Help to find a chicken salad recipe

[vitauta]

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....

 

[Roll_Bones]

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.

 

[Dawgluver]

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!

 

[Kayelle]

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.

 

[Oldvine]

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.

 

[creative]

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

 

[vitauta]

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.

 

[Andy M.]

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

 

[Kayelle]

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

 

[vitauta]

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

 

[Aunt Bea]

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

 

[GotGarlic]

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

 

[vitauta]

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....

 

[PrincessFiona60]

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

 

[vitauta]

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

 

[GotGarlic]

Yay!

 

[Zhizara]

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.

 

[vitauta]

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?

 

[Zhizara]

would you please share your recipe with us, zee?

That is the recipe.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

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