You need 3 cups of cooked chicken, a small pile of minced celery and onion, about 1 cup each, a small squeeze of lemon juice (watch out for the seeds), salt and pepper, and mayo. Also beefsteak or other large tomatoes, not Romas. Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and put them into a medium bowl. Add the celery and onion. Sometimes I also add an equal amount of minced green or red sweet pepper or roasted red pepper. Take a lemon half and give it a squeeze into the chicken mixture. Add mayo, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the salad holds together but isn’t gloppy. You might need as much as a cup of mayo. When well blended, prepare your tomatoes. Core and seed the tomatoes, leaving the outer shell intact. Stuff the tomatoes with the chicken salad. Eat with club crackers or Ritz. Divine. Refrigerate any leftovers immediately because, you know, mayo-based salads have to be kept refrigerated.
What if you don’t have cooked chicken? You can poach chicken parts, like chicken breasts or thighs, in chicken stock that you’ve seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme. Let them cool, remove the skin if present, then cut the chicken up and proceed.
I hear that people put bacon or other inappropriate things in their chicken salad. This is the recipe I grew up with. I tried to take my own picture but the hordes got to them before I could get my phone.
Follow this with a cool lemon dessert, like individual lemon meringue tarts.