Chicken Salad

My first time having chicken salad, other than Chinese chicken salad in California, was at my boyfriend's grandmother, Bess's, home. She prepared a delicious lunch for us of chicken salad, biscuits and vegetable beef soup. On most Sunday afternoons, we still crave this meal. This was very much the inspiration for our Valentine's dinner but we changed it up a bit and swaped the vegetable beef soup for mushroom barley soup. This chicken salad is very easy to prepare and has a lovely contrast of sweet and salty with the grapes and pickles. Combined with the dill biscuits, we had fantastic chicken salad sandwiches with grainy mustard and crisp lettuce.

                          

Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

7 chicken breast tenderloins

1 1/2 cups red seedless grapes, halved

3 celery stalks, chopped

6 crunchy kosher pickles, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 heaping tablespoon tarragon

Olive oil

Thyme

Ground pepper

Garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the chicken breast tenderloins on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with thyme, ground pepper and garlic powder. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

3. When chicken has cooled, shred the meat from the bones into thick chunks. Place chicken in a bowl with grapes, celery, and pickles. Add mayonnaise and mix with forks to incorporate. Add tarragon and mix until it is evenly distributed.

Assembling Chicken Salad Biscuit Sandwiches:

1. Slice biscuit in half and remove some of the flaky parts in the center. This part is delicious to eat on its own.

                      

2. Add grainy mustard on each half of the biscuit.

                       

3. Pile with chicken salad, lettuce and any other accompaniments.