Great chicken salad is no mystery

I have a vivid memory of a classic chicken salad, made with mayonnaise and laced with tarragon at a fancy takeout shop in Washington, which sold for $7.99 a pound in 1983.

I remember watching my friend, a busy professional woman, buy it often because she had no time to make dinner when she got home.

I envied her life, and her abandon at buying what at the time I considered a very expensive food item. Would I ever be sufficiently busy and worldly to be able to justify buying expensive chicken salad? (Of course, now it sells for double that, and I know how to make it myself.)

I also remember Nancy Drew and her chicken salad. The great food writer Laurie Colwin reminded me in an essay in Home Cooking of the girl detective's penchant for eating it with homemade rolls and iced tea after chasing a thief in her red roadster.

Chicken salad was probably first made with leftovers, the shards of a Sunday roast chicken. Salads of all types got a boost in popularity in the late 1800s when women began taking food of many types to church suppers, festivals, funeral potlucks and weddings, food historian Alice Ross says.

Eventually, in the first half of the 1900s, chicken salads became popular with a higher class of ladies who wore white gloves and pearls at noon. On their plates at teatime or during bridge games, it often consisted of cubed chicken, grapes and almonds bound with a cooked dressing or mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise is a plebeian ingredient now, but in those days its usage was a way of showing off - it was French, white and fluffy, all of which conveyed daintiness and refinement.

Barbara Lauterbach, who wrote a book about chicken salad that is now out of print, says that the preponderance of chicken salad at women's gatherings resulted in a gender divide. For decades, the opposite sex considered it an unmanly dish.

But time and creativity have changed that, she says, noting that men often are "practically putting their faces" into a hot chicken salad casserole topped with potato chips that she makes.

In addition, Chinese chicken salad, which includes rice noodles and a dressing with sesame and ginger flavors, began its climb to universal popularity in the 1970s when actor Cary Grant persuaded a Hollywood restaurant owner to put it on her menu.

It is now everywhere - in many versions, of course.

Because a bowl of poached or roasted poultry is a blank canvas, it can, sometimes disastrously, result in a wide range of chicken salad concoctions.

I always remember to ask for specifics when I order, especially with curried chicken salad. Too much chutney plus too many nuts plus too much fruit and too little curry equals a sweet pile of blah.

If you want to make a memorable chicken salad, it is most important to cook the meat very gently and slowly. (You may, of course, use leftovers, but true chicken salad lovers cook meat specifically for it.) I think poaching is the best way to achieve this. Some professional chefs, in fact, cook chicken for salad sous-vide, a method of poaching at a very low temperature (at 140 to 160 degrees) in an airtight plastic bag or other container. This results in extremely tender meat.

Still, some cooks swear that the best-flavored chicken salad has grilled or roasted meat as its base. I think chicken grilled outdoors tends to be drier than either poached or supermarket rotisserie chicken (with the skin removed).

In any event, for memorable chicken salad, strive for meat that is tender, moist and flavorful even before it meets up with its dressing and other components.

Here are two methods for making about 5 cups of shredded or cubed chicken for salad:

Poached chicken breasts: Bring a quart of water or stock to a boil in a large pan with a lid. Cut each of two whole, boneless, skinless chicken breasts in two to get four half-breasts. Add the chicken to the water or stock. Turn the heat down so the water is barely simmering. Cover the pan and simmer gently for 5 to 6 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the chicken sit in the pan 6 to 8 minutes more. It is cooked when it registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Set aside until cool enough to handle.

Roasted chicken breasts: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Set 2 large bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds each) on a foil-lined pan with a rim. Brush with a little oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 160 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool to room temperature, remove skin, and continue with a favorite salad recipe.

For more chicken salad recipes, go to http://go.philly.com/food.

Classic Tarragon Chicken Salad

Makes 6 servings

5 cups shredded or cubed, cooked chicken, preferably breast meat