HERBED CHICKEN SALAD

I must admit that until I made this chicken salad, my homemade chicken salad was nothing to brag about.

My local grocer made much better chicken salad than me... UGH!

Oh, but how things have changed!!! I now join the ranks of culinary mavens who make good chicken salad!

Here's how I do it...

I called on my favorite cooking celebrities to see how they made such great chicken salad... Martha, Ina and  Anne (as in Burrell).


I chose INA'S method for cooking chicken... some of  MARTHA'S add ins ... and ANNE'S sassy love of cooking ("Look at you, beautiful chickens!")!

I am not a fan of all the fruit and nuts and whatnot in chicken salad. I am a classic kinda girl... but if you like those things I'm sure they could easily be added in!

I think this is a chicken salad you could love too!


STONEGABLE'S WITH-A-LITTLE-HELP-FROM-MY-COOKING-FRIENDS HERBED CHICKEN SALAD

4 split chicken breasts
good olive oil
salt and pepper

1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 ~ 2/3 cup celery, finely diced
salt and pepper
2 TBS fresh parsley, chopped
1 TBS fresh dill, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme, leaves
1~ 1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 TBS lemon juice
a  few dashes of hot sauce

*tarragon can be substituted in place of thyme... I find tarragon overpowering, so I don't use it.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place chicken skin side up on a rimmed baking sheet. Liberally rub with oil and salt and pepper.
Roast until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. I use an instant read thermometer instead of using cooking times. It makes a more perfectly cooked piece of chicken. No dry chicken here!

Remove the chicken from oven and let just cool until you can handle it.

When cool enough to handle remove the skin and bones and chop the meat to your preferred consistancy. I like mine a little more shredded than most. Save the skin and bones for soup stock.

Put the chicken in a mixing bowl along with the red onions, celery, a little salt and pepper, parsley, dill and thyme.

In a second small mixing bowl add mayonnaise, lemon juice and hot sauce. Stir well. Mix the mayonnaise into the chicken until incorporated. Adjust for salt and pepper.


I served this chicken salad in puff pastry cups for a recent bridal shower. They were such a hit!!!

To see the the puff pasty culinary tutorial, click HERE.

PRINTABLE RECIPE