Tarragon Chicken Salad is a modern twist on a classic recipe that’s perfectly fit for two when served atop a bed of greens for an easy, weekend lunch!
This recipe for Tarragon Chicken Salad is inspired by my Mom who loves chicken salad! Growing up, she made a classic chicken salad with grapes, celery, and walnuts all tossed in mayonnaise and served on a bed of lettuce. When my Mom made chicken salad for lunch, it was usually on the weekends when my Aunt Val visited as a nice lunch for the group.
In anticipation of Aunt Val’s visit, Mom often talked about her plans for chicken salad lunch in the days before! Her excitement about the meal, in turn, led me to get excited too! All this talk and anticipation around chicken salad somehow led me to believe chicken salad was a fancy meal!
As a child, I had this daydream that chicken salad was the kind of meal ‘ladies who lunch’ enjoyed while sipping on ice cold lemonade at the country club wearing pretty dresses & pearls!
And me, coming from a small farming community, I loved this daydream, picturing myself as one day being the ‘lady who lunches’ (on chicken salad) in her fancy clothes with all her girlfriends.
Today, with my own recipe for Tarragon Chicken Salad, I still think of chicken salad as a fancy lunch! My modern twist on Mom’s chicken salad recipe really does make turn this classic lunch into something fancy, starring tarragon, a herb that it is quite often overlooked at the grocery store.
Tarragon has a slight anise taste while being fresh, tangy, and a tad bittersweet. Combined with this herb, my chicken salad recipe also has a spritz of lemon, a grate of garlic and diced cucumber for crunch. And, of course, with a nod to my Mom, it’s all mixed up with a touch of mayonnaise!
I made my fancy Tarragon Chicken Salad on a Saturday, just like Mom’s, and served it up fancy-style on a bed of greens to enjoy with a tall glass of lemonade. Eating my Tarragon Chicken salad, I was officially a lady who lunched — at home, at her kitchen counter, with the dogs, in sweaty gym clothes — but still, I was the lady who lunched eating her fancy chicken salad.
When you make this recipe, I hope you take the time to sit down, relax, enjoy the meal and pretend you’re fancy while enjoying your Tarragon Chicken Salad!
- 2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
- ¼ cup diced cucumber
- 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion
- 2 tablespoons tarragon, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- ¼ of a lemon, juiced
- ½ small clove, grated
- 2 cups spring mix, for serving
- additional lemon wedges, for serving
- In a medium size bowl, mix together all the ingredients except for the spring mix and lemon wedges.
- Add more salt and pepper to taste.
- Chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator or until serving.
- To plate, place the chicken salad atop the spring mix and serve with a slice of lemon.