This tarragon chicken salad with cranberries and hazelnuts, exploding with flavor and texture, easily kept my mind off the cupcakes and yeasted cakes I’ve temporarily sworn off. And it will yours too. I didn’t search for any recipe this time because I didn’t want to know if someone’s already done it. Sometimes, with the access we have online to practically everything, it can take a bit of the thrill out of thinking you’ve discovered something for yourself. Now I know tarragon chicken salad is nothing new. And I know somebody out there has put cranberries or hazelnuts with chicken. Maybe they even used an orange vinaigrette to dress it. And yes, once I publish this post I might very well google it… but until then I’m enjoying having put this together myself.
I can’t encourage you enough to try now and again cooking without recipes. It’s like driving without a GPS. We become so reliant on something outside of ourselves. When we can’t find the favorite cookbook or the transmitter is malfunctioning, we become paralyzed. We have to relish the ability to think for ourselves and navigate through the kitchen and on the road. Use your imagination… feel the thrill and anxiety of being lost for a minute and the satisfaction when you find your way on your own. Practice.
Granted there have been times where a GPS has really saved my ass, as has a recipe (or two or three for cross referencing). And baking is a whole other ballgame. All I’m saying… is just be a panster once in a while. See poll below.
But for now here is something to work from…
Print – Tarragon Chicken Salad with Cranberries – Please note this serves 6. Three of us had it for dinner one night and lunch the next day.
I’m starting off with a couple of graphic chicken photos. If you don’t like to think about how your skinless, boneless chicken breasts got that way, please scroll past the first couple photos
Enter one raw German chicken. (not so scary right?)
You probably already know you will get much more bang for your buck buying a whole chicken and cutting it up yourself. I prefer to do this and freeze the hind quarters if I have room. But often, I can’t be bothered and buy prepped parts. Cut the leg quarters off by cutting the contours of the skin on the thigh then removing the entire corner at the joints. Then for the breasts, just stay close to the breast bone to take off each side. A sharp knife is essential.
Sorry if this is TMI… but here’s the other side.
I don’t always have the time, but today I took the carcass and did a quick stock- 1 l (4qt) water, 1/2 onion, 1 carrot, celery fronds, garlic clove, bay leaf and peppercorns. Just brought all the above to a light boil, then simmered for an hour, then let it sit. Used it last night for cooking basmati rice and ate it with the leg quarters.
I also bought 2 extra breasts. My freezer space is so very limited. I left the skin on because I do believe it gives it more flavor. A little olive oil, garlic, lemon, tarragon, salt and pepper and bake covered in foil at 400F/200C for about 35-40.
Remove from the oven and let it rest till cool. This chicken is so juicy it will require you to eat a bite or two pronto. Should I tell you now how much I love chicken skin? Please don’t hate me. Let’s just say you don’t need the skin in the salad. So do with it as you please.
While the chicken is cooking, prep your red pepper, celery, red onion and fennel. Roast the hazelnuts and chop fine-medium. I chop up the cranberries a bit too and mix them with the nuts so they don’t stick together.
Prepare the orange vinaigrette… I used fresh orange, lemon, olive oil, white balsamic and some of the juices from the chicken.
I chopped up about 8 hardy sprigs of fresh tarragon which yielded about 3T. But I add this at the very end. Leaves are just picked here.
I let my chicken cool, covered on the counter for about an hour and a half or two. I chose to shred it but sometimes I cut in into cubes. Put chicken, veggies, hazelnuts and cranberries all together and mix. Then pour on the vinaigrette and mix. Add the tarragon at the end and mix thoroghly.
I also made our first asparagus of the season and we’ve got beautiful new radishes at the market.
I still give these guys a little trim down south… (ok-now that we are becoming friends, you should know – I do have a raunchy sense of humor- grew up with one jazz musician and married another… what can i say?
First I cut the tough ends off- which you don’t have when eating fresh from the ground. One day again, I’ll be picking them from my own garden.
Hold the asparagus with the tip pointing towards you…
And gently move the peeler away from you…One of my prouder moments of holding the camera and pushing button with my left hand… Tripod is in my very near future. I just did about half of the stalk for tenderness and that little ‘hello I took a some extra care’. I didn’t take off every nodule within an inch of the top like we did in cooking school or you might see at a starred restaurant.
I tie the asparagus up in small bunches and blanch in boiling salted water. Once cooked, I gave them a cold water bath and only squeezed lemon on them. When you are looking for something a little different, check out this recipe from Rufus’Food and Spirits with mint and chili.
I plated the chicken salad on a bed of fresh watercress, corn salad (mache) and arugula and served it with the fresh asparagus, avocado and radishes. The sweet top little sprigs is cress that is sold in little 4 inch moist brown boxes in the supermarket.
Then added ‘guess here‘ after forgetting it in the first pics 🙂 Don’t be distracted by that little piece of red pepper that chose to migrate as I clicked.
Enjoy healthy eating!
I would like to thank Simone at Simple Healthy Homemade for nominating me again for the Versatile Blogger Award. I’m getting there with a proper post for the next set of blogs to pass on to. Thank you!
And take a peak at the poll below with clips I took from writing.com.
Tschüß,
This looks really good … have loads of chicken breast in my freezer – so next week after “mums visit” – printing now. Love cranberries … and the orange dressing really speaks to me. Love orange in cooking – with carrots and coriander beautiful side dish. Salmon in orange jus … with green beans and pressed potatoes. Thanks a million for this one.
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I love the orange too… on a lot of things. I’m glad you’re going to give this a go. The recipe is a good place to start and I trust you’ll take it from there. wt
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Will come back with the verdict *smile
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I’m glad you visited my blog. What a lovely post today, such prettily arranged food and colorful photos! And a healthy recipe to try! xo
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My pleasure. We really liked the chicken salad so doing the post was a breeze…maybe a tad long though!
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Gorgeous photos highlighting a delectable salad. Can’t wait to try it!
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Thanks. I’ll be making this or something like it again soon.
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pantster, my word of the day ❤ buying tarragon from the market (and lemon) LOVE ya
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I too like a little vegetable bondage. I mean the use of rope. Ha, kidding. Your post made me laugh and want to eat lots all at once. Thanks for the mention. This is quite the recipe.
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I think we will get on well.. we (I) did eat a lot of it but seemed better than cupcakes and ganache and frankly was equally satisfying. Your welcome. Happy to see something different.
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Hazelnuts…..cranberries…chicken breasts {GERMAN chicken breasts at that}…
Yeah.
Officially hungry.
At 11:30 at night.
Thanks.
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This would definitely be a crowd pleaser… or wonderful as a cupful alone at 11.30pm at night. 🙂
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That orange vinaigrette sounds great, I will give this a try asap! Also, love all the ingredients in your salad (okay, almost all – I don’t care for celery at all…), especially the addition of cranberries.
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Just leave out that celery. You’ll get some nice crunch with the fennel. I love orange vinaigrettes- great on spinach salads too.
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Hiya Wendy! I wanted to comment on the poll at the bottom of your recipe. I am a mix of both. I start off with a VERY brief outline and then I let the mood of the story guide me from there. I’ve tried not outlining and have ended up very frustrated so this is my new style of writing. I’ll let you know how it turns out once I finish my novel (Only God knows when that will be. Especially since I’m only on chapter two). 🙂
Lovely layout of the recipe by the way.
Until next time.
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I’m a bit of both too. Probably if I had to choose one it would be pantser. I do some outlining or more like note taking. I do like organization in my daily life.
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Lovely!
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Wendy…
Do you repost your blog updates on your Facebook page? I haven’t been getting any of the notices from your FB page.
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I do mostly just the posts but I’m really still getting the whole timeline layout. I’m not big on it. Is the notice thing something I do or is it an option in your preferences? still learning.
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If you have the Facebook option on your site you can simply connect to it from the new post that you do. You just hit “share” and make sure that it goes to “your page”. I’m still working my way around things too. 🙂
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Enjoyed your tarragon chicken salad (vicariously!) and as always your great photographs. I hear you on not googling recipes all the time. It can be such a downer sometimes to see it’s been done.
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I still haven’t looked for anything similar and probably won’t. I love this salad though… original or not!
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This looks and sounds amazingly yummy. Your photos are great…one talented woman to be able to take them while demonstrating. I can see why you would want a tripod. ~~Bliss
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I’m imagining you with a tripod and camera set up, your computer and remote shutter release. You could model and see yourself on the screen and click. 🙂
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The vegetables look so fresh – your pictures of peeling the asparagus – so so green and feels organic!
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I’m mostly a nut for organic… bio products here. We have a market in the local square in Blankenese (about 20min west of downtown Hamburg) 4 days a week with one day that’s all bio.
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lovely lovely dish. it just shouts spring to me with all that beautiful green. I also gree with you on makign use of the whole chicken, you get much more out of your money, and nothing goes to waste!
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Thanks so much… and glad you peeked into Chez Chloe. Love your site- font, style, recipes all look great. I’m not sure what your definition of productive is… but it looks like you’ve got a lot of energy going on there. Will be back to check it out some more.
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