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round swap chicken salad recipe
round swap chicken salad recipe
Photo by Stefanie Trepper for Spoon University
Recipes

How To Make The Viral Round Swamp Farm Chicken Salad

Spoon University Placeholder Avatar Stefanie Trepper

The Hamptons is an illustrious land of the rich and famous…and $16 chicken salad. Yes, you read that correctly. The family-owned Round Swamp Farm, located in East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Montauk, sells its now-viral chicken salad for $16 for an eight-ounce container. In jest, Bethenny Frankel coined it the “$2,000 chicken salad” while singing the salad’s praises on TikTok.  Since then, people have clamored to the quaint market to decide for themselves whether the Round Swamp Farm chicken salad is worth the hype. Well, the verdict is in, and the answer is an emphatic yes!

To be clear, the Round Swamp Farm, started by Carolyn Lester Snyder, has been a staple in the Hamptons for decades. Her family has owned the land on which the original store is located for over 250 years. At its heart, the Round Swamp Farm is a business based on family and tradition. Snyder’s family is employed at the store. As of late, the store’s name is synonymous with its delicious chicken salad, but over the years, if you asked anyone who was a regular, the store was also famous for its fresh produce, jams, jellies, pies, freshly caught local seafood, and Lisa’s baked goods. (The muffins alone are worth a trip.)

There are many schools of thought about chicken salad. Some believe it should be chunky, mixed with equally chunky celery and fruit, typically grapes or apples. Others believe chicken salad should consist of shredded chicken and some nuts. The purists may say that chicken salad should be unfussy, creamy with mayo, inclusive of a subtle celery flavor, and seasoned well. This is the camp the Round Swamp chicken salad falls into. The brilliance of it is its balance. The chicken is mixed to create a consistency similar to patè, the celery flavor is present but not overpowering, and the spices enhance the dish while letting the chicken flavor shine.  Two critical techniques will help achieve the proper consistency and flavor when recreating the Round Swamp recipe.  The first is to put the chicken, preferably a warm rotisserie chicken, in a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  This will help achieve the patè-like consistency the Round Swamp chicken salad is famous for.  Second, grate the celery with a microplane or on the smallest holes on a box grater.  This will impart the flavor of the celery without adding chunks of celery to the salad.

All in all, the Round Swamp chicken salad is worth a trip to the store. Is it pricey? Sure. But this recipe allows you to equip yourself with a version that produces a greater volume than eight ounces. It’s as close as you can get to the Hamptons classic without having to brave the Long Island Expressway, a stuffed LIRR train car, or the checkout lines at the Round Swamp Farm itself.  Perhaps it may be best to think about this recipe in a way that is not centered around price.  One that stays in line with the values of the Round Swamp Farm. Think of this copycat recipe as an homage to a family that has, since its earliest days, believed in the East End and cultivated a place that has highlighted its jewels.

Copycat Round Swamp Farm Chicken Salad
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Copycat Round Swamp Farm Chicken Salad

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time: minutesTotal time: 20 minutesServings:Variable servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place the whisk attachment on the mixer. Remove the skin from the chicken, discard it, or save it for another use. Place the white and the dark meat in the mixer bowl.  Break up the larger chunks of chicken. It will be difficult for the whisk attachment to break up large chunks.
  2. Over the mixer bowl, grate the celery with a microplane or on the smallest holes of a box grater. Finely chop the celery leaves and add them to the bowl.  If you do not have celery leaves, you can substitute ½ cup of parsley. Add the lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder to the bowl.
  3. Mix the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture is very finely combined and has a patè-like consistency. 
  4. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Notes

  • The chicken salad at the Round Swamp Farm contains a lot of mayonnaise. If you prefer chicken salad that is a bit dryer, reduce the amount of mayonnaise to 1 cup. 
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Stefanie Trepper is a freelance contributor to Spoon University in New York City, where she is a recipe tester and developer. As a culinary student, she focused on developing nutritious, budget-friendly, and adaptable recipes to accommodate various diets and food allergies. She is committed to sourcing healthy, local, and seasonal foods and is a contributor and volunteer at her local organic cooperative community garden. Stefanie studied in Provence, France, where she learned about sustainable farming and cooking practices. During her study in France, Stefanie developed relationships with local farmers and purveyors and utilized seasonal, locally sourced foods. Concurrently, she worked in a restaurant, which earned a green Michelin star for sustainability under a two Michelin-starred chef. Stefanie has previously worked as both an educator and an administrator and used food and cooking to bridge cultural connections. A graduate of Colby College, she is passionate about environmental studies and earned a B.A. in Art History. She also holds a Master's Degree from The Bank Street College of Education and an advanced leadership certificate from Harvard University.In her free time, Stefanie enjoys traveling, learning the Italian language, entertaining friends for dinner dates, and spending time with her husband and two children. She also enjoys listening to her favorite true crime podcasts and playing with her two rescued cats. Stefanie is a horror movie buff and considers Halloween (1978) one of the best horror movies of all time. A lover of New York City, Stefanie loves exploring new neighborhoods, perusing ethnic markets, and finding new dishes and cuisines to replicate at home.