You can eat chicken salad wrapped in lettuce or spooned onto crackers but my favorite way to have it is on potato bread (toasted on the inside) or a squishy martins potato roll, lightly toasted with shredded iceberg or some other crunchy lettuce spritzed with lemon juice. I would also eat it directly from the bowl with a spoon.
4 - 6 servings
the base
1/2 rotisserie chicken or both breasts (skin included), finely shredded
1/2 cup red grapes, quartered (or eighth-ed, if huge)
1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1/4 cup finely chopped herbs (such as dill, parsley, tarragon, mint or fennel fronds)
the sauce
1/2 cup full fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayo
1 1/2 ts dijon mustard
1-2 T kosher dill pickle, finely diced
spoonful of pickle brine
1/4 ts sugar
1/2 lemon, juiced
a bunch of fresh cracked black pepper
a glug of olive oil
riffing
all greek yogurt instead of mayo, or sub sour cream or labneh for the greek yogurt
1/4 - 1/2 ts cayenne for a little heat
swap small diced apple or dried apricot for the grapes
you could use 1/2 bulb fennel instead of celery
adding 1/2 ts sumac, turmeric or paprika would be nice
1/2 ts celery seed would amp up that classic chicken salad flavor
sub bread and butter pickles and skip the sugar
recipe prep
Combine all base ingredients in a large bowl and mix gently to evenly combine.
In a small bowl, whisk to combine all sauce ingredients. Taste, and salt as needed (there is a lot of briny stuff happening here PLUS that schmaltzy preseasoned chicken - proceed with caution!).
Add the sauce to the bowl with the base ingredients and mix gently to combine - don’t crush the grapes!
Eat the salad on a squishy sandwich roll or with crackers or whatever you like.
note: if the chicken salad looks a little loose, fear not! It will firm up after a little time in the fridge.
