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Chicken Sandwich with Chicken Wallpaper, Somewhere USA, 1958
“Chicken sandwich” was handwritten on this slide of a well-dressed-in-turquoise gentleman reaching into a jar of pickles. There is a chicken sandwich is right in front of him on the cluttered pea soup green vinyl draped table along with butter, ketchup, mustard, French dressing, horseradish sauce, pickled peppers and a quart of milk to wash it all down with. But who can even look at all that stuff when there are beautifully illustrated roosters, chickens and chicks printed in a repeating pattern on emerald green chicken wire wallpaper. I envy this man being able to sit surrounded by images of what he is eating before he was eating it. This is chicken coop inspired décor at its best. How appetizing!
With all this chicken salad sandwich talk, I’m getting hungry for one of course. But these days not really being a fan of chicken salad that has been sitting around in vintage coffee shop fridges, and certainly not the chicken salad you can buy in the deli section of a supermarket, I will happily concoct my own.
My recipe is inspired by the chicken salad sandwich that I devoured many times as a teenager lunching with friends at the oh-so elegant Palomares Room Restaurant at Buffums department store in Pomona, CA. Their special nutty-fruity version of the Americana lunchtime classic is quite memorable. It was served on raisin bread and it had nuts I it. I would have it for lunch every time we ditched our fifth and sixth period classes to go thrift shopping in Pomona. Lunch at Buffums was always our first stop. And yes, the thrift shopping was always a learning experience.
I will be using Miracle Whip to bind and enhance the flavor of all the chopped bits that make this sandwich so delicious. Miracle Whip is an Americana condiment of the highest order. Kraft Foods first introduced the mayonnaise wannabe at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Fair. According the legend the tangy-fatty, emulsified mystery matter is seasoned with twenty different spices. All the better to make you chicken salad sandwiches taste their best!
Fruity-Nutty Chicken Salad Sandwiches
8 chicken breasts baked the night before
1 cup finely chopped celery
I cup declumped raisins
I cup finely chopped walnuts meats
2 cups Miracle Whip
16 pieces of fresh buttered white bread (toasted or not)
Chop the breasts into small bite size pieces. (Careful not to make them to large because no one wants to choke on a chicken sandwich!) Mix in other ingredients and bind it together with Miracle Whip. (And NO the lo-cal version won’t ever do!) Salt and pepper and generously spread between two slices of bread. Press the palm of your hand down firmly over the sandwich to “glue” it together. Slice diagonally and seve with chilled long sliced curled carrot strips and your favorite pickles.
Makes 8 sandwiches
Here’s to Chicken in any form, ditching high school to thrift shop, Miracle Whip and you!
Posted Sunday, March 15th, 2009 under Slide of the Week.
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Ah Miracle Whip. The stuff of family wars, these days. We grew up with it and now some of the “kids” won’t touch the stuff and some won’t use real mayonnaise to save their lives. I won’t say where I stand on the subject, but I do thank you for the recipe. And now, if you will excuse me, I need to go make chicken salad.
Didn’t Buffums serve that sandwich open face with a side of spiced apple rings and call it “The Ladies Lunch”?
(=^D
The reception area of my dorm at Smith College had tan burlap wallpaper with red chickens on it. We always referred to it as the Rooster Room. I was there in the early 80’s and I don’t know how long the wallpaper had been up, but they gave us a makeover my senior year and each of us cut out a rooster for a souvenir. (And by the way, our downstairs restroom wallpaper had little Colonial soldiers on it)We were sad to go back for our first reunion and see how tasteful the decoration now was!
I am reminded of the Yorba Room in the Santa Ana Buffums, and the “Montecristo” sandwich….Served with red spiced apple rings.
Miracle Whip was always in our refridgerator! We loved it!
I really enjoy your weekly slides. I was starting out in the fifties BUT I would never have wallpaper. Some of these things are so gross! I was into the mid-century Danish Modern. Now it is hot. Glad no one is collecting that awful maple furniture with lamps with ruffles…or maybe they are. Dee
The Chicken Sandwich was incidental to the TANGY MIRACLE-WHIP I WHUPPED-OVER IT!”
When I was a “REALLY PO-BOY”, I used to make a meal of CATSUP STIRRED-INTO A COFFEE-CUP OF HOT WATER. Served up with complimentary Saltines by a sypathetic waitress: MY TOMATO SOUP WAS JUST LIKE THAT MADE BY LUCY IN ONE OF HER TV ADVENTURES WITH FRED & ETHEL!
I notice sandwich was on white bread. I don’t remember having much of a choice in the 50’s – white, raisen, or rye. Miracle Whip sustained us kids. We made a sandwich with just Miracle Whip and that was our snack thru the day. I don’t care so much for it now, but then it was great!!! ……….Jeanne
Mmmmmm….Miracle Whip! When we moved to Italy in the ’70s, we couldn’t find our favorite condiment anywhere, so my mom tested and tested and finally figured out the secret: Add sugar and vinegar to regular Kraft Mayonnaise – voila! Miracle Whip!