The Sweet Seasoning You Need For Just-Right Chicken Salad

Chicken salads can take some work and imagination to stay interesting for hungry-bellied lunchtime diners or people on the go. Whether you like your chicken salad simple with zero surprises or prefer something experimental like a curried spin on chicken salad, the trick to mastering this leafy chicken combo lies in small tweaks. The good news is, the super simple secret to an outstanding chicken salad may already be in your pantry. Working in some brown sugar might just be the delightful twist your chicken salad has been lacking all along.

Brown sugar is typically used for browning purposes, balancing out bitter or overpowering sour tastes, and tenderizing meat. Another key purpose is to enliven the umami taste, which offers a more complex, full-bodied, and savory dish that your taste buds will thank you for. In a chicken salad recipe, brown sugar sweetens the salad while allowing the dressing to keep the rich and tangy taste prominent. With a dash of lemon juice in the dressing mix, brown sugar helps tone down the acidity, which massively helps build a flavor profile that is well-rounded and far from your basic chicken salad. One or two tablespoons is usually enough to bring out the rich flavors in this go-to salad dish.

Brown sugar has been a staple ingredient in savory dishes all over the world for quite a while. Thai and Vietnamese recipes have blended brown sugar with soy sauce, garlic, spices, and peanut butter to make their classic peanut sauce for summer rolls. For an Asian-infused chicken salad, consider spooning some peanut sauce into the mix for an extra burst of sweet nuttiness. Other innovative recipes have tossed in a bit of brown sugar as an alternative sauce in the savory chicken pad see-ew recipe. Borrow some inspiration from this recipe and load up the salad with noodles, veggies, and the brown sugar sauce for a hearty and creamy chicken salad. The trick is to use just enough brown sugar not to overpower the dish with sweetness. A little goes a long way, but tasting throughout the process is the best method to keep things in balance. 

There are some main ingredients worth adding to your chicken salad that pair well with brown sugar. Green onions and celery are among the best choices for texture and mildly bitter notes. The brown sugar adds warmth and further complements the earthiness of both celery and green onions. If celery is a little bit too strong of a flavor for you, try swapping it for cucumber for a similar consistency and crunch. Cayenne pepper is another ingredient that adds more depth and kick to a salad recipe with brown sugar. Cayenne and brown sugar are used in many recipes to balance out the spicy with the sweet elements in an uncanny match made in heaven.