Waldorf Chicken Salad

Extremely tasty, a simple cold meal for a hot summer day on the deck or on a picnic. A classic recipe that you would pay through the nose for at a nice restaurant.

Waldorf salad was originally created at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel.  The original contained only apples, celery and mayonnaise. Chopped walnuts later became part of the dish. Many variations are out then but I wanted a chicken variation. I read at least 15 recipes and found only a few common themes. They all had apple, celery and nuts. Most had grapes some raisins. Mayo was present in most (not all). Some with plain yogurt and a few with sour cream. Onion of some type was present in at least half.

But the stand out characteristic was the lack of any sort of common rations of various ingredients to each other.  I will call the mayo/yogurt/sour cream wet. So the wet to chicken ratio ran from 2 tablespoons:4 cups all the way to 1 cup:2 cups a 16 fold variation. So I pick three middle of the road ones, an old CI and two from Recipezaar and combined.

Rating 9.3 for taste, texture and ease

Notes: I had a lot of leftover chicken from cooking extra for the pizza and salad from yesterday.  You can cook the chicken anyway you want but try to keep it moist. Left over rotisserie chicken or even canned or frozen precooked should be fine.
Serve very cold to bring out the crunchiness.

Tools: nothing special

Ingredients:

2 cups diced chicken
1 firm apple
1 stalk of celery
1 cup grapes
1 T lemon juice
1/2 cup chipped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion (about 1/2 medium size onion)
1/2 cup low-fat mayo
Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions:

 1) Clean, core and chop the apple. Do not peal.

 2) Clean and trim celery. Dice into relatively small pieces.

 3) Clean and half grapes.

 4) Combine apple, celery and grapes in large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and mix well to coat.

 5) Option: roast nuts over medium heat in small nonstick pan for 4-5 minutes to increase crunchiness.
6) Finely dice onion.

7) Add onion, nuts and mayo. Salt and pepper to taste (I added about 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper with my salt and pepper mills but didn't measure)
8) Mix well, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow all ingredients to cool and blend flavors.
9) Serve on plate, in a wrap or a pita, on crackers, on salad or in a sandwich.

Waldorf Chicken Salad

by DrDan at 101 Cooking For Two June-30-2010

Extremely tasty, a simple cold meal for a hot summer day on the deck or on a picnic. A classic recipe that you would pay through the nose for at a nice restaurant. Waldorf salad was originally created at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel. The original contained only apples, celery and mayonnaise. Chopped walnuts later became part of the dish. Many variations are out then but I wanted a chicken variation. I read at least 15 recipes and found only a few common themes. They all had apple, celery and nuts. Most had grapes some raisins. Mayo was present in most (not all). Some with plain yogurt and a few with sour cream. Onion of some type was present in at least half. But the stand out characteristic was the lack of any sort of common rations of various ingredients to each other. I will call the mayo/yogurt/sour cream wet. So the wet to chicken ratio ran from 2 tablespoons:4 cups all the way to 1 cup:2 cups a 16 fold variation. So I pick three middle of the road ones, an old CI and two from Recipezaar and combined.

Ingredients

• 2 cups diced chicken
• 1 firm apple
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 cup grapes
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chipped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
• 1/2 cup (about 1/2 medium size onion) red onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup low-fat mayo
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1) Clean, core and chop the apple. Do not peal. 2) Clean and trim celery. Dice into relatively small pieces.3) Clean and half grapes. 4) Combine apple, celery and grapes in large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and mix well to coat. 5) Option: roast nuts over medium heat in small nonstick pan for 4-5 minutes to increase crunchiness.6) Finely dice onion. 7) Add onion, nuts and mayo. Salt and pepper to taste (I added about 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper with my salt and pepper mills but didn't measure)8) Mix well, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow all ingredients to cool and blend flavors.9) Serve on plate, in a wrap or a pita, on crackers, on salad or in a sandwich.

Details

Prep time: 1 hour 20 mins Total time: 1 hour 20 mins Yield: 4 servings

Updated

April 27, 2011