To cut or to shred?

About a month ago the whole family got together at my cousin's cabin up in Maine for a good old fashioned eating and drinking kind of Sunday. As always the conversation turned to food because that's what we do, we always talk about food whether it's sharing recipes or reminiscing about a dish, it is always a topic we discuss. We started talking about chicken salad and how my mom made it vs how my aunt made it and of course how grandma made it.

The chicken salad in question is so simple in ingredients, there are only 4, chicken, celery, black pepper and mayo, but the prep of the chicken is what sparked the discussion. We all agreed that the chicken used to make the soup (family recipe can be found on my blog), makes the best chicken salad, but where there was debate was how to break apart the chicken. My aunt uses the shredding approach and my mom uses the kitchen scissors to cut the chicken into tiny pieces as well as the celery. The table was divided and I thought to myself, if ain't broke, don't fix it, so if both ways work, do what feels most comfortable. For me I'm going to stick to using the scissors because thats how I was taught, but you can feel free to shred as you like. Here is our recipe for simple chicken salad.

Chicken Salad makes 4 sandwiches
1 whole bone in chicken breast, skin on and poached
3 stalks of celery
Good pinch of course black pepper
1/4 cup mayo
8 slices of Scali bread

Take the skin off the chicken breast and remove from the bone. Using sharp kitchen shears, make strips of chicken and then cut into small dice, placing into a large bowl. Do this until all the chicken is cut. Do the same with the celery so that is a small as the chicken. Add the pepper and mayo, then mix the salald until well combined. Build your sandwiches, cut them half and serve with pickles. Enjoy!