Momofuku-Inspired Chicken Salad

So my least favorite part of online recipes is when people go on and on about their whole life story and take forever to get to the actual point of the article, so I will keep it short.

After buying David Chang's Momofuku book, I decided to use some of the ingredients from this incredible book to adapt the classic southern chicken salad that most of us in America are all too accustomed to. Some of the ingredients may not be familiar to many people in the United States, but I promise you have been missing out on some wonderful flavors that we tend to ignore.

A couple of the ingredients for this recipe do require David Chang's Momofuku book which can be purchased here. (Buy it, it's worth it)

Momofuku Inspired Chicken Salad

1 Whole Fully Cooked Chicken

2 Stalks of Celery (sliced thin)

A Handful of Pickled Rainbow Carrots (sliced thin) Momofuku Recipe

Kewpie Mayo (squeeze till you get your desired consistency)

1-2 tsp of Fish Sauce Vinaigrette (This is what I did, but add as much or as little as your want. I love this stuff so I will add more at the end too) Momofuku Recipe

1 tsp of Smoked Paprika

Garlic and Onion Powder to Taste

Salt and Pepper to Taste as always

Directions

So this is probably one of the easiest recipes to make ever (Really sorry if you mess this up, not trying to make ya feel bad). You can either cook a whole chicken yourself or buy a rotisserie chicken from the store for super duper cheap. Once you have your fully cooked bird, remove as much meat as you and put all that meat into a large bowl. You can toss the chicken bones, but if you are as frugal as I am, you can throw that in a pot and make some stock. Grab two forks and start shreddin' your chicken meat. Once you get to your desired bite size for the chicken, add all of your ingredients into the bowl and mix it all together. I recommend adding just a little bit of mayo at a time until you reach the consistency you want. Some people like a super mayo-heavy chicken salad and others want a dried less fatty version. The choice is yours.

Obviously, you do not necessarily need to use Kewpie mayo, but it is the best mayo, and if you didn't know that, it's because you haven't had it. It does have MSG in it, but there is literally nothing bad about Monosodium Glutamate. People often complain about it being used in Chinese food, but it is also in Doritos and no one ever brings that up. Too much of anything is bad so remember to consume everything in moderation.

For the sandwich in the photo, I used sprouts, bibb lettuce, kimchi, and whole wheat bread. Someone, please take a better photo of what you make and share it with me!

I try and make recipes for people who already have some cooking experience, which is why I leave it up to you to add your own amount of different ingredients. Recipes should be more of a general guide for how to make something rather than this end all be all of how things should be made. I like to take most recipes (outside of baking) with a large grain of salt, no pun intended. As you cook more and more you know what flavors work together, as well as how to work with what you have. Hopefully, this inspires you to make your own version of something.