a very good chicken salad

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.