I made this four times in one week before I worked out what was bothering me about it. The pickle kept sitting on top of everything instead of going through it, so you’d get one good tangy bite and then plain chicken salad for the rest of the sandwich. Turns out the fix is brining the chicken twice, once while it poaches and once while it’s still too hot to comfortably hold. That’s ten extra minutes, and now the regular kind tastes like something’s missing.
I first got into pickle brining when I made these crispy dill pickle brined fried chicken sandwiches, and it works on the same principle here, just without the deep fryer.
Why brining it twice changes everything
Here’s the thing nobody mentions: warm chicken drinks brine. Cold chicken just sits there in it.
So when you poach the breasts in water cut with pickle juice, they season from the outside in while they cook. Then you shred the chicken while it’s still hot, splash more brine over it, and walk away. Come back twenty minutes later and it’s gone. The chicken has taken all of it.
By the time the dressing goes anywhere near it, the chicken already tastes like pickle on its own. Everything after that is just layers.
The other thing poaching sorts out is dryness. I used to make this with leftover roast chicken and it was always a bit stringy, no matter how much mayo I put in to hide it. Poached breast stays tender, and the brine holds the moisture in.
If you already went through my dill pickle pasta salad phase, consider this the next stop.
What you need, and why
For the chicken
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 3 large ones
- 1 cup dill pickle brine, straight from the jar
- 4 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 1/4 cup dill pickle brine, kept back for the warm toss
For the dressing
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp dill pickle brine
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp celery salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 3 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
For crunch
- 1 1/2 cups dill pickles, chopped small, drained and patted dry
- 2 celery ribs, finely diced, about 3/4 cup
- 1/3 cup shallot, finely diced
A few of these matter more than they look.
The sour cream. I tried it with all mayo and it went heavy and a bit dull, like the tang had been smothered. A quarter cup of sour cream fixes that. It stays creamy but the brine can still get through.
Two kinds of dill. They taste like completely different things and you want both. Dried dill tastes like the inside of the pickle jar, deep and a little musty in the way that’s exactly right here. Fresh dill is green and sharp. Use only fresh and you get herby chicken salad, which is nice but it isn’t this.
Garlic powder, not fresh. I know. But fresh garlic turns harsh against all that vinegar, and it stays harsh. Powder just blends in and behaves.
Patting the pickles dry. This is the one I’d skipped for years and it’s why my chicken salad always went watery by the second day. Chop them, spread them on a paper towel, press down, leave them five minutes while you do something else.
How to make it
1. Poach the chicken. Put the breasts in a wide pan with 1 cup brine, the water, bay leaf and peppercorns. The liquid wants to just cover them. Bring it up to a bare simmer, the kind where a bubble comes up every few seconds and that’s it, then put the lid on and give it 12 to 15 minutes depending on how thick they are. Take the pan off the heat and leave the chicken sitting in the liquid another 10 minutes.
2. Shred and soak. Lift the chicken out and shred or chop it while it’s still hot enough that you’re passing it from hand to hand. Get it in a bowl, pour that reserved 1/4 cup of brine over, toss it about. Leave it to come down to room temperature and toss it once more partway through. It will take nearly all of it.
3. Sort the shallot out. While the chicken cools, put the diced shallot in a little bowl with a spoonful of brine. Ten minutes takes the raw edge off and leaves you the sweet part.
4. Mix the dressing. Whisk the whole dressing list together in the bottom of a big bowl. Taste it now. It should be a touch too tangy on its own, because the chicken and celery are about to soften it.
5. Bring it together. Chicken, drained pickles, celery and shallot into the dressing. Fold it rather than stir it, so the chicken stays in proper pieces instead of turning to paste.
6. Chill it. An hour at the absolute minimum. Three is better. The dried dill needs that time to wake up.
Things I learned the hard way
Don’t let it boil. I did this for years without thinking about it. A proper boil tightens the proteins and squeezes the water straight out. You want the surface barely moving. If you’ve got a thermometer, pull them at 160°F and let the residual heat finish the job.
Chop the pickles smaller than feels right. You want pickle in every single forkful, not the occasional chunk. About a quarter inch.
Don’t salt it until the end, if at all. Between the brine, the pickles and the celery salt there’s plenty in there already. Taste it after it’s chilled and decide then.
Keep the poaching liquid. Strain it into a jar and it’ll sit happily in the fridge for a few days. It makes a good base for potato soup, and it’s excellent for brining chicken thighs before you roast them.
Ways to change it
Spicy. Swap half the pickles for chopped pickled jalapeños and put 1/4 tsp cayenne in the dressing.
Crunchy top. Fold in 1/2 cup crushed kettle chips right before it goes on the table. Not a minute earlier, they go soft fast.
Bacon ranch. Four slices of crisp crumbled bacon, and swap the dried dill for 1 tbsp ranch seasoning.
Lighter. Half the mayo replaced with plain Greek yogurt. It comes out tangier, so pull the brine in the dressing back to 1 tbsp.
With egg. Three chopped hard boiled eggs folded through. This one is very good in a sandwich.
How I like to eat it
On soft white bread with a lettuce leaf, which I think is the correct answer. In a croissant when there are people coming. Spooned into romaine or endive leaves when I’m being sensible. On a plate with crackers and extra pickle spears as part of a spread. Stuffed into a hollowed out tomato in August.
It’s also one of the better make-ahead lunches, because the drained pickles mean it holds its texture instead of collapsing by Wednesday.
For a bigger spread, put it out with creamy dill pickle dip and a bowl of chips and let people build their own plates. It’s also on my list of lunch sandwiches worth making.
Keeping it
Four days, covered, in the fridge. It’s at its best around day two.
Don’t freeze it. The mayonnaise splits on the way back out and the celery goes stringy.
If it looks a bit loose after a day, that’s normal, give it a stir and it comes back. If it’s properly watery, the pickles went in too wet.
Questions people ask me
Can I use rotisserie chicken? You can, and it’s a decent shortcut, but you’re giving up the first brine. Make up for it by tossing the shredded meat with 1/3 cup brine instead of 1/4, and give it a full 20 minutes. Warm it through slightly first if it’s come out of the fridge.
Which pickles? Refrigerated kosher dill spears. The texture is better and the brine is livelier. Claussen if you want the easy supermarket answer. Stay away from sweet or bread and butter pickles, they argue with the dressing.
Can I make it the day before? Yes, and I’d rather you did. Hold the fresh dill back and stir it through an hour before serving so it stays green.
My chicken came out dry. The water was too hot. A bare simmer looks almost still, which feels wrong the first few times. Also check how thick your breasts are, anything over an inch and a half is worth butterflying.
Dairy free? Swap the sour cream for another 1/4 cup mayo plus 1 tsp lemon juice.
If you’re going through a pickle phase, I have more pickle recipes here and I am not planning on stopping.
Double-Brined Dill Pickle Chicken Salad, Crazy Creamy and Seriously Tangy
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Ingredients
Method
- 1. Poach the chicken. Put the breasts in a wide pan with 1 cup brine, the water, bay leaf and peppercorns. The liquid wants to just cover them. Bring it up to a bare simmer, the kind where a bubble comes up every few seconds and that’s it, then put the lid on and give it 12 to 15 minutes depending on how thick they are. Take the pan off the heat and leave the chicken sitting in the liquid another 10 minutes.
- 2. Shred and soak. Lift the chicken out and shred or chop it while it’s still hot enough that you’re passing it from hand to hand. Get it in a bowl, pour that reserved 1/4 cup of brine over, toss it about. Leave it to come down to room temperature and toss it once more partway through. It will take nearly all of it.
- 3. Sort the shallot out. While the chicken cools, put the diced shallot in a little bowl with a spoonful of brine. Ten minutes takes the raw edge off and leaves you the sweet part.
- 4. Mix the dressing. Whisk the whole dressing list together in the bottom of a big bowl. Taste it now. It should be a touch too tangy on its own, because the chicken and celery are about to soften it.
- 5. Bring it together. Chicken, drained pickles, celery and shallot into the dressing. Fold it rather than stir it, so the chicken stays in proper pieces instead of turning to paste.
- 6. Chill it. An hour at the absolute minimum. Three is better. The dried dill needs that time to wake up.
