# Help to find a chicken salad recipe



## vitauta (Aug 8, 2014)

i have lost a favorite chicken salad recipe, and cannot find one like it online, either.  the recipe i'm looking for is a regular mayo based chicken salad.  two of the necessary ingredients for this salad are grapes and fennel.  i would like to hear from anyone with a chicken salad recipe including these two essential items. thanks for your help....


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## Roll_Bones (Aug 8, 2014)

I used to make chicken salad all the time.
Then I tasted Costco chicken salad.
I don't make chicken salad anymore. Even though mine was better.

Not to worry vitauta.  You should be inundated with recipes for chicken salad.


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## Dawgluver (Aug 8, 2014)

I made some CS last night, with dried cranberries, sliced scallions, and diced celery, along with Hellman's low fat mayo and Greek yogurt.  I would have added toasted pecans, but we didn't have them.  Pretty darn good stuff.

Just keep adding stuff till it tastes like what you want, Vit!


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## Kayelle (Aug 8, 2014)

vitauta said:


> i have lost a favorite chicken salad recipe, and cannot find one like it online, either.  the recipe i'm looking for is a regular mayo based chicken salad.  two of the necessary ingredients for this salad are grapes and fennel.  i would like to hear from anyone with a chicken salad recipe including these two essential items. thanks for your help....



Since you know the ingredients you want Vit, are you looking for the dressing? 

I don't like fennel but I do use grapes, celery and walnuts. My dressing is 1/2 Best foods Mayo(Helmans), 1/2 Greek yogurt and a very generous amount of lemon pepper. 
Now I want some. Off to the kitchen.


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## Oldvine (Aug 8, 2014)

It sounds like you almost have the recipe from memory.  Did it have celery?  I would mix up a batch of the ingredients you have and see how close you come.  The amount of mayo will depend on how much it takes to stick the other ingredients together.  You might even come up with something you like better.


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## creative (Aug 8, 2014)

*Vitauta*...sounds like it might be a variation on a coronation chicken salad (which has grapes and mayo but not the fennel).  

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/tag-2881/coronation-chicken-recipes.aspx
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/coronation-chicken-1512


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## vitauta (Aug 8, 2014)

Kayelle said:


> Since you know the ingredients you want Vit, are you looking for the dressing?
> 
> I don't like fennel but I do use grapes, celery and walnuts. My dressing is 1/2 Best foods Mayo(Helmans), 1/2 Greek yogurt and a very generous amount of lemon pepper.
> Now I want some. Off to the kitchen.


 the fennel is the crux of my problem.  i don't like fennel either, kayelle, as i don't care for the taste of licorice. it was with great reluctance that i added it to this chicken salad the first time i made it.  remarkably, the taste of the salad was wonderfully transformed by the addition of a small amount of the fennel.  i'm faced with the question of what kind of fennel to purchase for this recipe. (i am drawing a blank as to what form of it i used before, other than it wasn't fresh.) 
i am aware of just how trifling i must be sounding about this seemingly insignificant recipe glitch.  i have never been good at working without a set recipe, a problem compounded by an essential ingredient that i fundamentally don't like or trust....
thanks to all of you folks for your help and encouraging words.


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## Andy M. (Aug 8, 2014)

If the fennel wasn't fresh, it has to be ground fennel seed.


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## Kayelle (Aug 8, 2014)

That's what I was thinking too Andy. Have you looked at this Vit? I'd break down the amount of ingredients however, to see if you like the rub. 

Chicken Salad with Fennel Spice Recipe : Michael Chiarello : Food Network


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## vitauta (Aug 8, 2014)

oKAY then!  a good place to commence....


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## Aunt Bea (Aug 8, 2014)

This recipe for Curried Chicken Salad from The Bush Family Cookbook, page 82, is very good.  It changes every time I make it, the only constant is the dressing.

The Bush Family Cookbook - Ariel De Guzman - Google Books


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## GotGarlic (Aug 8, 2014)

Is it possible the recipe used dried tarragon instead of fennel? It has that licorice flavor, too.


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## vitauta (Aug 8, 2014)

GotGarlic said:


> Is it possible the recipe used dried tarragon instead of fennel? It has that licorice flavor, too.



entirely possible. in fact, gg, you have just solved the mystery of my missing chicken salad recipe.  ty!  the licorice-flavored spice in this dish was indeed dried tarragon leaves, not fennel.  this further explains why there was no old tin of fennel knocking about in the recesses of my spice cabinet, and why an ancient, barely used jar of tarragon leaves did turn up there.  i had totally forgotten about tarragon being an anise flavored spice, too. 
oh, and now all the missing pieces are falling into place. whereas there are no fennel-chicken salad recipes listed online, one can find there a large number of tarragon-grape chicken ones. i didn't find the exact recipe i was looking for, but i didn't need to.  the essence of this extraordinary dish lies in its magical flecks of green tarragon leaves sprinkled about....


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## PrincessFiona60 (Aug 8, 2014)

It takes a village to make a chicken salad...


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## vitauta (Aug 8, 2014)

yes, pf, and we've got one helluva village here at dc.


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## GotGarlic (Aug 8, 2014)

Yay!


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## Zhizara (Aug 9, 2014)

GotGarlic said:


> Is it possible the recipe used dried tarragon instead of fennel? It has that licorice flavor, too.



I never notice a licorice flavor with tarragon.  I love the way it enhances chicken salad.

My chicken salad is really simple adding grated hard boiled eggs, tarragon and mayo.


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## vitauta (Aug 9, 2014)

Zhizara said:


> I never notice a licorice flavor with tarragon.  I love the way it enhances chicken salad.
> 
> My chicken salad is really simple adding grated hard boiled eggs, tarragon and mayo.




would you please share your recipe with us, zee?


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## Zhizara (Aug 10, 2014)

vitauta said:


> would you please share your recipe with us, zee?




That _is_ the recipe.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Aug 10, 2014)

Z doesn't measure anything...I don't think she even owns measuring cups or spoons.


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## Zhizara (Aug 10, 2014)

I do, PF, but I rarely use them.


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## vitauta (Aug 10, 2014)

oh, thanks pf.  sorry zee, i'm dense like that sometimes.

here you have barefoot contessa's chicken salad recipe.  it is very close to the one i was desperately seeking with my thread.
to her recipe, i am adding: a few squirts of lemon juice to the mayo, some minced red onion and nuts--either walnuts or slivered almonds.  thanks again everybody, for helping me with my supper plans for tonight.
Barefoot Contessa - Recipes - Chicken Salad Veronique


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## PrincessFiona60 (Aug 10, 2014)

Zhizara said:


> I do, PF, but I rarely use them.



Can you find them in less than 3 minutes???


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## Kayelle (Aug 10, 2014)

vitauta said:


> oh, thanks pf.  sorry zee, i'm dense like that sometimes.
> 
> here you have barefoot contessa's chicken salad recipe.  it is very close to the one i was desperately seeking with my thread.
> to her recipe, i am adding: a few squirts of lemon juice to the mayo, some minced red onion and nuts--either walnuts or slivered almonds.  thanks again everybody, for helping me with my supper plans for tonight.
> Barefoot Contessa - Recipes - Chicken Salad Veronique



Those sound like good additions to the recipe Vit. I always laugh when Barefoot Contessa says to use "good" mayo, like we would choose bad mayo? Personally, I think anything other than Best Foods (Hellmann's) is bad mayo, but that's just me.


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## GotGarlic (Aug 10, 2014)

Kayelle said:


> Those sound like good additions to the recipe Vit. *I always laugh when Barefoot Contessa says to use "good" mayo, like we would choose bad mayo?* Personally, I think anything other than Best Foods (Hellmann's) is bad mayo, but that's just me.



Me, too. Or "good" olive oil  Bad olive oil would taste, um, bad!


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## Addie (Aug 10, 2014)

It sounds like the old Martha Stewart. She would always say to use "only the very best" Then she got a flood of letters from the viewers complaining that a lot of folks can't afford "only the very best like she could". So now she will say to use, "the best (fill in the blank) you can afford.


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## Zhizara (Aug 10, 2014)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> Can you find them in less than 3 minutes???



In my little kitchen easily, um, well... a few of the measuring cups are in different containers,  like  the 1/4 cup in the container of popcorn, and a whole cup measure in with the biscuit mix.  

I probably would have trouble finding every one.  In fact, when I couldn't find the size I needed a couple of months ago, I gave up and bought another set.

I guess you're right again, Princess!  dang it!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Aug 10, 2014)

LOL!!!


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## Addie (Aug 10, 2014)

Zhizara said:


> In my little kitchen easily, um, well... a few of the measuring cups are in different containers,  like  the 1/4 cup in the container of popcorn, and a whole cup measure in with the biscuit mix.
> 
> I probably would have trouble finding every one.  In fact, when I couldn't find the size I needed a couple of months ago, I gave up and bought another set.
> 
> I guess you're right again, Princess!  dang it!



Did it occur to you to use some of the smaller ones repeating the filling over and over until you had to total of the amount needed?


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## Mad Cook (Aug 10, 2014)

creative said:


> *Vitauta*...sounds like it might be a variation on a coronation chicken salad (which has grapes and mayo but not the fennel).
> 
> http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/tag-2881/coronation-chicken-recipes.aspx
> http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/coronation-chicken-1512


I can vouch for this one even though it's not exactly what you are looking for. It used to be a stalwart of the buffets I used to do when I ran my catering business and it was always very popular. My recipe was exactly the same as Nigella's but she would have been in her pram when I was making it.  I got it from a part-work published in the 1970s called "Good Cooking". No stranger to plagiarism, our Nige!

Coronation Chicken is usually credited to Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume who prepared it for one of the parties at the time of the coronation of HM Queen in 1953 but similar dishes are much older than that. Spry and Hume didn't use either grapes or apricot jam but I think they make the dish.


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## Zhizara (Aug 10, 2014)

Addie said:


> Did it occur to you to use some of the smaller ones repeating the filling over and over until you had to total of the amount needed?



Yeah, but I'm lazy!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Aug 10, 2014)

Zhizara said:


> Yeah, but I'm lazy!



Besides,you don't want to risk repetitive motion injury (Carpal Tunnel)...


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## Zhizara (Aug 11, 2014)

Yep, plus I avoid more chances to spill stuff.


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## CWS4322 (Aug 11, 2014)

vitauta said:


> oh, thanks pf.  sorry zee, i'm dense like that sometimes.
> 
> here you have barefoot contessa's chicken salad recipe.  it is very close to the one i was desperately seeking with my thread.
> to her recipe, i am adding: a few squirts of lemon juice to the mayo, some minced red onion and nuts--either walnuts or slivered almonds.  thanks again everybody, for helping me with my supper plans for tonight.
> Barefoot Contessa - Recipes - Chicken Salad Veronique


I add wild rice, green onions, and use toasted slivered almonds. Didn't know it would have a name.


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