Chicken Salad sandwich--why so hard to find a good one?

It's so easy to grab a rotisserie chicken and make you own. I'd just do that.

you've never gone out to lunch with a friend????

I do make my own. I love chicken salad and sometimes would enjoy it when out to lunch with friends. I also work full time and occasionally like to pick up a quick lunch or order out if it's a particularly busy week for me.

I made my own for the first time last week using my sous vide. It was awesome. It's amazing eating chicken breasts that aren't overcooked and dried out.

Cooked some breasts at 150* for two hours. Shredded it and seasoned to taste with mayo, salt/pepper, celery, green onion, dill, parsley, and a little lemon juice.

Some of it was just stuff I had on hand and threw it in to see how it would taste. Tasted a few times and just adjusted seasoning until I thought it tasted good.

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You've already identified why you can't find a good one. The things you cant stand in a chicken salad, others might really like. If you're particular about it then you need to make it yourself because the odds of finding a place that produces what you consider great without any trial and error are very slim.

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Nope I didn't---I said my preference but I also said I'm the usual add-ons of grapes/nuts/raisins but there's usually some unidentifiable weird flavor, and often far too much onion. It shouldn't be that difficult to find a well made chicken salad. Who knew this would be controversial? I was just asking if anyone else finds it hard to find a good chicken salad in a store or restaurant. I've never seen a chicken salad with anything beyond the ingredients I mentioned so that's why it confuses me how bad it tastes sometimes.

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Sometimes it has awful weird flavors

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So like Calvins then?

I think you're all misinterpreting my comments---apologies for not being clearer. I like my chicken salad simple, but I am open to other items being in it, such as fruits and nuts, and even a tiny bit of onion. What I'm not open to is that I often find weird and unidentifiable FLAVORS, not items in chicken salad--like a chemical-ish taste--that's why I wondered if some preservative or something. Aside from the horrible taste, I'm not averse to other ingredients with the exception of the OVERUSE of onions. So my confusion is why it TASTES so vastly different in so many places beyond any identifiable ingredients . Someone mentioned dill and I should have included that as something I like! I'm talking about how sometimes the chicken salad appears to be "the usual" but has a weird and unpleasant taste . I guess only one other poster has noticed it besides me.

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I'm always suspicious of MSG.

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I wonder that too...have never used it so I don't know what it tastes like, but I can't for the life of me why chicken salad would look as expected but have a very odd taste--and in more than one place.

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I'm always suspicious of MSG.

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MSG does not taste like "chemicals" (whatever that means). You can buy pure msg at any supermarket. Dip the tip of your little finger in it. By itself, it is just salty/savory. Not a whiff of "chemical" about it.

Not a huge fan. If I do eat it, it is homemade.
Often times cheap mayonnaise can have a funky taste to me.