Published on June 27, 2025

My favorite meal between classes when I was a graduate student at the University of Mississippi was a scoop of chicken salad from a food truck near the English department building. Served with Zesta crackers and scooped onto a tender leaf of romaine like a gleaming pearl, it tasted like heaven. It was easily the highlight of just about any day I ate it.

It turns out that I simply hadn't experienced the delight of the cold plate until moving to the deep South. Upon moving to Birmingham, Alabama, I learned that this sort of chicken salad was everywhere to be found if I knew how to look for it. From Piggly Wiggly to gas station, deli to sit-down-restaurant, most quick lunch establishments (and the Southerners that lovingly and critically frequent them) take the flavor, texture, and temperature of their chicken salads extremely seriously.

So I asked Southern chefs what their tried-and-true secrets are—I knew that they would have opinions, and their answers didn't disappoint. If there's one lesson you heed, let it be to vary up the texture of your chicken, whether shredded or cubed. And while it might be controversial in some circles, always leave out the fruit and nuts.

Yes, that's right: Egg salad! The yolk and texture of tender egg whites thicken up a tangy mayo base even further, perfectly coating and complimenting the textures of shredded chicken meat.

While you won’t find chicken salad on the menu at Rêve, one of Birmingham, Alabama's newest fine dining establishments, chef/owner Jacob Stull says that staff meals often speak to the soul of comfort food. The key, sometimes, is the simplicity of properly roasted leftover rotisserie chicken:

The secret to the perfect chicken salad is as much about the ingredients as it is about the method of making it.

• Even still, many chefs would warn against adding ingredients just to add them. "Apples and dried fruit do not belong in chicken salad," says Harrison, who adds a joke only a NOLA-based chef could make, "and save the pecans for the pralines!"