CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH with homemade potato buns | Perfect Chicken Salad Recipe

I hadn't really thought about this until recently but there was a point in my life where it was my job I got paid money to figure out chicken salad as a restaurant chef some of my favorite work was always to tackle a classic dish I liked really breaking him down and trying to find out what was most craveable about him at a fundamental level so when I got around a chicken salad at uni loafers when we wanted to put it on the menu it was interesting because I had never had chicken salad that I had liked up into that point the chicken salad in my youth was dry and didn't have any acid it was too sweet and most of the time I was just chicken meat sitting in mayonnaise so the challenge was simple can we make chicken salad as just as delicious and just as craveable as anything else on this restaurant menu and through a lot of tasting and a lot of testing I think we finally got there this is what I would consider the perfect chicken salad we've really blown up and elaborated all the things that are really great about chicken salad and eliminated everything else that I think make it suck usually so in this video I'm going to talk about all the moves we made to get there in the restaurant but I'm also gonna show you how to make this into a perfect chicken salad sandwich with a little ditty I've been working on for years a little squishy potato bun that's super easy to make incredibly tender and really flavorful so clearly we've got a lot to cover step 1 great chicken salad always starts with great chicken so grab a three and a half to 4 pound chicken and seasoned it liberally with salt get the breasts get the back throw it in the cavity and then we're gonna throw it in the fridge overnight we can dry brine this for as few as 12 hours and as many as 24 this process is gonna season and tenderize this chickens meat tomorrow we're gonna cook it slowly so we can get that super moist tender bird that's really easy to shred it as a ton of chicken flavor so the next day we're gonna pull the chicken out of the fridge and we're gonna put it into a 275 degree preheated oven we're gonna slow roast this for two and a half hours so set a timer so a lot of chicken salad recipes call for poaching your chicken or worse yet just dry roasting chicken breast with no skin usually these cooking methods are too harsh and we end up with dry meat so today we're going with a whole bird we're leaving the skin on and we're cooking it really gently all the chicken salad I've had with just breast meat ends up being a little bit dry and a little bit bland we're using the chicken thighs to kind of lube up this chicken salad make it a little bit more fatty a little bit more delicious and it also just brings more chicken flavor to the table once we got that chicken roasting we're gonna get our perfect chicken salad vehicle started to get this bun started we're gonna need 600 grams for 3 and 3/4 cup AP flour 210 grams or 1 and a half cups warm water 1 egg preferably at room temperature 100 grams or 2 tablespoons boiled and cooled potato 30 grams or 4 tablespoons of butter 6 grams or 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of yeast 10 grams or 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 70 grams or 3 tablespoons sugar first we'll combine our water sugar and yeast we're gonna let that stand for 5 to 10 minutes to get the yeast active this is usually not a necessary step but I've heard of a lot of stories of dead yeast from the pantry lately so we're gonna be better safe than sorry once we've got a few bubbles we're gonna add our eggs our cooked potato and as you can see I don't even bother peeling the potato and we add our butter on medium-low speed in your mixer we're gonna start combining the wet and then we're gonna shake in our flour and salt we're gonna mix on medium speed for 4 to 5 minutes until the dough starts to clear the bowl we're gonna throw it on high for the last 20 to 30 seconds just to finish it off to build a little bit more structure we're gonna set it aside into a mixing bowl wrap it with plastic and then we're gonna ferment it on our counter for 2 hours 7 or 8 years ago when I was lyin dogging it in Chicago my chef challenged me to come up with a burger bun recipe for the restaurant we went through seven or eight iterations of this recipe and we finally ended up on this potato bun I've been kind of tweaking it over the years to make it squishier and more tender and easier to execute at home so I'm really happy with where it is right now it's a burger bun it's a sandwich roll but it can also be made into potato bread or holiday rolls at Thanksgiving okay so our dough is going in our chickens in the oven I'm gonna talk about another issue that we have traditionally with chicken salad bad-tasting mayonnaise and too much of it instead of using regular mayo from the store that's usually made with stale industrial seed oils we're gonna be making the union loafers basic mayo recipe it's a really simple process you get a lot of nice bright acidity from the white distilled vinegar and all you really need is an immersion blender or a regular blender we're gonna start by measuring out 20 grams of white distilled vinegar we're gonna follow that with 4 grams of salt and 1 egg yolk grab your immersion blender and start to puree the base once it's spun we're gonna slowly emulsify in our oil don't use a glass like I did here looks good on camera but it's a terrible pour use something that has a spout or something's gonna make it a little bit easier to move the oil from A to B and that's it super simple Mayo comes together and like 1 minute taste it tastes super fresh very bright it's gonna make a huge difference in this chicken salad okay so it's been 2 hours and we're gonna check our dough it should have double in size and when you poke it it should leave a nice indent we're gonna flip this dough onto a well floured surface and portion them into 12 3 ounce balls you can eyeball these at home if you don't have a scale but if at this point you don't have a scale please buy one I'm gonna link the one down below it's an invaluable kitchen tool so once we got these portion we're gonna shape them we're gonna set the dough balls on a well oiled parchment on a sheet tray and then using the palm of your hands and the tips of your fingers we're gonna go in a circle pressing down and tucking the dough underneath you'll see here it's a little hard to describe but the top of the dough should be in the palm of your hands and you're gonna use the tips of your fingers to tuck the sides of the dough underneath creating tension on top we're gonna repeat this for the other 11 balls and then we're gonna throw them on the sheet tray give them a little squish so they're wider and not so tall and then we're gonna cover with another sheet tray that I've lightly oiled so they don't stick we're gonna let these rise on our counter for about two to two-and-a-half hours okay so our chickens been cooking for two and a half hours so I'm gonna check its temp the breasts should read 165 at this point and the thigh should read 185 at this point we're gonna fully rest and cool this bird so if you wanted to cook it in the morning for some afternoon chicken salad picnic situation that works or we can cook it up to 2 days ahead once the bird is rested and fully cooled we're gonna pick all the meat off the body don't worry about shredding it just yet we're gonna chop that in just a minute oh yeah and grab the wings and have a little secret snack I usually throw the bones and drippings in a pot to make a little bit of stock at this point as well future you is gonna love you for taking this extra step it takes no time at all just leave it on the stove for three to four hours and then strain it off so the last detail on how we got to this perfect chicken salad is brightness it's something that chicken salad out of a tub just doesn't have again most commodity chicken salad is just mayonnaise and chicken maybe some dried herbs but that's usually yet I'm not saying that stuff is horrible it's still food but it's not perfect chicken salad the way we're going to address this brightness is by bringing in some lemon juice and a good amount of it to some chopped fresh herbs tarragon is a classic we're gonna use that but we're also gonna be using some parsley and the last thing is bread-and-butter pickles these are perfect because they bring balanced acidity you get a little bit of sweetness with that acid and that really helps balance out this chicken salad but you also get this kind of weird funky pickle brine flavor that just gives a little bit of mystery to the whole thing so we've got shredded chicken we're gonna make our salad for this salad you need 600 grams our five cups picked whole chicken 170 grams mayonnaise that we made earlier we're gonna reserve the last 25 grams to spread on to our bun for sandwich glue 80 grams our 1/2 cup chopped bread and butter pickle 5 grams or 2 sprigs picked tarragon 15 grams or 1/2 bunch of chopped parsley 30 grams or 1 and a half tablespoons diced and rinsed red onion 70 grams or 3 tablespoons nice grainy mustard 40 grams or the juice of one and a half lemons we're gonna get some quick knife work out of the way here first we're gonna chop the parsley and tarragon and slide that into a bowl and then we're gonna chop our bread and butter pickles roughly and then we're gonna slide those into the bowl next we're gonna grab our onion in small dice we're gonna rinse these in a strainer under cold water to take off that raw edge and it'll give us a little bit more shelf life to cut onions that are sitting in a salad like this can get sulfur e and farty and this helps us avoid that lastly we're gonna chop the chicken it's nothing crazy here the chicken will get more broken down when we go to mix and whip it by hand so just two passes with our knife to break down any large chunks of breast meat and find any bones I literally left an entire drumstick in this chicken oopsie-doopsie to mix this chicken salad we're gonna add our lemon juice mustard and mayonnaise and then we're gonna start whipping it by hand we're using our fingertips to make it like we're running our hands through freshly moost hair let your wrist go limp and then whip it back and forth it shreds the chicken just right and I've made hundreds of pounds of chicken salad and I can definitely say that if you're making it by hand this is the best method and I had a cook at Union loafers whose job it was to make the chicken salad and the potato salad every day and he whipped it just like this and it was very consistent and very good but over the course of two years of making bust hub sized batches he did wreck the muscles in his wrist and had to get surgery so if you want to use a stand mixer feel free that will definitely work I just like hand whipping it and we're not doing bust tubs at a time here I'm gonna transfer this to a more fridge appropriate bowl and I'm gonna cool it down while I bake my buttons it's been two to two-and-a-half hours to this point and our buns are nicely doubled and look like this I accidentally threw away or lost my pastry crust so I'm just gonna use my hands to get this egg wash on once we're glazed we're gonna throw these into a preheated 375 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes as with any baked good you need to keep an eye on it these times and temps are definitely just recommendations we're looking for a nice golden-brown glossy outside with a brown bottom that's why we our trade earlier it helps Brown up that bottom and brings more flavor to our Sammy once we've hit that golden brown glossy Zone we're gonna pull these out and set them aside to cool for at least 45 minutes now it's time to finally eat that perfect chicken salad you need some washed but early for some green leaf lettuce anything that's got that nice green flavor and a little bit frilly you're gonna need your sandwich glue or the extra mayonnaise we made earlier and of course your chilling salad we're gonna cut the bun in half and we're gonna toast it really well in butter you're looking to get it pretty dark and very crispy this is probably the last secret to this sandwich eating it with a good toast on it is going to drive you insane now everything is assembled let's make one [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm gonna act like this is my first bite but while setting up this shot I this entire thing almost as crunchy on the inside of Sandwich oh my god because a button kind of tastes like Wendy's actually this whole sandwich kind of tastes like a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich like kind of the flavor of like mayo sweet squishy bun that's been toasted chicken and my cold lettuce that's the flavor oh my god look at these nice little squishy buds mm-hmm that's a pleasure and a treat all to itself no it was a really sensual kiss a little bit too slow hey let's go that's better yeah so that's perfect chicken salad in my mind all of its strengths elaborated on and all of its weaknesses eliminated we made sure to use super nice mayonnaise that we made ourselves we added lots of freshness and brightness from lemon herbs pickles oh yeah then we made our own squishy paradise with this potato button in my mind this chicken salad is super craveable and it could be a trick up your sleeve for your next picnic or maybe you make it for your mom this weekend for Mother's Day brunch and those always if you got some value out of this content please hit subscribe tell a friend comment down below let us know thing this food is working for you thank you for sticking around and we'll see you next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 523,222

Keywords: chicken salad, chicken salad recipe, chicken salad sandwich, perfect chicken salad, chicken salad sandwich recipe, best chicken salad, best chicken sandwich, homemade potato buns, homemade potato bun recipe, how to make chicken salad, chicken salad from scratch, potato buns from scratch, weeds and sardines, brian lagerstrom, professional chef, cooking, recipes, home cooking, potato rolls, potato bread, Easy chicken salad

Id: 3_HPUoT3y1g

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020