Russian Salad Sandwich: made of chicken, eggs and a pickled cucumber with a low-fat dressing. Perfect picnic or lunch meal you can make in just 10 minutes!
There was no such a thing as Russian chicken salad until I made it and called it Russian. If you want to know why I did it, I tell you. First of all, the most popular Russian salad, referred to as "Russian salad" abroad is called "Olivier salad" in Russia and is mainly associated with the New Year's eve, together with tangerins and sparkling wine. Olivier salad is usually made from boiled and diced potatoes and carrots, diced Bologna sausage and pickled cucumbers, green peas and eggs with a lot of mayonnaise. This is the version of Olivier salad that was insanely popular in the Soviet Union, and is still popular in Russia because it's easy to make and the ingredients are cheap and easy to get. Here it how it usually looks: 
That was the story of the Russian salad. One more fact: you NEVER put a salad on your bread in Russia. You normally eat it as a separate meal. I have to confess: I broke this rule. I just couldn't resist it because I had freshly baked whole grain bread straight from the oven. 
Well, I wasn't into anything fancy or high-caloric. So I made a Russian salad my way: Greek yoghurt + mustard + cream cheese instead of mayonnaise, boiled chicken breast instead of Bologna sausage, no potatoes, and a few other changes to make the salad spreadable. In the end, it was a totally different dish but as I started from the idea of Russian salad (now you know how it's called), 
How to Make Russian Chicken Salad
The recipe of my Russian salad is written below. It takes just 10 minutes to prepare! I made it for dinner but it would also be a great breakfast or picnic meal. I hope you enjoy it!
Russian Chicken Salad: Olivier my way
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast, boiled
- 2 eggs, hard boiled
- 1 medium-sized pickled cucumber
- 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
- 1 tablespoon cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- salt
- black pepper
- 5-10 slices of whole grain bread, or any other bread
- optional: caviar, eggs, cherry tomatoes
Instructions
- Finely dice your boiled chicken breast, eggs and pickled cucumber. Combine them in a bowl with chopped parsley.
- To make the dressing, mix Greek yoghurt, cream cheese and mustard.
- Add the dressing to the salad and mix it well. Season with a bit of salt and black pepper.
- Spread the salad over 5 slices (or more) of whole grain bread or any other bread of your choice.
- Optional: cover with the remaining bread slices or decorate with caviar, halved cherry tomatoes or sliced eggs.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Have you tried Russian salad before? What is it like in your country? Drop me a line 🙂 Greetings, Elena
afra says
Very simple and tasty. I poached the chicken in chicken stock with a little white wine, bayleaf and pepper corns. I discoverd at the last moment I had no parsley but I did have dill which worked wonderfully. This recipe is a keeper. Thank you!
Elena Szeliga says
Thank you for your feedback!
StanFL says
Thanks for the recipe. Yours is the only one I have found that showed how to incorporate whole grains, as opposed to flour, in a bread recipe. If it turns out well, I will be able to use this method with other grains. Hopefully, I can vary the soaking time to vary the crunchiness of the grains.
Karen says
Please share the bread recipe. Thank you.
Elena Szeliga says
Hi Karen, you can try this one: Whole Grain Spelt Bread. Hope it helps!
Carmen Linero says
FYI Olivier died in Moscow in 1883
Elena Szeliga says
My bad, I meant to write Olivier's family. Thanks for pointing that out!