others not so much. Certain spices are always welcomed with requests for second helpings, but others leave food on the plates.
Teaching you to fish
“Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll have food for the rest of his life.” This is the thought behind Mom’s Chicken Salad Recipes. While we may include some complete recipes on our site, above all we want to show you how to make your family’s best chicken salad recipe ever.
We’ll show you a basic recipe you can start with and then outline a variety of options so you can create your chicken salad masterpiece.
Our basic recipe
Ingredients:
- 3/4 lb. chopped cooked chicken (canned or prepared yourself)
- 1/2 cup dressing (choose a salad dressing you like or use mayonnaise)
- spices to taste (salt, pepper, garlic powder)
- 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice or rice wine vinegar
- 1-1/2 tsp. jam or fruit preserves
- your favorite vegetables, fruits and/or nuts (grated or chopped to the desired size and consistency)
Makes about 4 servings.
I always mix the spices, dressing, jam and lemon juice (or vinegar) together in their own bowl before adding it to the chicken and veggies/fruits/nuts mix (we’ll just call it “veggies” from now on). Then mix everything together thoroughly, taste test and adjust spices if needed.
A note about spices: If you are going to let the chicken salad rest for a few hours or overnight (always recommended, if possible), then don’t be too concerned about the taste. The time it spends “marinating” will make a huge difference, so it’s best to do the final taste test and spice adjustment immediately before serving.
The right chicken salad recipe for YOUR family
Here are the factors you should consider as we construct your chicken salad recipe:
- food likes
- food dislikes
- when you usually want to eat it (immediately vs. the next day)
- how long you typically store food before finishing leftovers
- number of people in your family (that is, number of servings you want to make)
Use the articles on our site to get ideas for what ingredients you could include. Just delete from the list anything your family doesn’t like. If you have some favorite items not on our lists, let us know!
If you’re going to eat the chicken salad right away, you’ll want to use stronger flavorings (dressings, juices, spices) because they won’t have time to soak into the rest of the ingredients over time. If it has time to sit in the fridge overnight, then go easy on the spices because the flavors get stronger over time. You might also save certain kinds of flavor accents for adding immediately prior to serving (like vinegar or other tart/sour notes that you might not want to soak in for long periods).
If you are likely to have leftovers, and you know they might be in the fridge for a few days, then go easy on veggies or fruits that easily get mushy or change color over time (tomatoes, avocadoes, cucumbers, peaches, etc).
Calculating serving size and ingredients amounts
Figure about 2 cups of chicken salad per adult serving. If the chicken salad is going on sandwiches, closer to 1 cup per serving.
- about 6 oz. chicken per serving
- about 1-2 cups veggies per serving
- about 2 tbs. – 1/4 cup dressing per serving (depending how thick you want it!)
Go forth, and create!
Browse our site for further help with cooking your chicken, different combinations of spices for themed chicken salad (mexican, thai curry, tropical, etc), preparing the ingredients and other details. You are well on your way to having your family’s super chicken salad recipe to pass along to the next generation!
Of course, you don’t have to stop there — you might write a recipe card for your most popular “Potluck Version”, or the “Father’s Day Edition” of your chicken salad, with all the ingredients Dad likes the best. You might design your “Quick and Easy” recipe and your very own “Hot & Spicy Chicken Salad Sandwich” with just the spicy elements you like best.
We’d love to hear how it goes. Post a comment with your chicken salad success story!
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The building blocks of a great chicken salad recipe
My family loves variety, so I like to make my chicken salad different every time. So you may wonder, how do you make an amazing chicken salad recipe every time and still get a good variety of tastes?
Here is my never-boring chicken salad secret technique!
Always, always, always, start with good chicken
As we discussed in my article about great chicken making great chicken salad, your best chicken salad recipe is going to start with a bowl of slow-cooked, moist chicken meat. This can be chicken from the freezer or fresh chicken from a local free-range, organic ranch, but the key is in the slow-cooking. You want this chicken falling off the bones when it’s done. You also want to make sure you put a little water in with it and trap the moisture with a cover or aluminum foil securely wrapped around your dish.
After it cools enough to handle, remove the chicken from the bones and separate all the skin, fat and gristle from the delicious meat.
Chop the chicken meat to your preferred size and consistency.
The dressing determines the overall theme
Ah, now we get to the heart of the recipe. The chicken is the meat, the main attraction, but the dressing is where you shape the heart, the style, the flavor of your chicken salad.
Here is where you decide whether you’re going to do a creamy or an oil base. The dressing is where you decide on the thickness of the consistency. This is where you select the spices and decide on themes like mexican, italian, greek, east indian, asian, southern or whatever.
Get a bowl and put your dressing ingredients together separately from the chicken.
- Creamy bases might start with mayonnaise, yogurt, cream cheese or sour cream. Oil bases are generally olive or other vegetable oil.
- Add in your other liquids like salad dressing, vinegar, juices (something from a dill pickle jar, or maybe some fruit juice, etc), honey, salsa or other hot sauce, chili oil or paste, mustard, ketchup, tomato paste, etc. Adjust to taste.
- Raid your spice rack. Mix in whatever spices fit your theme.
- Mix well! You can use a blender if you like, or just stir it up with a fork or whisk.
- Check your consistency. If it’s too runny, then thicken it up with a little corn starch or other thickening agent. If it’s too thick, add a little more compatible liquid flavoring (see step #2).
- Check the flavor one more time. If you have time, let this mix set for 15-60 minutes and then check it again, making any necessary adjustments before mixing it in.
Add your accents
Amazing chicken salad comes from a combination of a solid foundation and the interesting chicken salad recipe additions you throw in to highlight it with special flavors.
Flavor accents come from including things like:
- dried or fresh fruits
- fresh, steamed or sauteed vegetables
- canned treats like olives, corn, beets, pickles, garlic, etc.
- nuts
- fun stuff like bacon bits, shredded cheese or boiled eggs
Prepare and chop up your selected chicken salad accents. This can be a longer process if you clean, chop and sautee fresh veggies — or it can be something quick like dumping in a small can of pre-chopped olives or diced mild green peppers.
Mix it all together!
Put your chicken meat, dressing and the accents all in a good-sized bowl and mix them together. Be sure the dressing is spread over every corner and tasty bit of chicken, fruit, nut, and veggie you may have in your delicious chicken salad recipe.
You don’t want to over mix it if you like having bigger chunks. Mixing it too much will cause the chicken to come apart into smaller pieces and can cause softer pieces of fruit or vegetable to turn to mush.
On the other hand, if you enjoy a smoother chicken salad consistency, then by all means, mix to your heart’s content!
Let it set or serve it up!
If you have time, let your chicken salad set overnight so the flavors mix together and soak in completely. If not, then go ahead and eat it immediately!
It’s great on a sandwich, in a lettuce wrap for those on no-carb diets, or even by itself in a bowl.
Did you try it?
If you’ve taken a great chicken salad recipe adventure and mixed up something new of your own, take a moment to comment below and tell us how it went!
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Quickest easy chicken salad recipes
Just because you don’t have time to start with great slow-cooked chicken doesn’t mean you can’t have great chicken salad. Sometimes we just don’t have time!
The great thing about my chicken salad recipes is that they still work with canned chicken, canned veggies and dried fruit straight out of the box or bag.
Here’s my secret to fast, easy chicken salad that tastes great in 10 minutes or less!
Chicken salad recipe in 10 minutes or less
Ingredients:
- 2-12.5 oz. cans of canned chicken
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1-15 oz. can of corn, drained
- 1-12 oz. can of sliced olives (black or green, whichever you prefer), drained
- 1/2 cup salad dressing (ranch, caesar or thousand island)
- 2 tsp. fruit juice (apple, orange, lemon, etc)
- 1 tbs. Dijon mustard
- Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Dump all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them thoroughly. If the chicken salad seems dry, add more salad dressing or fruit juice.
Serve immediately.
Optional ingredients
Depending on your personal tastes and the contents of your cupboards, you might throw in some of these:
- 1 small (4-6 oz.) can of chopped spinach (salted type)
- 1 small can diced mild green peppers
- 1 small can diced canned carrots
- 1 small can diced canned beets
- 1/4 cup salsa
- 1 tsp. asian chili sauce (spicy)
- 1/2 tsp. red curry paste (spicy Thai style)
Suggested side dishes
I always enjoy throwing my chicken salad into a lettuce wrap or into a sandwich with sliced sourdough bread. However, you might consider making a quick meal with these easy side dishes:
- potato chips or corn tortilla chips
- leftover rice or potatoes
- leftover pasta
- salad from a bag
- raw carrot sticks
- sliced apples, oranges, a bunch of grapes or other fresh fruit
- macaroni and cheese (boxed quick version)
(you can even skip the fake cheese powder and keep the noodles plain, just adding a little olive oil or butter and sprinkling it with Parmesan cheese)
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