A good chicken salad is a wonderful way to break up the monotony in your sandwich routine. But they’re also great scooped up with crackers or even just piled on top of some greens or lettuce. But there are also soooo many different ways to make chicken salad! There are so many ways to enjoy it and so many ways to make it, and that’s why we wanted to find the very best one out there. We chose four celebrity chicken salad recipes — each with their own unique techniques and ingredients — and put them to the test.
The Contenders:
We chose Chicken Salad recipes from four different celebrities — some chefs, some not so much.
Ina Garten
Who else would you turn to for a great Chicken Salad than the Barefoot Contessa? It’s something her specialty food store became known for and just the thing you’d expect her to have a great recipe for.
Alan Jackson
He’s a country star but we don’t know if he can cook… however, his unique recipe had us very intrigued!
Martha Stewart
The other chef that immediately came to mind when we thought of Chicken Salad. Martha is just the type of person to serve up a lovely elevated lunch recipe like this.
Nicholas Sparks
Yes, the author of The Notebook. (And countless other books.) To be honest, we saw the internet go nuts over his very unique recipe and we just had to try it. (And we were a little scared to do so.)
How We Tested:
We had two chefs (Kristy and Dom) take two recipes each and make them side by side in the studio. (These are some of our favorite days at work!) We stayed true to the original recipes, not changing a thing, and then tasted them all.
The Chicken Salads:
Ina Garten
Ina’s Chicken Salad starts with freshly roasted chicken breasts that are paired with grapes, toasted pecans and walnuts, “good” mayo, sour cream, and fresh tarragon. Apart from roasting the chicken breast and toasting the nuts in the oven after, there’s no special steps to cooking this — just stir everything together.
How does it taste? It’s fragrant and herbaceous and very creamy. The grapes bring sweetness and the toasted nuts add tons of flavor (and crunch!). We do wish the nuts were chopped first to make the eating experience a little easier, but that’s an easy change to make.
Get the full recipe here: Ina Garten’s Chicken Salad Contessa.
Alan Jackson
Alan’s recipe was one of the more unique ones in terms of ingredients. He calls for pineapple juice, honey, apple cider vinegar, chicken breasts, mayo, slivered almonds, and dried cranberries. But not all of that is actually IN the salad — he has you poach the chicken in the pineapple juice, honey, and vinegar for a lengthy forty-five minutes before you shred it up and mix it with the mayo, almonds, and cranberries.
How does it taste? The flavor is nice. The pineapple definitely brings some brightness to the chicken (and a bit of a yellow hue), and the slivered almonds add some nice crunch, while the cranberries add that lovely sweet-tart flavor that only they can. However, forty-five minutes of poaching time is just too long and that chicken was too dry for the modest amount of mayo to make up for.
Get the full recipe here: Alan Jackson’s Favorite Chicken Salad.
Martha Stewart
Martha’s chicken salad looks very herby, but really that’s just thanks to one classic herb — parsley. She also calls for chicken, red onion, celery, a relatively small amount of mayonnaise (3 tablespoons), Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and a dash of hot sauce. Her instructions literally just tell you to stir everything together, chill, and serve. Easy!
How does it taste? Delicious! This really does taste classic. Even with the small amount of mayo, it was surprisingly creamy but not at all heavy, and it tasted very herbaceous even though there was only one herb involved. The addition of some fruit or a nut wouldn’t have been amiss, but the celery and red onion provided plenty of crunch.
Get the full recipe here: Martha Stewart’s Classic Chicken Salad.
Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks’ (yes, the author) chicken salad recipe took the internet by storm when it was mentioned in a New York Times real estate feature. When the reporters showed up to his home, he was entrenched in making his favorite recipe, which involved shredded rotisserie chicken, mayo, jalapeno relish, dill pickle relish, celery, a Vidalia onion, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Oh, and 16 (yes, 16) packets of Splenda.
How does it taste? We were very skeptical about this one, and with good reason. All that Splenda leaves a chemical taste in your mouth but surprisingly, the rest of the flavor of this chicken salad was outstanding. We loved the jalapeno relish, the sweet onion, and the celery together. It just didn’t need all that Splenda. (Or any of it.)
Get the full recipe here: Nicholas Sparks’ Chicken Salad
The Final Verdict:
So, who won it all?!
It’s a tie! Martha and Ina!
Dom loved Ina’s best while Kristy loved Martha’s. That being said, those both got high marks from all parties! They were wonderful chicken salads. The other two we tried could be outstanding with some simple tweaks. We learned a lot about how to make the perfect chicken salad!
See some of our other Celebrity Recipe Showdowns here:
Celebrity Chicken Salad Recipe Showdown.
Celebrity Macaroni Salad Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Brownie Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Stuffing Recipe Showdown