If you are American, you've in all likelihood been eating chicken salad sandwiches all your life. And maybe you make your own chicken salad, as I do. Chicken salad is not something I've ever eaten or even seen in France. There are French salads, including salade piémontaise (potato salad), made in a similar way.
However, I did find one recipe on the internet — it's here, and it looks and sounds like the American classic. The chicken salad I made, using some of the breast meat (diced) from the capon I roasted in the oven last week, was made with Maille mayonnaise lightened up by the addition of some plain yogurt and a little bit of Savora, a spicy French condiment that is a flavored mustard.
Other ingredients are chopped shallot, celery (céleri-branches), roasted red peppers, hard-boiled eggs, and pickles (cornichons aigres-doux), along with some dried cranberries. You can use capers or classic French cornichons instead of the pickles we used. Another good addition would be some chopped, toasted walnut meats, but we didn't put any in this time.
We ate our chicken salad on slices of lightly toasted bread as what we call "open-face sandwiches" (tartines in French). They're something you eat with a knife and fork.
Cornichons aigres-doux are very similar to American dill pickles. The supermarkets have their own brands, and one widely available name brand is Kühne, which is German.
The expression aigre-doux means "bitter sweet" or sweet-and-sour. I don't remember seeing such pickles in France until maybe 10 years ago.
Savora was originally a British product, but the brand "became French" — according to Wikipédia.fr — in 1964. It's produced by Amora, a French mustard company.
Every time I read one of your recipes, or descriptions of something you've cooked, I want to try to make it, too....Probably because I usually read these posts when I haven't eaten for hours! I may go see if I can buy that savonra on amazon...Although my daughter is always teasing me that I have too many condiments...Especially mustard.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t made chicken salad for a long time, thanks for the reminder. And using only one slice of bread helps during this ‘less exercise’ time.
ReplyDeleteHow is chm?
ReplyDeleteNo news from CHM for a day or two now.
DeleteRehab has begun without much success yet, mostly due to a thirty-year-old lacunar stroke that has hampered my ability to lift ma right leg which is the one that was hurt. I hope with the help of therapists to overcome this! Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteWe're cheering for you, chm!
DeleteJudy
David DeSousa m'a écrit me demandant si j'avais de tes nouvelles. Bon courage, C-H.
DeleteThe whole joint and bone replacement thing today is light years ahead of what it used to be. And you've got a crowd of people rooting for you.
DeleteKen, I just love chicken salad-- but, oddly, never had it once, until I was probably in my 30s or 40s! Funny thing is that my mom loved chicken salad, too, yet she never made it, or bought it, when I was growing up. We had lots of tuna salad, though :)
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm glad to learn about the cornichon version that is like a dill pickle. I've always told my students that cornichons were little sweet pickles, and that I didn't know what they said for dills. Ha! They didn't have 'em!
Judy, I think you meant to say that the standard French cornichons are sour pickles, very vinegary, not sweet pickles. I've never seen sweet pickles here.
DeleteThere is nothing like a great kosher dill pickle. We had several delis here that made their own versions (Nate n' Al's). Low cal so you can snack on them all day.
ReplyDeleteYour chicken salad looks great. I like them when there's a bit of mustard in there. My mother liked to throw apple slices in hers. Savora seems to be something we can order from Amazon which I'll try after this ends.
That saltine lemon pie they make in NC sounds pretty good. Southern comfort food.
Ken, oh, no, I didn't mean to say that LOL! I guess I just don't know my French pickles! What I was thinking, was that every time I was served pâté with little pickles, they were always sweet pickles, and referred to by whoever I was with, as cornichons. I guess I then just assumed that the jars in the store that were labeled cornichons were sweet pickles!
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