Tarragon-Apple Chicken Salad

Tarragon-Apple Chicken Salad

When I look back on my girlhood, I don't remember dances or old beaus--I think about chicken salad. Even then, I was a bit obsessed with food, and my mother didn't have to cajole me to attend teas and luncheons. Nothing could compete with a buffet table: silver platters piled high with petit fours, lemon squares, pecan tassies, pastel mints, and tea sandwiches. An itty bitty chicken salad sandwich could make me swoon. At every event, I stood in line, imagining the first bite: the bread would be soft and barely there, but the salad would be cold, like touching your lips to glacial water, followed by warmth, comfort, and crunch, laced with mayonnaise and sweet bits of meat. One was never enough, but my mother was watching. Only uncouth, unladylike females reached for a second helping, and I tried to restrain myself in front of the chicken salad police. 

And each offering was different. Sometimes the ladies added chopped pecans, grapes, pickle relish, boiled eggs, tomatoes, crushed pineapple, or crunchy Chow Mein noodles. In the pre-Hippie era, kitchen experimentation was acceptable for the ladies, but it was also war.

Successful recipes were guarded, and if you managed to get a copy, you really couldn't trust it. Crafty cooks jealously guarded their secrets. My mother had been deceived many times, puzzling over the handwritten instructions. "Boil a whole, cut up chicken for an hour or two?" she'd mutter to herself. "Add a pleasing amount of brown sugar?" After many experiments, she eventually came up with a salad that met her approval. 

Before you make the salad, prepare the chicken* in seasoned water.

In a large pan, add 3 pounds chicken breasts. Add water to cover, then drop in onion slices, a celery stalk, fresh herbs, 1 peeled, whole garlic pod, 1 bay leaf, peppercorns (1 t.), and salt. Use whatever strikes your fancy--and will work with your salad. Like my mother always says, "Never miss an opportunity to add flavor." Seasoned water infuses flavor into your chicken. Use your imagination. Cook the chicken over a low flame 15-20 minutes or until done. Remove the chicken from the pan and cool, then chop.

Now it's time to make a basic mayonnaise* sauce,

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I prefer Dukes)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Whisk.

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix well.

Season your mayonnaise sauce.

1 teaspoon honey 

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar (or champagne vinegar)

2 tablespoons sour cream (if you don't like sour cream, omit and add 2 T mayonnaise)

Whisk. 

I like to add a few drops of Tabasco (but I'm from Louisiana, and it's practically a state law to keep a bottle of Tabasco on the kitchen table).

To the sauce, add your favorite solid ingredients: nuts, fruit, vegetables. Be adventurous!

Tarragon-Apple Chicken Salad

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup tart apples, chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans

2 Tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped

chopped chicken

mayonnaise sauce

Mix. Add the chopped chicken. Blend.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Chill for several hours. Serve on crusty bread, lettuce leaves, or spoon into pre-baked puff pastry cups or make crustless tea sandwiches. Serves 4-6

Tarragon adds a feminine element, complimenting the apples and honey with an exotic, aromatic hint, but at the same time it provides balance for savory ingredients. But if you aren't quite sold on tarragon, add 1/8 t. to a scoop of chicken salad. Do you like the exotic flash of anise? My mother hates it. You can always substitute another herb.