This past weekend was spent sweating it out in Dothan for the annual Loop Music and Arts Festival. We packed up with our friend Loretta and headed down for a weekend of reunions and lots of libations.
One perk of being an artist at these weekend-long festivals is the accommodations: lunches, drinks, and snacks all for the taking by artists and their assistants. Every year now, the lunch options for Saturday have been either a chicken salad croissant or a regular salad for the vegetarians. Last year, I went with the chicken salad. This year, the regular salad. I have to say, the regular salad won out for me.
Maybe it’s my tastes in chicken salad, but over the years I’ve come to realize what a mixed bag some chicken salads can be. It’s the same with all these cold, mayonnaise-based “salads” we have down here.
The cardinal sin with these dishes, for me, is having the audacity to be flavorless. You’d be surprised how many people are afraid of a little sugar and spice. Don’t even get me started on salt.
Albeit, there is quite a variety of chicken salad, which is already emerging from hibernation as the temperature rises. Grapes, nuts, celery, raisins, chives, bacon, ranch… it seems like I’ve laid my eyes on just about everything but the kitchen sink in a chicken salad.
That being said, I’m not particular about what goes in it, as long as it’s flavorful, balanced. Again, it has to have taste.
Then comes the bread. Now that you can get a pre-packaged croissant from just about anywhere, it’s become the standard way of serving a chicken salad sandwich for special occasions. Although I’d argue a bakery-fresh croissant is always gonna outshine the stuff you get in a bag.
I for one am a fan of the classic white bread. It’s plain, simple and goes with everything.
Brioche is one that you can get more readily nowadays and has that slight sweetness like croissants, with the added benefit of coming in thick slices that toast well.
Last, but most important, is the chicken itself. I’m always going to advocate for a rotisserie chicken. It’s already cooked, seasoned, and ready for you to pick apart. It helps to stretch a dollar because the meat can be used for chicken salad, casseroles, and other dishes that call for cooked chicken.
Plus, you can save the bones and make a stock that you can then freeze for future use.
When I was in college, I was obsessed with roasting the perfect chicken. Not only because it’s a great skill to have in your back pocket, but it’s the most economical option at the grocery store in the way of chicken.
To buy a whole pack of tenderloins would be up to $10, whereas I could buy a small fryer for $6 and have room to buy some onions and carrots, maybe some lemons. It was a small mission of mine to always eat well, even during the points where I really had to stretch a dollar.
Which brings me to the beauty of this dish: it really is a way to use what you have around. This is one of those dishes that begs to be tweaked, perfected, and played with. Once you have the base—chicken and mayonnaise—you can really go anywhere you want with this.
Here, then, is what I usually put in my chicken salad. Proportions are not exact, as it’s all to personal tastes. Add or subtract what you prefer, it’s all your own salad.
Chicken Salad
1 whole chicken, cooked and deboned
1/2 Vidalia onion, grated
1/4 cup Wickle’s relish
1/4 cup Duke’s mayonnaise
4 Tablespoons Durkee’s Original
2 Tablespoons W Sauce
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
Slightly chop your chicken, breaking down any large pieces. Combine all these ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well to incorporate.
Taste as you go and adjust seasonings or dressing as preferred. Cover and chill, preferably overnight, before serving cold.
If you want to be a real Joan Crawford about it, you can put a stack of small bowls or saucers in the fridge before you serve this to guests. As she said, “Cold foods should be served on cold plates, and hot food on hot plates.”
Though I do enjoy her films, I’m not that particular about the temperature of my china. Nevertheless—details, details, details.
This dish really is about the little details. Tweaking the seasoning just a little can completely change the profile of this salad.
For instance, in Selma I had a chicken salad that had curry as the secret ingredient. It really made you sit and wonder for a moment, “What is that?”
Another secret weapon in here is the grated onion. Trust me, you don’t want to skip this. You can even grate the whole onion and use it to adjust your seasoning, if you’re inclined to enjoy that much onion.
We use a grated onion in just about all our savory “salads.” It imparts a nice umami quality, without having large chunks of onion to chew on. Just get out your cheese grater or food processor and grate away. It’ll be quite liquid, somewhere between a paste and a puddle.
Just keep it in a bowl and add it to your next batch of pimiento cheese and see if you don’t notice a difference.
Another sauce I like to add is something called PickaPeppa. It’s a kind of hot sauce/Worcestershire sauce hybrid, and a very unique sauce to add to the spice cabinet.
W Sauce is just another brand of Worcestershire sauce, however it’s a little thicker than most. It’s become a fast favorite in our kitchen and if you get your hands on some I think you’ll see why.
Of course, this isn’t set in stone. In fact, as with most of these kinds of dishes, I just toss in a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Like that Santana song.
This really isn’t a fussy dish—it just requires you knowing what you like. Not to mention that there’s an infinite combination of seasonings and additions that can turn this into something unique to you and your kitchen.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get another handful of dried cranberries.
