I do agree about the bone-in chicken breasts. Sometimes I'm just lazy about the bones - especially if there has been a really good sale on boneless chicken breasts!!

i was wondering the same thing about dark meat. i usually only eat white meat but i just purchsed some thighs to make the chicken salad in the back of the red hat book and it specifically said thighs- it's down south- could it be a southern thing? sounded good

When I'm feeling lazy (often !) I've used Rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Great flavor and very moist meat.

I don't think there's anything wrong with thighs or dark meat, it certainly is moist. I think it's more of a visual thing...especially with the grapes.

I think thighs would work well in a curried salad with raisins and currrants and coconut and pineapple...I'll stop now !

Marion

Who's having chicken salad for dinner tonight??????!!!!!!
LOL
It is too late for me to get it going but I want to make for the weekend!
Thanks for the redcipes...

Best chicken salad ever came from San Francisco -- with chicken breast (actually, I think we used a cooked kosher deli turkey breast chunk), a bit of crumbled crispy bacon (see below before you have a treif attack), chopped red onion, a chopped Roma tomato or two, frozen small green peas (uncooked) and however much diced avocado your conscience permits. Bound with Hellman's. No other mayo (except your own home made). Salt and pepper. Over good greens. We later made it kosher by substituting frizzled turkey pastrami for the bacon, which was a close enough match.

Dark meat actually has more flavor, is more tender, and is more forgiving when poaching. Breasts are usually easier to cube into tidy chunks, however. With the poaching method above, you will never have an overcooked chicken breast!

B/

Public Service Announcement for people living in the western US: Hellman's is the East Coast label brand for Best Foods Mayonnaise. You can still make "good" chicken salad...!!

And egg salad (shades of "What's Up, Tiger Lily"!!.... "An egg salad so delicious you'll plotz.")....

First of all a disclaimer...I am soooo not southern, lol! Many years ago when we were newly stationed in SE GA, I made a chicken ceasar salad for an luncheon for our Officers Wives Club. Our very southern Captains wife took one look at it, and with that very polite southern accent asked me "Is that California cuisine?", lol! So, I guess I never would have been considered for the Junior League!

Starrs--A friend from Madison, GA makes the best chicken salad--it's been at the last few showers we've given and is always a hit. Her chicken salad is a chunky kind w/Hellman's...She boils/poaches breasts w/carrots, celery, onions, garlic S&P....she then dices the chicken and adds halved grapes, almonds (I think the roasted sweet ones that come in a bag from the produce section), finely chopped celery, a little garlic powder and adjusts the S&P. I've made and must say it's delish.

Okay, OWJ. I'm going to make that one. Forgot the celery but will see if my mom has any in her fridge. Thanks all!

PS - I'm just a few miles from Madison, so if you are down this way give me a shout!

mms, I hope you learned your lesson. Any dish taken to a "social" in the south MUST include lots of mayonnaise. And any dish taken to a "social" in the midwest MUST include a can of soup. (Unless it's a dessert, then it MUST include Cool Whip.)

hi starrsville, again I defer to The Southern Living Cookbook..my favorite. There's a recipe in there for mandarin chicken salad...it includes all the things you and others have mentioned, plus mandarin oranges...

Patrick, you are dead on about the midwest "musts"!!! My 15 year old son LOOOOOOVES family reunions and church pitch-ins despite the number of grey hairs and lack of hot chicks due to the mayo and Cool Whip dishes! All other dishes include cheese...

The East Coast isn't the only one whose got Hellman's. We've got it here in Texas!

And if you ever do TRAVEL through the Lone Star State, our chicken salad is made with mesquite-smoked chicken -- sure gives the chicken salad a great flavor.

Patrick, you're so right about the midwest and their soup and Cool Whip dishes. I went to a funeral and everything -- I mean every main dish had soup and the desserts all had Cool Whip. Amazing. I'd never seen anything like it before..or since! Even the salad bar at the hotel had all mayo-based salads - not a green leaf or fresh veggie in sight.

Happy TRAVELS y'all!

Patrick--LOL! Yes, I learned very fast!

A good friend years ago gave me a ton of recipes when DH and I were first married. I think she felt sorry for me that I couldn't cook. Anyway, all her recipes include cans of soup...and yes, she is from ND, lol!

Thank you everyone for the chicken salad varieties. I'm going to try several. I use that same poaching method for several dishes and LOVE the broth for so many other bases. Once in a while I do them very fast in a pressure cooker, with hardly a pop of the indicator on top (and taken right off the burner) and they turn out exceptionally tender and moist.

So true about the IL area anyway- canned soup and cool whip, BUT NOT IN OUR HOUSE. Also there has continually existed an entire Velveeta culture here. I bet I have seen at least 5 versions of the Velveeta, Ritz Crackers, Broccoli, Butter Casserole on every major occasion of my acquaintances' lives that I have attended. That is OUTSIDE my family. The only cans we ever opened had tomatoes in them. Even our olives and all else we used came in jars, not cans. While others ate bologna and peanut butter sandwiches, I had home made Italian bread, with olive oil and parmesano under a broiler for lunch. REALLY! Almost every day I walked home and had a hot lunch and there were no cans involved. I brought in an anchovy salad in H.S. one time and grossed all the cotton bread people out.

Until I was 6 we owned a small cornor produce store and a butcher shop next door to it. And in that store we also sold chittl'ens and pickles in barrels (separate of course). One of my first two memories is going to get cans of Italian tomatoes in the back storage (by the pictures)for my Nana to fill a customer's order. I was 3 and she insisted I could read. She couldn't read in English and only very slowly in Italian. I roamed all over the store; it was an entirely different sort of world.

Where I lived (several miles away) outside of the store, it was about 95% Irish until I was 14 or 15. Canned fruit, canned soup was standard fare in everyone else's cooking. There was NO cool whip or canned anything in my house and most of the pasta was from scratch. My aunt's ravioli are still (she's 91)unbelieveable. We cooked every vegtable my Grandfather was selling. I knew at least 4 ways to make artichokes before I was 10. Guess whose house always had LOTS of extra kids from the other houses every night!

Oh food memories are some of the best memories! I can never think of canned soup without thinking of my girlfriend Maureen H. and her mother's roast beef gravy. Ugh! I was polite, but never let it touch my meat if I could possibly help it.

Best-Ever Chicken Salad

2 whole chicken breasts (4 halves), boiled, all skin and fat removed

1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup celery, in thick (1/8 slices)

1 whole Vidalia onion, diced

1/3 cup white wine (any kind you like)

6 hard boiled eggs, cut in sagittal slices and then halved again

mayonaise, salt, pepper and celery seed to taste

tart red seedless grapes (optional)halved, about a half to 3/4 cup

Cut up the chicken into one inch pieces and combine in a bowl with the wine, tossing the chicken in the liquid. Do not drain. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Combine chicken, eggs, celery, and onion, and then add enough REAL mayonaise, by tablespoons, to bind the ingredients together.

Add almonds and grapes and toss lightly, then shake celery seed (no kidding, this is the **secret** ingredient) over the entire bowl, until it looks lightly peppered with the seed.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

If you don't drink wine, you can substitute lemon juice, but use only 1/4 cup instead.

JJ5, can I come live with you?

kswl, I made it. It already tastes better than the version I made years ago. I bet it's going to be great after it "sets" in the fridge overnight! Thanks a lot. I'll report back in after tomorrow's picnic.

bamakelly's corn casserole is going to yet another party on Saturday.

This is one of the best threads y'all have started, fantastico!

Can someone suggest THE "BESTEST" Asian/Chinese/Thai and/or Oriental Chicken salad? I've had them from Safeway and I'm sure y'all have better ideas and recipes.

Oh, how do I make the Chow Mein Noodles that are used in many of these recipes?

Gracias!