Do you love chicken salad as much as I do? I could seriously eat it for lunch every. single. day. If you are from the Birmingham area, you know there is a spectacular local restaurant that is known for it’s chicken salad. There are hardly any seats in the restaurant as it is, so if you want to eat there for lunch you better call it in or get there super early. Even if you get there early, you might have to split a table with complete strangers. Trust me, it’s worth it.
I might not have gotten the top-secret recipe just right, but after reading tons of options on countless cooking sites over the last few weeks, I decided to give it a shot and see how close I could get. I know this isn’t a food blog and I’m clearly not an excellent photographer, but we scarfed this stuff down so quickly over the weekend that I had to share.
First up, the cast of characters:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
carrots
celery
onion
lemon juice
1 1/2 cups of mayonnaise
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons dried dill
1/4 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper
It doesn’t hurt to have a super-cute helper in the kitchen if you’ve got one available.
I cooked my chicken in the crock pot overnight so I didn’t have to watch the water boil. Throw in a couple stalks of celery (with the leaves intact), one large carrot and 1/4 cup of white onion. I added a few tablespoons of lemon juice and some salt to the water as well. Once your chicken is good and tender, drain the water and refrigerate the meat and veggies overnight. This helps seal in the veggie flavor and cold chicken is much easier to chop up.
Okay, fast forward to tomorrow morning. I like to use a food processor to chop my chicken and other veggies because we like our chicken salad smooth. Ella eats it better without chunks and nobody complains about the onions when they don’t know they’re in there! Remove the chicken from your fridge and toss the wilted veggies. Chop or tear your chicken into bites and put it in a really large bowl. Finely dice/process 4 stalks of fresh celery and 1/4 cup of white onion. Add these to your chicken.
Do you have a nut mill? If not, run get one right now! Not only does this make your life wonderfully easy, it means you can buy much cheaper nuts and chop them up yourself. I like walnuts, but pecans or almonds would probably be yummy, too. I ran them through the nut mill until they were finely chopped and added 1 cup to our big bowl.
Now for the spices. Add 3 tablespoons of dill. I know it sounds like a lot, but if you add any less right now you’ll be piling it on later in the process. Add 1/4 teaspoon of paprika and plenty of salt and pepper. Be careful with the paprika — the more you add the more salt you’ll need. I added a little much this time around and had to overcompensate with salt.
Last up is mayo and a little dash of lemon juice. I made the mistake of trying this recipe with low fat mayo and it was a BIG mistake. I usually can’t tell the difference, but in this recipe you kind of need the extra twang (can you tell I’m from the south?). I added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, but you can add a little more or less depending on how much you like your lemon.
Stir it all up, put a big scoop in your bowl and add your favorite crackers. If you like them, add halved green grapes for a little bit of sweet. Our favorite restaurant does, I just can’t quite get used to fruit in my chicken salad. I promise you will enjoy this and you might even fight your spouse for the leftovers!
You could always just eat it straight out of the bowl!
