Makes 6 servings
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sweet curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 lb diced chicken (see notes)
- ½ cup finely diced celery (2½ oz; 1 stalk)
- ¼ cup minced red onion (1¾ oz)
- 1 cup split seedless grapes (6 oz) (see notes)
Special equipment
- none
Method
- Make a dressing of the oils, vinegar and spices as you begin to work. Set aside.
Assemble remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the dressing and let marinate for at least 2 hours.
Notes
- If you’re using fresh chicken instead of leftover, you’ll need about a pound and a half of raw to make 1 lb of cooked. Marinate in some lemon juice and fresh ginger before grilling, baking, pan-frying or steaming.↩
While white grapes will blend seemlessly into your salad, black grapes will offer a wonderful contrast. Use whatever’s sweetest in your season; that is, avoid those bright green and hatefully sour unripe Thompsons.↩
While a quantity cookery recipe for a chicken salad with curry powder and grapes from Holden served as the germ of this recipe, we have strayed very far from his — and many other — guidelines and can call this original.
Suggestions
- This will make enough to overstuff a long loaf of Italian bread. Split the loaf lengthwise, spread some mayo on the lid, cover with thinly sliced cucumbers, fill the bottom with the chicken salad, and there’s your six sandwiches.
One tester wondered what the sandwich would be like with a slice of Swiss cheese. Hmm, the smokey taste of Swiss with the smoothness of the curry powder, the subtle mouth sting of the cayenne, the obvious sweetness of the grapes… intriguing indeed. Good question, Carl.