I know I use the phrase, “you haven’t had a recipe quite like this” pretty frequently, but this time I really, really mean it. See, this chicken salad is pretty unique. Unique enough that the secret ingredient made it go viral. Unique enough that you hear about it and think, why?!, but also, I wonder what that tastes like. So of course we had to find out, and I must say we were pretty surprised!

See, this chicken salad has a lot of the usual stuff: chicken, mayo, celery, sweet onion, relish… But it also has some unusual things. Like jalapeno relish. And Splenda?

Yes. 16 packets of Splenda.

The story goes that the New York Time’s published a feature about Nicholas Sparks, the author of The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Dear John, in their real estate section. While the main feature was his North Carolina home, the main takeaway for readers was what he was making when the newspaper walked in to interview him. The article reads:

“Earlier in the day, before a photographer and reporter arrived at his home, Mr. Sparks spent the morning at his kitchen’s granite countertop chopping two skinless, boneless rotisserie chickens, a few stalks of celery and a Vidalia onion. He then whipped together a dressing consisting of mayonnaise, dill pickle relish, jalapeño relish, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and 16 packets of Splenda.”

Naturally, the internet couldn’t see those 16 packets of Splenda and forget about it, so many, many people have tried it. It was our turn.

The results were… mixed. On one hand, the flavor of the jalapeno relish, sweet onion, mayo, and celery was really delicious! (Will definitely be adding jalapeno relish to chicken salad from now on. And maybe trying it in potato salad.) But the Splenda flavor was overwhelming in a bad way. It left your tongue coated with a chemical flavor. Even if you are a big Splenda fan, we’d at least suggest backing off on the quantity here. 16 packets is equal to 32 teaspoons of sugar, which is far too much sweetness anyway. If you subbed the Splenda for maybe a quarter cup of sugar, this would be an incredible chicken salad!