Chicken Salad

Chicken salad keeps 3–4 days refrigerated and does not freeze — the mayonnaise separates and the celery goes limp and watery.

Store it in a covered container on a cold shelf. As with any mayonnaise-bound salad, the two-hour cumulative limit applies to time out of refrigeration, and one hour above 90°F.

Cool the chicken completely before mixing. Warm chicken folded into mayonnaise creates a bowl of lukewarm, protein-rich food that then takes a long time to chill through — the most common way a home-made chicken salad gets into trouble.

Deli-counter chicken salad is a ready-to-eat refrigerated food with no cooking step before you eat it, which puts it in the Listeria risk category. Buy it cold, get it home cold, and observe its sell-by date rather than extending it.

If you are making it from a rotisserie chicken, remember the chicken's own clock started at the store — the salad does not reset it.

Chicken salad's window is set by the chicken rather than by the dressing, and it inherits every property of cooked poultry.

Cooked chicken is moist, protein-rich, low in acid, and — having been cooked — free of the competing microflora that would otherwise slow an invader down. Anything introduced afterwards grows without competition, which is why cooked chicken gets 3–4 days rather than a week.

The contamination usually comes from handling. Shredding or dicing chicken by hand transfers Staphylococcus aureus, common on human skin, into a food that will never be reheated. The toxin it produces is heat-stable in any case, so cooking would not help.

The mayonnaise, contrary to reputation, is the mildly protective ingredient: commercial mayonnaise is acidic and pasteurized, and it lowers the mixture's pH slightly.

Deli-prepared chicken salad carries an added Listeria consideration, since it is ready-to-eat, refrigerated, and Listeria grows at fridge temperature. Pregnant and immunocompromised people are generally advised to avoid deli-counter salads for this reason.

Look for a sour or off smell, liquid pooling and separating, sliminess, or any discoloration of the chicken. Discard at four days regardless of appearance.