Her Mother’s Chicken Salad Made Two Ways

Mikaela is home and such an event, of course, requires much and many special traditions and festivities, not the least of these being the food served at table. Mikaela, being moved to a position of guest, and in this case guest-of-honor, gets to choose what that food is to be. Her first choice? Her Mother’s Chicken Salad.

And how you make it is this:

Take two bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, about a pound each, and rub them in olive oil, followed up with a generous sprinkling of the salt and pepper variety. Place them with a good amount of space between on a cookie sheet and bake in a three-hundred-and-fifty-degree oven for fifty minutes. Take them out and let cool, and by that, I mean cover in tin foil and cool in the pan until they’re lukewarm, then take off the pan and place in a container of any size and shape and make you like and set them in the fridge until you’re ready.

Ready now? Okay. Get a big bowl out and keep it handy. Next to that place your cutting board. On that board put the two chicken breasts. Remove the skins and set aside. Remove the bones and set those aside, too. You can place those in a pot with some carrots and onions and celery for a quick stock if you’d like. And you’d better, because tomorrow, we’re going to make Vichyssoise (another of Mikaela’s requests) and you’ll need a good bone stock for that. But now, back to that chicken. Slice it into half-inch pieces and slice those in third the long way and quarters the short way. Or just cut it up any way you like, so long as there’s chunks that can be recognized as chicken. No shredding here. Who knows what you’re eating then?

Place all that chicken in your big bowl. Now, here’s where you can make some choices. The Farmer’s Wife makes Chicken Salad two different ways. Both are good, so it’s more of a what-you’re-in-the-mood-for-kind-of-thing.

Way One: Take one cup seedless red grapes and cut them in slices, about three to a grape. Sometimes, the Farmer’s Wife substitutes dried cherries for these. It just depends how good the grapes look. No brown, limp looking grape makes it into her Chicken Salad, let me tell you. Placed the sliced grapes (or cherries) in the bowl with the chicken. Next, take three quarters cup pecans and chop coarsely. Those get put in the bowl with the chicken and grapes. Add the Dressing and stir (recipe following). Keep in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. This will keep for three days, but trust me, it won’t last that long.

Way Two: Take two apples of the Gala variety; (or any other kind you prefer, although Gala really are the best in every regard)peel and coarsely chop. Next, take two stalks of celery and chop, also coarsely. You want a bit of crunch there. Now, I know stalks come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, as do apples, so let’s say about three quarters cups each. Add the apples and celery to the bowl, as well as three quarters cup chopped walnuts. Add the Dressing and stir. And the same goes for this kind as far as the keeping and the wanting. But be warned: once you make either of these Chicken Salads, people will be having you make it All. The. Time.

Dressing: The dressing is the same for both, and really, it’s what makes this Chicken Salad. And it couldn’t be any easier to make. Just take three quarters cup mayonnaise and add to it three quarters cup honey—the Farmer’s Wife prefers honey of the raw variety. Add to that a half teaspoon of salt, one of black pepper, and a quarter of cayenne powder. That’s it. Stir away until smooth.

There. Now that I’ve done and given away her secret recipe, the Farmer’s Wife can have a bit of peace. She will simply say when asked to make it (again), “Oh. Haven’t you heard? The recipe’s available online.”

And you can feel free to do the same.