Chicken Salad Veronique

My friend Liz is getting married and I offered to bring sandwiches to her surprise, beach-inspired wedding shower. My first thought was to order some hoagies at the local sub shop. Then, I realized that it would probably be more cost-effective – and the sandwiches would taste better – if I made the sandwiches myself. I looked through my recipe book and found a recipe that I had wanted to try for a while: Chicken Salad Veronique from Barefoot Contessa at Home. As soon as I saw it I knew what I was going to bring to the shower: chicken salad sandwiches. And I am glad I did! People kept telling me how good the chicken salad was and, in fact, I saw several of them getting second servings. Now, the best compliment came for Julie, Liz’s friend. She told me that it was the best chicken salad that she ever had. And that is the kind of compliment that makes the time planning and cooking a dish worth it.

The recipe did not call for nuts but I added some because I thought they would add a nice crunchy texture to the salad. I made the right decision: the nuts nicely contrasted the fruity flavor from the grapes. I also decreased the amount of celery and tarragon the recipe called for because (1) I am not a big fan of celery and (2) I thought that too much tarragon would make the salad to “aromatic” and would overpower the other flavors. Below is the recipe with my edits. Enjoy!

Chicken Salad Veronique – adapted from a recipe from Barefoot Contessa at Home

Servings: four

Ingredients:

·         2 whole chicken breasts

·         Olive oil

·         Salt and ground black pepper

·         Onion powder

·         Garlic power

·         ½ cup mayonnaise

·         1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves

·         ½ cup small-diced celery

·         1 cup grapes cut in half

·         ¼ cup of chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.

2. Place the chicken breasts on pan and rub them with olive oil (approximately 1 tablespoon). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion power, and garlic powder.

3. Roast for approximately 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool. Note that you can cook the chicken one or two days before you make the chicken salad.

4. When the chicken is cool, cut the chicken into a ¾ inch dice.

5. Place the chicken in a bowl and add the mayonnaise, tarragon leaves, celery, grapes, and nuts. Add salt and pepper and toss well.