Lemon Chicken Salad with Tarragon Recipe
This refreshing tarragon chicken salad combines tender lemon-infused chicken with crisp greens for a delightful meal. The bright flavors of lemon and the distinctive aroma of tarragon enhance the dish, making it perfect for warm days. Serve it chilled for a light yet satisfying option that’s both nourishing and flavorful. Enjoy this calming recipe as a simple lunch or a lovely dinner side.
Chicken is loaded with protein and is a great option for a lunch salad. This lemon chicken salad with tarragon recipe doubles up on the flavors by poaching the chicken in a quick lemon broth speckled with black pepper. Tarragon is a bright herb that adds punchy, bright flavors to this protein filled salad.
A flavorful chicken salad that is perfect for lunch:
I chose to use just tarragon for this recipe and not a combination of herbs, because tarragon has unique, distinct flavor that can stand on it’s own. Make a batch of this tarragon chicken salad and pack it into your fridge for quick lunches or snacks throughout the week.
Love chicken with fresh herbs? Try my Herb Marinated Chicken, it’s filled with garden fresh herbs.
Tip!
Only chop the tarragon herb leaves 3 times when instructed in recipe below
Tarragon is strong in flavor, yet delicate when it comes to the actual composition of the herbs leaves
Herbaceous Lemon Flavor Combo…
By adding fresh lemon peel to the water, you release fragrant citrus oils into the water during the cooking process. Bay leaf adds subtle layers of flavors to the salad before you have even sliced the chicken! This technique results in a chicken salad bursting with bright flavor notes.
I love the poaching method, try my poached salmon with rhubarb yogurt recipe, for a refreshing light meal.
These little steps cut for chicken salad down on your time spent in the kitchen immensely.
Tarragon and green onions work perfectly here, a minimal dollop of mayonnaise pulls all of the ingredients together for a quick, scrumptious, bright chicken salad. This recipe is perfection on rye bread with avocado and arugula for a quick lunch. This is a recipe you will make again and again! So make sure to save it!
Storing The Chicken Salad:
This chicken salad will store for 4-5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
This chicken salad is so satisfying and can be served with crunchy crackers, on top of a crisp bed of lettuce or open faced on top of rye with a garnish of frisee greens (my personal favorite!)
Lemon Chicken Salad with Tarragon Recipe
Equipment
- 1 stock pot with lid
Ingredients
- 1 Chicken Breast
- 2 rinds Lemon Peel
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 2 tbsp Mayonnaise
- 1 bunch Fresh Tarragon Leaves
- 2 stalks Green onions
Instructions
- Place chicken breast in stock pot and fill pot with water until water is just covering chicken breast.
- Add lemon peels and bay to pot and place on stove burner. Place pan lid on pan, positioning at an angle to allow steam to escape. Turn heat to high and bring pot to boil.When water reaches rolling boil, immediately turn pan down to barely a simmer. Continue to cook over low simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes turn heat off, leaving pan on burner.Allow chicken to rest for 20 minutes in hot water. This will complete the cooking process slowly, allowing the chicken to cook slowly and evenly, ensuring a moist breast.
- While chicken rests, chop tarragon and green onions for the salad.
- Chop the tarragon herb using only 3 chops, this preserves the flavor of the tarragon herb.
- Chop green onion tops, leaving the rounds in tact. Discard the green bottoms
- Remove chicken from stockpot after the 20 minute resting time and slice into 1/3 inch thick pieces.
- Add chopped tarragon, green onions, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and sliced chicken into medium mixing bowl. Shred chicken with 2 forks. The poached chicken should come apart easily with this method.
- As you shred, pull the other ingredients in the bowl into your mixture. Keep forking until you reach your desired consistency. I prefer a fully shredded chicken salad with tarragon, but if you like your chicken salads chunky feel free to stop when you are satisfied with the texture. I hope you enjoy this simple, flavor forward chicken salad recipe!
Looks easily done and full of flavor!