Ina Garten-Inspired Chicken Salad
Dry, cottony chicken salad usually comes from chicken that was cooked correctly and then cooled on a plate.
Meat squeezes out moisture as it cools, and chicken left on a board loses it to the air. Leave it in the liquid it poached in and it cools slowly, reabsorbing a good deal of what it gave up, seasoned by the broth as it goes. Same chicken, same cooking time, and a completely different texture an hour later.
Turn off the heat, leave the chicken submerged, and let the pan come to room temperature on its own. It also finishes cooking gently in the residual heat, which is a second reason not to hurry it.
Jump to the recipe ↓Ina Garten-Inspired Chicken Salad
Serves 6 · Salad
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total
- 1 hr 30 min
Involved7 steps, 11 ingredients, a technique that commonly fails
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg chicken breasts, bone in and skin on
- 1 onion, 2 celery sticks, 2 bay leaves, for poaching
- 250 g mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp soured cream
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 3 celery sticks, finely diced
- 100 g toasted walnuts, chopped
- 100 g red grapes, halved
- 3 tbsp chopped tarragon or dill
- 2 tsp kosher salt, black pepper
Method
- Cover the chicken with cold water, add the onion, celery and bay, and bring to a bare simmer.
- Poach , never boiling, until it reads 68°C.18–20 minutes
- Turn the heat off and leave the chicken in the liquid until it is cool — about an hour.
- Lift it out, discard skin and bone, and cut into 2 cm pieces across the grain.
- Whisk the mayonnaise, soured cream, lemon, Dijon, salt and pepper.
- Fold in the chicken, celery, walnuts, grapes and herbs.
- Chill , then taste again and adjust the salt and lemon.30 minutes
Poach at a bare simmer, or roast
Boiling chicken tightens the fibres and pushes water out faster than any cooling technique can put back. Bring the liquid to a simmer, drop it to where the surface barely trembles, and hold it there. Roasting bone-in thighs is the other good route, and gives more flavour if you do not need the broth.
Cut it, do not shred it
Shredding tears along the grain and produces stringy fibres with a huge surface area, which then dry out and absorb dressing unevenly. Cut chicken into 2 cm pieces across the grain and each one stays moist and holds its shape in the bowl.
Season it twice
Cold blunts both salt and acid. A chicken salad seasoned to taste while it is at room temperature will read as flat when it comes out of the fridge. Check it again just before it goes to the table, every time.
Storing
Three days. It is best on day one and perfectly good on day two. Add the walnuts just before serving if you are making it well ahead — they soften in the dressing overnight.
Questions people ask
Why cool the chicken in the poaching liquid?
It reabsorbs moisture as it cools instead of losing it to the air.
Can I use a rotisserie chicken?
Yes, and it is a good shortcut. Cut rather than shred it, and expect it to be saltier.
Should I shred or cut the chicken?
Cut it into pieces across the grain. Shredding creates stringy fibres that dry out.
What internal temperature?
68°C. It will carry a little higher as it sits in the hot liquid.
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