The Chicken Salad Question
The question is, why can’t I make it?
A few months back, Smitten Kitchen posted a call for readers to share all the foods they are terrified to cook. I didn’t add anything to the list at the time because I couldn’t think of anything. I’m not nearly as adventurous as Deb, but I think I do alright. Then I realized lately that I have a rather expensive addiction.
Whole Foods chicken salad.
At $8.99 a pound, I’ve been racking up quite a bill with the stuff. Now that fall is here the shakes are fading and I can concentrate on all the cold weather wonders of red meat. But at the rate I was going during the hot months of 2008, I could have blown through more than $400 in a year just feeding this habit. But it is so freaking delicious that I can’t help myself.
I’ve always been a little in love with chicken salad. That and cheeseburgers are my go-to tests for diners (I cannot make a judgement call on a diner until I’ve been at least twice and sampled both a cheeseburger with mozzarella, medium rare, and a chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat toast, hold the tomato). But suddenly this summer it was all I ever wanted to eat.
I tried to make it once and failed. Miserably. Turns out I can’t poach chicken to save my life. I don’t even know if it should be poached for the salad, but that’s what Food Network told me to do. And since Adam finds the combination of meat and mayo in salad form disgusting (but not meat, then mayo in sandwich form), what was I going to do–roast a whole chicken just to make salad for myself? Do I even roast the chicken?? So many questions.
So after nearly having a meltdown in Whole Foods this evening because they were out of chicken salad, which I hadn’t had since before I got sick and was seriously jonesing for, I went back to that post on Smitten Kitchen and added my contribution to the list. I cannot make the magical stuff, and it seems like it should be the most obvious thing on Earth.
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October 15th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I have diner tests, too! BLT on rye or a tuna melt. Addicted.
My mom makes tasty chicken salad, and she just bakes the chicken with seasonings and then turns it into chicken salad however that happens. I figure you could just cook the chicken any way you wanted. Not that I’m one to ask at all!
October 17th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Dude, just get a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods. You can eat part for dinner and save just enough leftovers for you to make chicken salad for 1. I have not had the WF chick salad- what makes it so awesome? Though I am pretty Southern I can’t deal with a salad that has grapes, they’re squishy and it makes the texture weird for me. But slivered almonds are heaven.