Liven Up Your Chicken Salad With One Powerhouse Ingredient

There's plenty of room for horsing around when you're making chicken salad. The beauty of this dish (besides the fact that it's super simple to whip up and requires hardly any heat) is that it's incredibly easy to customize. Among our favorite ways to boost the flavor of chicken salad, we love incorporating salty meats, swicy (sweet and spicy) chutney, and chopped fresh herbs. And yet, sometimes you just want something a little more pungent.

When mustard alone just isn't doing it for you, reach for horseradish instead. Horseradish normally isn't for the faint of heart, as its sharp flavor is unabashedly potent (if only for a short time). It's often served with proteins like braised beef or steak so that the meat can dilute it and you only get a tinge of its spice in each bite — and that's exactly how it can work in your chicken salad as well. When you stir in the right amount, you'll be able to balance out the creamier, milder aspects of this dish with a strong (but not too strong) punch of flavor.

For the easiest addition possible, opt for prepared horseradish. Unlike the raw version, which is essentially just the fresh root that you'll have to grate yourself, prepared horseradish is what you most likely think of when you think of the vegetable: the stuff that comes in jars. It's pre-shredded, and its potent zingy flavor may be diluted down a little with ingredients like vinegar or salt. This makes it way easier to incorporate into your chicken salad, as all you need to do is plop a few spoonfuls in your mixture and stir. Aim for anywhere between 1 ½ to 4 tablespoons of horseradish for every 2 to 4 cups of shredded chicken, depending on how strong you want this spicy flavor to be.

As to what pairs well with your new ingredient, you won't need any more potent sharpness, but you can balance it out with sweet components like canned fruit cocktail, cranberries (like we include in our cranberry and pecan chicken salad), sliced grapes, apples (like in our recipe with apples and pecans), or strawberries. Otherwise, amp up the mild creamy flavors to counteract the added spice. These can come in the form of mayo, sour cream, Greek yogurt, or the fruit in our easy avocado chicken salad.