Chicken Salad. It's Personal.

Chicken salad stored safely now ready for the refrigerator and late night snacking

Let me tell you a story. Back when I was in my early twenties and working on building a catering career, a lovely lady hired me to prepare a few basic items that she could keep in her refrigerator to feed her visiting family. It would be a full house for her and her husband at their lake house, and she preferred to spend time with children and grandchildren rather than cooking for every meal.

She asked for generous portions of chicken salad and coleslaw. Other dishes too, but I cannot remember those. It's not important to the story, anyway. What's really important is the chicken salad and, while I had absolutely no experience with or recipe for it, how cool I was when she asked me how I made my chicken salad. Instead of offering up my non-existent recipe, I turned things around and asked her how she made hers. Brilliant, don't you think?

There are many things that I don't remember about this exchange, such as did she realize that I had no clue about this chicken salad thing. I'm Greek. We do chicken--roasted or in a pot--but we don't do chicken salad. What I do remember is that she said she always squeezed a little fresh lemon juice over the chicken, and that appealed to me as a Greek--we put lemon juice on just about everything! So that's the way I made chicken salad for Margaret Holbrooks and that's the way I've been making it since, and it's been a long time, some 35 or 40 years.

Today I made chicken salad and had it for lunch with Phyllis Nolan, a good friend and the daughter of Margaret Holbrooks. I told her this story. Circle complete.

My recipe for chicken salad is best when you've got leftover roasted chicken (both white and dark meat) so that you stir in some of the pan juices and a little of the once-crispy skin that you cut into small pieces. I also use one extra yolk in addition to the eggs. I find that this adds richness to the salad.

This is another of those "no recipe" recipes, folks, so don't roll your eyes at me. Go with the flow and cook with abandon. I promise, you can do it, and your chicken salad will always be good and always taste just the way you like it.

Ingredients:
Roasted chicken, deboned and cut into half or quarter inch cubes
*Some of the chicken skin cut into small pieces
*Some of the pan juices (use a little and then see if you want more)
Chopped Italian parsley (with half a chicken I use about 2-3 tablespoons)
Finely chopped red onion (use sliced green onions if you don't care for the red)
Fresh lemon juice (with half a chicken I use half of a juicy lemon)
Hard-boiled eggs, diced (with half a chicken I use three whole plus one yolk)
Salt & pepper for the eggs
Coarse grain mustard
Mayonaisse (I use Dukes)

In a mixing bowl, combine chicken and lemon juice. Top with the diced eggs.
Dust eggs with salt and pepper.
Add remaining ingredients and stir gently to combine.

You can also add any or all of the following: coarsely chopped walnuts, halved red seedless grapes, diced celery.

*totally optional