On a Venezuelan Christmas Eve plate there is always something cold next to the hot food, and it is this: shredded hen, small cubes of potato and carrot, peas and a little green apple, folded into mayonnaise. Ensalada de gallina (en-sah-LAH-dah deh gah-YEE-nah) means hen salad, and if you grew up with American potato salad or a British Russian salad, you are most of the way there. The two things that make or break it are not in the ingredient list. One is a potato cube that stays a cube. The other is temperature, both before the mayonnaise goes in and after the bowl lands on a holiday buffet.
What is Venezuelan chicken salad, and is it worth making?
How do you make Venezuelan chicken salad? Simmer a stewing hen for 1 hour 45 minutes with onion, garlic and salt, then shred it finely. Meanwhile, cook ⅝-inch (1.5 cm) potato cubes and smaller carrot cubes from cold water with a splash of vinegar for 8 to 10 minutes, adding peas at the end, and chill everything. Fold the cold meat and vegetables into mayonnaise with mustard, lemon and onion, and add green apple last. 200 minutes for 8 servings.
It is the side that sits next to Venezuelan hallacas, sliced Venezuelan pernil, the slow-roasted pork leg, and a slice of Venezuelan ham bread on December 24 and 31. It cuts through a plate of corn dough, pork and sweet bread, and it is the easiest of the four to make.
Worth it if you’re cooking a Venezuelan Christmas dinner, feeding a crowd from a cold buffet, or want a potato salad with a lot more protein than usual. Doubling or tripling it changes nothing but the size of your pots.
Skip it if it’s going to sit outside in the heat with no fridge or ice nearby. A mayonnaise salad with chicken has 1 hour on the table once it’s above 90°F (32°C).
Time and effort. 200 minutes on the clock, about 65 of them hands-on, with a hen. About 135 minutes with a whole chicken. Difficulty: easy; dicing 1.1 kg (2½ lb) of vegetables evenly is the longest job.
Hen or chicken, and where to find a stewing hen in the US and UK
A stewing hen is an older laying bird. It needs a long simmer to go tender, it gives less meat, and it tastes more of chicken than a supermarket broiler ever will. The Venezuelan name keeps the hen, but plenty of home cooks make it with chicken now and still call it ensalada de gallina. Both are right; they just taste different.
By the USDA SR Legacy figures, 1 lb (454 g) of stewing hen yields 4.8 oz (137 g) of cooked meat, a 30 % yield, against 5.5 oz (157 g) for a broiler. Hen meat is richer, 237 kcal per 3.5 oz (100 g) against 177, so the chicken version comes out about 40 kcal lighter per serving.
Where to buy a hen. In the US look for stewing hen, fowl or soup chicken, usually frozen, at Latin, Asian and kosher butchers. In the UK it’s sold as boiling fowl at butchers and some farm shops. Thaw it in the fridge: the USDA allows about 1 day for every 5 lb (2.3 kg), so a 4 lb hen goes in the fridge the day before.
The rotisserie shortcut. A store-bought rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded cold, saves the whole simmering stage. The meat is saltier, so cut the salt in the dressing; you lose the broth.
Ingredients, with US and UK swaps
Exact amounts are in the recipe card. This is what to buy and what each swap changes.
| What the recipe needs | US | UK | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm potato | red potatoes, Yukon Gold | Charlotte, Maris Peer, any salad potato | nothing |
| Not a floury potato | avoid russet | avoid Maris Piper, King Edward | floury cubes crumble into mash |
| Petit pois | frozen petite peas | frozen petits pois or garden peas | canned peas turn soft and grey |
| Green apple | Granny Smith | Granny Smith, Bramley too sour | red apples are sweeter and disappear |
| Mayonnaise | any full-fat jar | any full-fat jar | low-fat versions weep water |
| Hen | stewing hen, fowl | boiling fowl | whole chicken, 40 min instead of 105 |
Homemade mayonnaise? The FDA lists homemade mayonnaise made with raw egg among foods pregnant women should avoid, and notes that commercial mayonnaise is made with pasteurized eggs and is safe. If you want to make your own, use pasteurized shell eggs, which US stores keep in the refrigerated egg section. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency considers British Lion eggs safe to eat raw. My ratio is 2 yolks, 220 ml (scant 1 cup) neutral oil, 1 tbsp lemon and 1 tsp mustard, about 270 g, which is exactly enough here. I make it the day I mix the salad.
Allergens. Egg (mayonnaise) and mustard. For an egg-free table, vegan mayonnaise works with little change in flavor.
How to cook the potatoes so the cubes hold
8 to 10 minutes from the boil, starting in cold water, with 1 tablespoon of vinegar. That’s the whole technique, and each part has a reason.
- Even ⅝-inch (1.5 cm) cubes. Mixed sizes mean the small ones collapse while the large ones are still raw in the center.
- Cold water start. Potatoes dropped into boiling water overcook outside before the middle is done; from cold, the heat moves in evenly.
- Vinegar. Acid slows the softening of the pectin that holds the potato cells together, so the edges stay sharp.
- Test at 8 minutes. A knife should meet slight resistance in the center. If it slides in like butter, it’s past salad stage. Drain at once.
Carrots go in the same pot cut smaller, ⅜ inch (1 cm), because they’re harder; that way both finish together. If you have time, boiling whole unpeeled potatoes for about 25 minutes and dicing them cold gives even firmer cubes.
Why everything goes in cold
Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil and yolk, and heat breaks it: warm potatoes make it split and turn oily. Warm potato is also soft and absorbent, so stirring crushes it into paste. And a deep bowl of warm salad takes hours to chill in the fridge, sitting all that time between 40°F and 140°F (4 and 60°C), the range the USDA FSIS calls the danger zone. Spread in a single layer on a sheet pan, vegetables and meat are cold in under an hour.
Make-ahead plan for Christmas Eve
Cook the day before Christmas Eve and mix on the day itself. Mixed the night before, the potatoes leak water into the dressing and the apple browns; kept apart, every component holds a day without any loss.
On the 24th, the mixing takes 15 minutes. Do it in the early evening, a couple of hours ahead, so the salad is properly cold when it goes out.
Holiday buffet safety, the 2-hour rule
The USDA FSIS limit for perishable food is 2 hours out of the fridge, or 1 hour when it’s above 90°F (32°C), which covers a summer barbecue and, in Venezuela or on the Colombian coast, plenty of Christmas dinners. The mayonnaise is not the weak point; the cooked chicken and potato sitting warm are.
What I do: I serve the salad in a bowl nested in a larger bowl of ice, put out half at a time and refill from the fridge. Anything that has been out longer than 2 hours goes in the bin, not back in the fridge.
Scaling for 8 or 20
The recipe card serves 8 generous portions of about 10 oz (285 g). On a Christmas plate with hallacas, pernil and ham bread, I plan about 5 oz (140 g) per person, so one batch covers a dozen or more plates as a side.
| Ingredient | For 8 | For 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Stewing hen (or whole chicken) | 1 × 1.8 kg / 4 lb (or 1 × 1.55 kg / 3.4 lb) | 3 × 1.5 kg / 3.3 lb (or 2 × 2 kg / 4.4 lb) |
| Shredded cooked meat | 540 g (1¼ lb) | 1.35 kg (3 lb) |
| Waxy potatoes | 800 g (1¾ lb) | 2 kg (4.4 lb) |
| Carrots | 300 g (10½ oz) | 750 g (1⅔ lb) |
| Frozen peas | 200 g (7 oz) | 500 g (1.1 lb) |
| Green apple | 150 g (5 oz) | 375 g (13 oz), 2 medium |
| Mayonnaise | 250 g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) | 625 g (2¾ cups) |
| Mustard | 1 tbsp | 2½ tbsp |
Variations worth knowing
- With apple → the recipe as written, 150 g (5 oz) of green apple, added last.
- Pink, with beets → 250 g (9 oz) cooked beets in ⅜-inch cubes, folded in at the end. Everything turns pink and picks up an earthy sweetness; about 14 kcal more per serving. Cook the beets separately.
- Lighter, with Greek yogurt → half mayonnaise, half plain nonfat Greek yogurt, 125 g (½ cup) each. It drops from 505 to about 408 kcal and from 32 to 20 g of fat per serving, and tastes sharper. With chicken instead of hen, about 368 kcal.
- Pressure cooker → hen for 35 minutes at pressure, then carry on as written.
What it costs in the US
With BLS average prices for August 2026, the chicken for 8 servings costs about $6.88 (a whole bird at $2.01/lb) and the potatoes $2.15. Boneless breast for the same amount of cooked meat comes to $6.40, so the whole bird is barely more and leaves you a pot of broth.
Carrots, peas, apples and jarred mayonnaise aren’t in the BLS average price series, so they’re not in these numbers. Stewing hens aren’t tracked either; in my experience they cost more per pound than a broiler and yield less meat.
What to serve it with
On Christmas Eve it goes on the plate with an opened hallaca, a few slices of pernil and the ham bread, about 5 oz (140 g) per person. Venezuelan quesillo, the caramel flan, is the dessert, often next to a Venezuelan black cake baked weeks ahead, and ponche crema, Venezuela’s rum eggnog, goes round cold for the toast. The 4 cups (1 liter) or so of hen broth left in the pot makes a Colombian sancocho on the 25th, or freeze it.
Storing leftovers
Fridge: 3 to 4 days at 40°F (4°C) or below, per the USDA FSIS cold storage chart for chicken salads. I count from the day the hen was cooked, not the day it was mixed. Freezer: no. The chart says these salads don’t freeze well; the mayonnaise splits and the potatoes go watery. The shredded meat alone freezes for 2 to 6 months, and so does the broth. It’s served cold, so there is nothing to reheat: stir gently, drain any liquid and add a spoonful of mayonnaise.
FAQ
Is Venezuelan chicken salad made with chicken or hen? Traditionally a stewing hen, simmered for 1¾ hours, with about 4.8 oz of meat per pound bought. Many cooks now use a whole chicken, done in well under an hour with a little more meat per pound, and the dish keeps its name.
How long do you boil potatoes for potato salad cubes? Start ⅝-inch cubes in cold water with a spoonful of vinegar and give them under 10 minutes once it boils. Test a cube early; a knife should meet slight resistance in the center.
Can I make it the day before? Make the components the day before and keep them apart in the fridge. Fold them into the dressing on the day, a couple of hours before dinner.
How long can chicken salad sit out? 2 hours at most, or 1 hour above 90°F (32°C), according to the USDA FSIS. After that, throw it out.
Can you freeze it? No. Freeze only the shredded meat and the broth.
Is it the same as Russian salad or Olivier salad? It’s a close relative: potatoes, carrots, peas and mayonnaise are shared. The Venezuelan version is built around shredded hen and often adds green apple.
Nutrition per serving
Per serving (about 10 oz / 285 g), calculated ingredient by ingredient from USDA SR Legacy with the amounts above, using stewing hen meat, full-fat mayonnaise and apple, and leaving out the salt in the cooking water, most of which stays in the water:
- Calories: 505 kcal
- Protein: 24 g
- Carbohydrates: 30 g
- Fat: 32 g, including 6 g saturated
- Fiber: 5 g
- Sugars: 6 g
- Sodium: 462 mg
The mayonnaise supplies about 2 of every 5 calories and three-quarters of the fat. As a half-portion side on a Christmas plate, figure on about 250 kcal.
For years I cooked the hen on the morning of the 24th, squeezed in between the hallacas and everything else, and the potatoes always paid for the rush. Living in Colombia, I moved the cooking to the 23rd and the mixing to two hours before dinner, and the cubes have stayed cubes ever since. Josnaisis.