The Best Classic Chicken Salad Sandwich

The juiciest, most flavorful chicken salad.

Side view of chicken salad sandwich

Serious Eats / Qi Ai

Why It Works

  • Controlling the temperature of the chicken during cooking, whether sous vide, roasted, poached, or grilled, guarantees the moistest meat while maintaining food safety standards.
  • Adding aromatics to the sous-vide bag (if cooking sous vide) packs the chicken with flavor before you dress it, allowing you to use less mayonnaise in the end.
  • Homemade mayonnaise is more flavorful and lighter than store-bought mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise can disguise a wide variety of sins, but dry chicken is not one of them. You know what I'm talking about. Those deli or potluck chicken salads made with stringy leftover chicken meat and enough gloppy store-bought mayonnaise to make it palatable. Is anyone really fooled by any of that? Yeah, didn't think so.

Sous-vide often gets touted as a technique to guarantee moist and tender pan-roasted chicken, since it allows you to safely cook the chicken to a lower temperature, guaranteeing better juice retention. But the other day when I had a few chicken breasts in my precision cooker bath, a thought occurred to me: why limit sous-vide to hot applications? Doesn't cold chicken deserve to be just as juicy and flavorful as hot chicken?

A couple dozen chicken breasts and a few days of tinkering later and I had the tastiest, juiciest, most flavor-packed chicken salad I'd ever had. Here's how it works—and also how to make it even if you don't want to go the sous-vide route.

Skin and Bones

From past experience, I knew that I didn't want to cook my chicken much hotter than 150°F (66°C), after which it starts to become irretrievably dry. (For the record, so long as you are cooking sous-vide and hold the chicken at 150°F for long enough, there are no safety concerns. Check out my sous vide chicken guide for more details.)

With standard roasted, poached, or grilled chicken—all three methods that can be used for the chicken here if you don't want to cook it sous vide—it's a good idea to cook the breasts with the skin and bones attached, whether or not you intend on eating that skin in the end. That's because with traditional cooking methods, where the temperature regularly exceeds 300°F (149°C), you end up overcooking a lot of the exterior layers of the chicken. Skin and bones act as a buffer, insulating the delicate breast meat.

With sous-vide cooking, you don't expose any of the chicken to temperatures higher than its final target temperature, so I figured that it shouldn't make much difference whether or not I cooked it with the skin and bones attached. I cooked three breast halves side-by-side to confirm: one boneless and skinless, one with skin only, and one with skin and bones still attached, allowing each to come to 150°F and holding them there for identical time periods.

As far as juiciness was concerned, all three came out extremely moist. However, the chicken cooked with skin and bones was more flavorful.

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Seems like with the aid of a sealed bag, the juices extracted from the skin and bones in the chicken make a small but noticeable difference in the finished dish (and it helps that bone-in, skin-on breasts are cheaper than boneless skinless).

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Flavor? It's in the Bag

That got me thinking: typically, chicken salad is made with chicken cooked on its own that subsequently gets dressed and flavored. But what if I were to add the flavorings directly to the bag before cooking the chicken? Even if it's only a superficial layer of flavoring, it should still be an improvement.

In this case, I went with the classic chicken salad flavor combo of lemon and tarragon, adding slices of a whole lemon and large sprigs of tarragon directly to the bag. From my experience with steak, I knew that adding excess fat to the bag only serves to dilute any aromatics you add, so I left that out.

With sous-vide chicken served hot, I'll usually cook to around 145°F (63°C), a temperature which results in extremely moist and juicy meat. With the cold chicken, however, it felt almost too moist and tender, giving the chicken a texture that almost seemed raw (despite being fully cooked and safe to eat). I decided to try higher temperatures from 150°F to 160°F, a range in which the chicken is still plenty moist, but has a firmness closer to that of traditional roasted or poached chicken. Whether you cook the chicken in a precision cooker or use the hacked beer cooler method, you'll want to chill it right after cooking (which takes at least an hour, though you can hold chicken for up to four hours at temperature without any major adverse affects on texture).

Once cooked, I chilled the chicken directly in its bag in an ice bath. Chilling the chicken before removing it from the bag helps it retain more moisture, as fewer juices will leak out of the chicken when you cut it, once they've had a chance to chill and thicken a bit.

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Then, I carefully peeled off the skin and underlying membrane and removed the bones. The bones, by the way, pull right out without any need for a knife. I was a little worried that the flavorings I added to the bag wouldn't penetrate through the skin and bones, but even the underlying meat was fragrant with lemon and tarragon aroma—it must sneak its way in from around the edges.

I'm going to have to remember this technique for other cold chicken dishes in the future.

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Slicing open that 150°F chicken revealed tender, glistening flesh with a level of juiciness that you simply cannot get with any other traditional cooking method. I mean, just look at that! That said, many will prefer a slightly higher cooking temperature of 155°F for every so slightly firmer and less slippery meat, or even 160°F (for those who want chicken that most resembles a well-done bird while still retaining more juices). Ultimately, 155°F is a good middle ground that will appeal to most folks.

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I tried both shredding and dicing the chicken. While the shreds were nice, it just didn't feel like a classic chicken salad with anything but cubes of chicken.

Mayo May Not

With perfectly cooked, already flavor-packed chicken, I thought for a moment that I might be able to get away with using no mayo at all. After all, I no longer had any sins that needed covering, and in fact, a chicken salad made with a lighter vinaigrette is quite delicious in its own way (so delicious that I may even develop it into a recipe on its own), but for classic chicken salad, it just needs that dash of creaminess from mayo. I was, fortunately, able to cut back on the standard amount of mayo by quite a bit—about a quarter cup for two large chicken breasts was plenty.

One of the downsides of sous-vide cooking is that it can take considerably longer than traditional cooking methods. One of the best things is also that it can take considerably longer than traditional cooking methods, which leaves ample time for side projects like making your own mayo.

There are many things in this world that are much better from home than from the shop. Birthday cards and mayonnaise top that list. Once you've taken the plunge and discovered how fantastically easy and how infinitely better it is to make mayonnaise at home, you'll never settle for the jiggly, quivery, store-bought stuff again.

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Using just a hand blender and a jar, you can make incredible homemade mayonnaise in under two minutes, which leaves you ample time to water the lawn or perhaps reorganize the tool shed before the chicken is finished cooking and cooling.

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With the mayo made, my chicken salad was almost finished. All it needed was some aromatics. I decided to keep things fairly classic this time, adding some diced celery and red onion for crunch, parsley, chives, and tarragon for aroma (any one of the three on their own would also taste great), along with some extra Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and plenty of lemon zest to punch it up.

This is the kind of chicken salad that's so damn good you'll happily eat it straight out of the bowl (or if you're like me, with your fingers by the light of the fridge in the middle of the night).

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Okay, fine, a sandwich will work as well. Now for the real mystery: Bibb lettuce on the bottom of a chicken salad sandwich. Is it essential because it keeps the bottom bun from getting soggy with juices and mayonnaise, or should it never be there because it causes the loose chunks of chicken to slip and slide out the back and sides of the sandwich? These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.

June 03, 2015

This recipe was originally published with a suggested sous vide cooking temperature of 150°F (66°C), but after several reader comments complaining about the texture and a cross-test that agreed with those comments, the sous vide cooking temperature was raised to 155°F (68°C), which will yield slightly firmer, less slippery chilled cooked chicken; if you prefer the original lower temperature, feel free to continue using it (it is safe from a foodborne illness perspective). We also added some other suggested cooking methods for the chicken, including poaching and roasting, as well as volumes for picked and diced cooked chicken meat (in case one is using leftover chicken).

Recipe Details

The Best Classic Chicken Salad Sandwich

Prep 15 mins
Cook 60 mins
Active 20 mins
Chilling Time 15 mins
Total 90 mins
Serves 3 to 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 pounds (800g) whole bone-in, skin-on split chicken breast halves (2 to 3 breast halves)

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 2 whole lemons

  • 4 whole sprigs of tarragon plus 1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon leaves, divided

  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise, preferably homemade, plus more to taste

  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, plus more to taste

  • 1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stems

  • 1 tablespoon minced chives

  • 1/2 cup finely diced red onion (about 1/2 medium onion)

  • 1/2 cup finely diced celery (from 1 to 2 stalks)

  • 1 medium clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)

Directions

  1. If Cooking Sous-Vide (See Notes for Alternate Cooking Methods): Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Slice 1 lemon into 1/8- to 1/4-inch slices. Place chicken in zipper-lock bags or vacuum bags and add whole tarragon sprigs and lemon slices. Remove air from zipper-lock bags by closing the bags, leaving the last inch of the top un-sealed. Slowly lower into a pot of water, sealing the bag completely just before it fully submerges. If using a vacuum bag, seal according to manufacturer instructions.

    Two image collage of vacuum sealing chicken

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

  2. Preheat a sous-vide cooker to 155°F (68°C). Add chicken and cook for at least 1 hour and up to 4. Transfer to an ice bath and let chill for 15 minutes.

    Two image collage of chicken soud viding and in an ice bath

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

  3. While chicken is cooling, add 1 tablespoon juice and 1 teaspoon zest from remaining lemon to a large bowl. Add mayonnaise, mustard, minced tarragon leaves, parsley, chives, red onion, celery, and garlic and mix with a rubber spatula. Stir in additional lemon juice to taste, if desired. Keep refrigerated until chicken is ready.

    Two image collage of mixing mayo seasoning

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

  4. Remove chicken from bags and discard tarragon stems and lemon slices. Remove skin and bones from chicken and discard. Cut meat into 1/2-inch cubes and add to bowl with mayonnaise. Fold gently to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add more mayonnaise, mustard, or lemon juice to taste if desired. Serve with lettuce or in sandwiches.

    Four image collage of assembling sandwich

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

Special Equipment

Sous vide immersion circulator (if cooking sous-vide)

Notes

While sous vide produces perfectly tender and juicy chicken for this salad, there are plenty of other good options to use instead. We recommend our cold-start, low-and-slow poaching method for supremely juicy results, or you can roast or grill the breasts until they register 150°F (66°C) on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part. And, of course, leftover roast chicken works too (you'll want about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of cooked and diced chicken meat for this recipe).

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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
443 Calories
18g Fat
5g Carbs
63g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 3 to 4
Amount per serving
Calories 443
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 18g 23%
Saturated Fat 4g 18%
Cholesterol 174mg 58%
Sodium 747mg 32%
Total Carbohydrate 5g 2%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Total Sugars 2g
Protein 63g
Vitamin C 8mg 42%
Calcium 54mg 4%
Iron 2mg 14%
Potassium 638mg 14%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)