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    Monday, July 27, 2009

    What's for Lunch - Chicken Salad

    Today I am staying with my friend Sheryl in beautiful Omaha Beach and we have guests coming for lunch.
    We were inspired by Mrs. Garten’s Barefoot Contessa original recipes from her Deli circa 1970.

    So I roasted a chicken and of course, made the unmentionable sin of wanting to make something, before you know what ingredients are available.
    So off to the shops we went…No green grapes, but there was black.
    Fresh tarragon…no…but when we got home, we found some tarragon mustard in the pantry. Other than that, we were sweet, so here ya go my version and it’s pretty good.

    4 chicken breasts (or 1 whole chicken) roasted
    1 cup black grapes (cut in half)
    1 cup celery finely chopped
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
    ½ cup good mayonnaise
    1 teaspoon tarragon mustard
    Zest and juice of ½ lemon
    1 tablespoons chopped parsley to garnish

    Roast the chicken,
    Cool
    Remove meat from bones, place in bowl
    (Don’t forget to make stock with the bones and drippings)
    Add grapes, celery and mayo
    Toss
    Garnish with parsley and let sit for at least 1 hour at room temperature to let the flavours meld.

    Then to accompany…
    Carrot Salad
    There was supposed to be pineapple as an ingredient, but unfortunately the one from the shop was rotten, as luck would have it, I had papaya in the fridge.
    Ina Garten used mayo, I thought 2 mayo salads a bit heavy, so I used French dressing.
    Both worked!

    4 carrots peeled and grated
    ½ cup of papaya diced
    ½ cup of sultanas soaked for 30 minutes and drained
    2 radishes cut into sticks

    3 tablespoons French dressing
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper



    Pile all ingredients into bowl and toss
    Let sit for about 1 hour and serve.
    Some crunchy bread and butter and eat. Gorgeous.
    Of course I made chicken soup.Perfect for Sheryl's dinner tonight.

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