Try these 5 kickin' chicken salads - one for every plate and palate

Which came first: Chicken salad, or debates about chicken salad?

That may be impossible to answer. Chicken salad history is tougher to crack than a hard-boiled egg.

It just evolved as a way to use leftovers? No, a lot of 19th-century recipes start with cooking the chicken, making mayonnaise and adding elaborate garnishes. A dish so involved was probably made for special occasions.

It’s Southern? Well, it stayed popular in the South, where most houses weren’t air-conditioned until well into the 20th century – cold suppers were important. But summer is hot in much of the country, and examples of chicken salad from other regions abound.

In fact, when we asked author Jean Anderson of Chapel Hill to dig into her extensive cookbook collection, the earliest recipe she turned up was in an 1829 Massachusetts cookbook. “American Frugal Housewife,” written by Lydia Maria Child, suggested chicken as a substitute in a recipe for cold lobster salad.

Anderson also found two versions in the original version of “The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook,” by Fannie Farmer, which dates to 1896. Both used mayonnaise or a cream dressing and celery. One included cooked egg yolk as a garnish, and the other had diced pickle.

So much for the notion that putting eggs and pickle in chicken salad makes it Southern.

The debate persists when you consider the “rules” for making chicken salad. Some people insist you have to poach the chicken. That makes it moist, so you don’t need as much mayonnaise. But the editors at America’s Test Kitchen, which publishes Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines, say roast chicken is the only way to go. For this story, we made chicken both ways in the recipes we tested. Both had advantages. Poached chicken was moist and silky, while roasted had deeper flavor and firmer texture.

That still leaves another debate: Should chicken salad be chunky or smooth?

Anderson thinks finely minced chicken salad started when home meat grinders got popular in the early 20th century. The booklets that came with the grinders usually included a chicken salad recipe. Putting chilled, cooked chicken through a grinder makes a smooth sandwich spread that became popular at tea rooms and ladies luncheons. It’s worth rediscovering: We found that it makes a wonderful salad with a silky, fluffy texture that’s perfect on a cracker or on soft bread.

Today, though, chunkier salad is in style. It’s less work and more substantial as a dinner salad or a filling lunch.

Maybe that’s the key to the long survival of chicken salad. Like the other mayonnaise-based classics, potato salad and pimento cheese, you can make it any way you want – as long as you do it the way your mother did.

This story was originally published September 23, 2014 at 8:00 PM.