Recipe Help - NY Deli Chicken Salad

Do you have the Deli's name? If so, call, email or snail mail them. Personally I would snail mail them so they can hang your letter up to view. It is worth a try.

Back to your question. There are so many recipes, Your first hurdle is mayo or salad dressing (miracle whip). Salad dressing has a bit more tang due to a bit of extra vinager. Next, do they add to the salad? Maybe nothing? Salt, yellow mustard ( just a touch people!) OR pepper (or a combination of the 3) are the most common. Salt is usually added to the chicken, then the mayo is added. The mustard is mixed in with the mayo then the chicken is added. Do they have some other chicken dish on the menu (ie, roast chicken) that they would use the left overs in the salad. A roasted chickens seasoning would add a unique flavor to the salad.

Do you have anything to go on? Any clues? From experience Monach or Kraft are the 2 most popular mayo brands in restaurants on the east coast. But you never know, miricle whip could be their secret ingrediant.

Fun fact for you British peas stranded in America, adding a bit of yellow mustard, just a few drops at a time, till it tastes right, to salad dressing (not mayo) makes salad cream?

Yeah, chicken salad is different at every deli. So many variations mayo or dressing, Mustard, Little bit of spice, I’ve even had egg chicken salad. it’s really infinite. Are there any clue avall about what you liked in it?

Me personally I prefer shredded chicken so it stays on my bagel and doesn’t pop out lol. I have like 5 chicken salad recipes if my own that I prefer.
My most basic one is:
Shredded chicken
Diced sweet onion
Diced celery
Mayo
Mustard powder
Rolled sage

what was it that made the chicken salad magic?

Smitten Kitchen is in NYC - here's one of her chicken salad recipes
maybe that will be a start?

It isn't chicken salad without tarragon & Dijon mustard IMHO. 

The chicken needs to be perfectly cooked. No amount of dressing & add ons can save dry chicken.

sugar. yup. you'd be surprised how sugar is the "secret" ingredient to many things.  i have an side item i make that MIL actually loves.  DH and my sister thinks it's the best they've ever had too.  shhhhhhhh, the secret is the bit of sugar i add to the recipe. no one would ever think it was sugar because it just enhances the taste of the other ingredients but yup, sugar.  

From time to time I prepare lunch for our retired folks group at church. Everyone loves the chicken salad.
My recipe: Purchase containers of chicken salad from Sams. Add cut up green grapes and a handful of chopped
pecans..

I was going to say Whipped Cream, aka Chantilly Cream. When we lived in Texas, I used to get a wonderful chicken salad at a little bakery/deli. Boy, I loved that stuff. When I told them I was moving and asked them about the recipe, a waitress told me a Chantilly cream that formed the basis of the salad and give it a slightly but not overly sweet taste.

Curry Chicken Salad

3 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I buy & debone a rotisserie chicken)
½ cup plain yogurt (I usually buy Simple Truth organic plain or another organic brand)
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder (I can't remember the name)
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons toasted slivered or sliced almonds (optional)....(I use chopped cashews)
(I also add sliced red grapes)

If the rotisserie chicken is large then I adjust the ingredients accordingly.
This is one of my favorites!

ETA: Tastes better refrigerated a few hours or overnight. It seems like the flavors blend better with overnight refrigeration. I love this recipe. It's my go-to for chicken salad.

The sauce may have been yogurt based. Or Miracle Whip based. Or had sour cream in it. Or sugar. Or Chantilly cream. In my experience, everyone makes it differently. I use lemon juice and Miracle Whip. It's simple, but pretty lemony, and I always get asked the recipe.

My favorite "recipe" is Ina Garten's (Barefoot Contessa) Curried Chicken Salad. And she adds a few tablespoons of Major Grey's chutney to it, which is sweet. But even this recipe will vary depending on the curry that you buy--each manufacturer/person mixes up their curry differently. My first favorite curry spice blend is from McCormick. Yup, the kind you buy in the grocery store in the glass bottle with the black top. I have 2-3 other curry spice blends, but that one is my favorite for overall appeal.

Basket!lady's Chicken Salad

1 lb chicken breasts 
2 lemons
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped celery
About 20 grapes, halved
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Rub chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cover each chicken breast with lemon slices. Bake chicken on a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes until just done.  Don't overcook or it will be dry!

In a separate bowl, combine the Miracle Whip and juice of 1/2 a lemon.  Whisk.  Add more if you want a thinner consistency to your sauce.  Sometimes the Miracle Whip will seem to curdle, but it's just fine--a little whisking should smooth it out.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Shred chicken and add celery, grapes, and pecans to it.  Add the sauce to taste and to combine the ingredients, using more if you like more sauce, less if you like less sauce.  Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take it away.

That's it!

This is what my Granma did as well. So good! Plus dark grapes cut in half, pecans, celery.

I would venture to say it is worth asking. So far, so good, check google and look at the images. That should nudge your memory. If you ask, it would be helpful to make sure this is probably the right place.


I did look up their menu. They have 3 different chicken salad sandwiches all are served with a choice of roll or hero.
Cajan chicken salad sandwich
Bbq chicken salad sandwich
Chicken salad sandwich
Now I am curious which one you had. I have never even heard of bbq chicken salad, it soulds yummy.

They also have a thai chicken on the menu, but not as salad.

I love a good mystery.

The recipe I use doesn't call for sugar but it does have honey in it...it is sonoma chicken salad, really good! It is basically a copycat recipe of a Whole Foods recipe, here is a version. littlebitsof.com/2018/02/sonoma-chicken-salad/