This piquant, flavour-packed chicken salad is delicious in a sandwich or wrap, mixed with lettuce or scooped up with crackers or crudités. Photo / Rey Lopez, The Washington Post
Pickles are all the rage right now. This chicken salad embraces them in all their bold, crunchy, sweet-sour glory, writes Aaron Hutcherson.
“Would you like a pickle with that?” Whenever I’m asked the question while ordering a sandwich, my answer is always, certainly, unequivocally, “yes.”
Although you can pickle just about anything - beets, onions, peaches, eggs, pigs’ feet - when used as a noun, the pickles in question are most likely made from cucumbers. I love the tart, crunchy spears in their own right, but when paired with a sandwich, pickles are the perfect counterbalance to rich meats, cheese and spreads.
Pickles are generally relegated to a sandwich add-on - except in the case of an offering from Seven Brothers Gourmet in Oceanside, New York, where they’re used as a bread replacement - but I wanted to make them the star of a dish, which led me to create this chicken salad with dill pickles, cucumbers and a hefty dose of fresh dill.
I’m not alone in my predilection for pickles. Just recently, [US fast-food chain] Popeyes introduced a pickle menu for a limited time that included a sauce for wings, fried pickles and even a pickle-flavoured lemonade that my colleague Tim Carman called a “real showstopper”. A few years ago, there was also the pickle pizza that was having its moment at state fairs and pizza shops. Whether as an ingredient or flavour inspiration, pickles have worked their way into all sorts of food and drinks, including cotton candy, ice cream and corn dogs.
The 1980s and 1990s had sun-dried tomatoes. The 2000s were crazy about cupcakes. Avocados in general, but especially when placed atop toast, seemed to dominate the 2010s. Now, I wonder, have we entered the pickle period?
There is an uptick in search interest for pickles every summer, but interest overall has increased in recent years. (It peaked in 2020, but I presume that is attributable to increased interest in all things DIY during the early months of the pandemic.)
Some are deeming it the “peak pickle era”, which is buttressed by social media. On Instagram, there are 2.5 million posts with #pickles. Over on TikTok, #pickles and #pickle have more than 420,000 and 316,000 posts globally, respectively, with each increasing more than 25% in the past six months, per the company. Even Pinterest predicted the colour of the summer would be dill green.
Speaking of which: “Dill is more than just a familiar herb with a fresh, soft taste that pleases nearly every palate,” gardening specialist Adrienne Cook wrote in The Post. “Its delicate aroma is reputed to soothe and relax, and certainly there is something about dill’s scent that taps into the human sense of comfort and tranquillity.” Dill pickles, then, embody a duality of being both bold and soothing.
Whether the pickle pandemonium is a fad or not, pickles are delicious - and my chicken salad celebrates them in all their bold, sour, crunchy glory.
It’s pretty straightforward, as far as chicken salads go, with cooked chicken and mayo as the base. For this pickle-powered version, I start with classic dill pickles as the main draw and throw in cucumbers for freshness and crunch (instead of more pickles, to keep the dish from becoming overwhelmingly mouth-puckering). Dill accentuates the flavour of the pickles.
It makes for an easy dinner or lunch to take to work or school. Put it in a sandwich or wrap, mix it with lettuce to live up to its salad moniker, or scoop it up with crackers or crudités. Just don’t forget to grab a bag of dill pickle potato chips to enjoy with it.
This chicken salad is packed with zip and crunch thanks to dill pickles and fresh cucumbers. Chopped fresh dill adds grassy notes and amplifies the flavour of the pickles.
Servings: 4 (makes about 4 cups)
Total time: 15 minutes
Substitutions: Cooked chicken >> ham, cooked tuna or shrimp, or hard-boiled eggs. Dill pickles >> your choice of pickles. Mayonnaise >> plain Greek or regular yogurt. Wholegrain mustard >> any other mustard.
Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped dill pickles
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
Fine salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Sliced bread, tortillas, crackers or lettuce, for serving
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, stir together the chicken, cucumber, pickles, dill, mayonnaise and mustard until combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve right away, with bread, tortillas, crackers or lettuce, or refrigerate until needed.
Nutritional information per serving (1 cup)*: 325 calories, 23g fat, 4g saturated fat, 2g carbohydrates, 660mg sodium, 76mg cholesterol, 25g protein, 1g fibre, 1g sugar.
*This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.