Ensalada de Pollo Yucateca

This is a Yucatecan dish. Not a generic Mexican chicken salad and not a sad American deli scoop with celery. Ensalada de pollo in Yucatán is a birthday plate, a quinceañera plate, a fiesta plate. It sits in a wide bowl on the long table next to the panuchos and the relleno negro, and the abuelas serve it onto saladitas crackers with a spoon while the niños wait their turn.

The ingredients are not negotiable. Pollo, papa, zanahoria, chícharo. Manzana verde for the cold crunch. Pasitas for the sweetness that surprises people who think Mexican food is only chile and salt. Nuez de Castilla, toasted, for the bite at the end. And the dressing: mayonesa with mostaza and naranja agria. That last one is what makes it Yucatecan. The sour orange does the work that vinegar does in other places, and it carries a perfume that lime alone cannot give you. If you cannot find naranja agria where you live, mix lime juice with a little sweet orange juice. It is the trick the señoras from Mérida send their daughters in Houston and Cancún. A compromise, not an upgrade, but it will hold the dish together.

My mother did not make this salad. She was from Jalisco and her cold dishes were different. I learned this one in a courtyard kitchen in Mérida from a señora named Doña Rosalba, who was preparing food for her granddaughter's third birthday. She would not let me write anything down until I had tasted the dressing three times and could tell her exactly when the naranja agria was right. "Cuando la mostaza ya no pelea con el limón," she said. When the mustard stops fighting the lime. That is when you stop. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one is solidly Yucateca.

Do not put lettuce in the salad. The lechuga lines the platter. Do not add celery. Celery is a Tex-Mex memory and it does not belong here. Do not use yellow mustard from a squeeze bottle. Use a mostaza Dijon style or the Maille jar your tía keeps in the back of the refrigerator. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.