Chicken Salad with Red Grapes & Chives
Hello, lovely reader! I hope that you had a peaceful weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead. We spent many hours playing outside in the garden to finish planting. There were baseball games and trucks digging through the sand; Kyle and I even managed to get out for a little date to see a movie at the theater. Altogether, it was nice to relax a bit and gear myself up for the week ahead. We are just about to summer break time, and there is so much to look forward to!
Today, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite summer lunches that I think fits so well into our Victorian Picnic theme. The chicken salad sandwich is a warm weather staple for our family! I love it because it’s one of my favorite ways to use up leftover chicken. This recipe is perfectly sweet and salty, and it has just the right amount of acidic deliciousness. You will love it!
victorian chicken salad:
The first chicken salad was, apparently, created in Rhode Island around 1863 by Liam Gray. As a local butcher, he created a salad with leftover chicken, grapes, and mayonnaise that started an incredibly popular American food tradition. Now, chicken salad is served at many delis and, generally, cafes all over the country that serve soup, salads, and sandwiches. This version of the chicken salad is not typical to the Victorian era. In fact, the couple of chicken salad recipes that I found were much more on the savory and sour side and none of them used fruit.
Two such recipes as found in the The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer (1896) used homemade French Dressing, hard boiled eggs, celery tips, capers, and pickles. It sounds more like modern potato salad!
This salad, whether savory or more sweet, makes the perfect sandwich filling for a Victorian Picnic!
the method:
Making this sandwich couldn’t be easier. Simply mix everything up in a big bowl and save it in the fridge for about 5 days. It makes a great salad if you like to meal plan; you could easily have all of your lunches ready to go for the week!
I personally prefer to serve chicken salad on a croissant with fresh lettuce, but you can enjoy this sandwich on any bread that you prefer. If you are avoiding bread, then it is lovely simply served on lettuce leaves as well!
If you are looking for more picnic lunch ideas, we just shared our May ebook, “Anne’s Delightful Desserts” on Patreon and in our online store. The ebook features 5 dessert recipes inspired by L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series as well as 19th Century popular picnic foods.
Enjoy your chicken salad, my friend!
xoxo Kayla
Chicken Salad with Red Grapes & Chives
Ingredients
- 3 cups cold cooked chicken, chopped
- 1 cup red grapes, halved or quartered
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tsp flaky sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Combine the chicken, grapes, celery, walnuts, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, chives, dill, parsley, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Mix together with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days. Serve the salad cold on fresh lettuce leaves or as a sandwich. Croissants make an excellent accompaniment to this salad!
