The Chicken Salad Mistake That's Ruining Your Mayonnaise

It's a tragic lunchtime scene to imagine. There you are, whipping up a delicious batch of homemade chicken salad, and you can almost taste the sandwich you'll eventually make with it. But then, you notice that the mayo has separated. The chicken salad is ruined, and you're now looking sideways at the jar of mayo, wondering if you didn't avoid a mayonnaise mistake and should throw it out, even though it's still within its sell-by date. 

Before you cast blame on an innocent condiment, or start to worry about the yogurt you added to lighten up the chicken salad, you need to understand that the fault may actually lie with your cooking process. Specifically, if you've been making your chicken salad with warm chicken — either newly roasted or fresh from your grocery store's rotisserie section — it's more likely that the heat is the real reason the mayo has separated.

This is because mayonnaise is an emulsion, which means that it's made by blending two liquids that ordinarily can't mix together; in the case of mayo, water, since it's water-based, and oil-based ingredients. Heat separates emulsions, changing the chemistry of one or both of these key ingredients. As a result, mixing mayo with hot or even warm chicken will cause it to separate and ultimately turn your chicken salad into a gloopy mess.

Now that you know to avoid making chicken salad with warm or hot chicken, you've mastered making all things mayonnaise, right? Well, not quite. Many mayo enthusiasts think that the very best experiences can only be had with homemade mayonnaise, which they find richer and more flavorful than the store-bought varieties. However, homemade mayo can be a lot more effort than many home cooks want to put in for a simple sandwich, preferring instead to choose a favorite grocery store mayonnaise brand for their egg-based emulsion needs. 

If you do go down the store-bought route, you don't need to worry about leaving it out too long either, because, contrary to popular belief, warm mayonnaise does not cause food poisoning. This actually only applies to the homemade variety, which typically contains raw eggs. If, on the other hand, you've never been a mayonnaise enthusiast, you can also use alternatives to make your chicken salad. Greek yogurt, pesto, your favorite salad dressing, or even smashed avocado all have the right texture to make a great chicken salad with no mayo. Some, like fat-free Greek yogurt, are lower in saturated fat than mayonnaise, which many people prefer for health reasons.