How to Make Chicken Salad Without a Recipe

I spent years thinking of foods like chicken salad and egg salad as the proverbial black sheep of lunchtime, and thus I would become a black sheep myself if I were to pull something resembling either one out of my lunchbox. These were sandwiches your grandmother ate in her nursing home -- they weren't in vogue and they smelled weird and all of these things were childhood lunchroom suicide.

But, as I grew out of the stretch pants and over-sized horse T-shirts I wore during this discerning phase, I likewise grew out of my hatred for things unabashedly slathered in mayo. The thing is: Foods unabashedly slathered in mayo are good. Really good.

And so I add chicken salad to my bland-foods-with-mayonnaise canon (see also: Sauce Gribiche, deviled eggs without a recipe, potato salad). It's the same principle (bland thing, brighteners, hella herbs, and mayo), this time applied to last night's roasted chicken.

Check out the slideshow above to learn how to make chicken salad without a recipe.

How to Roast the Perfect Chicken
Video: How to Break Down a Chicken
Two-Pea Pesto Chicken Salad

This article originally appeared on Food52: How to Make Chicken Salad Without a Recipe.