This chicken salad recipe was featured in a larger blog post, A Tale of Two Salads. See the original post here.
The ingredient that my mom added to her chicken salad that I haven’t seen in other chicken salad recipes is tarragon. Tarragon is a species of perennial herb in the sunflower family and really compliments chicken, fish and egg dishes. It is highly aromatic and a little goes a long way. While this chicken salad is delicious as a sandwich, I really enjoy having it on a nice whole wheat cracker. It turns into quick finger food that I can enjoy when I just have 10 minutes before I need to jump to the next thing. Of the two recipes, this takes a bit longer to prepare because you have to cook the chicken. However, if you want a quick work around, you can always pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.


- 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
- Zesty Italian dressing
- butter
- 2 stalks of celery, minced
- 2 boiled eggs, chopped
- 3 teaspoons minced white onion
- ½ cup sweet pickle cubes
- 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup mayo (add more if needed for desired consistency)
- Wash and put the breasts in a covered pyrex dish. Pour zesty Italian dressing over breasts. Turn to coat. Dot the breasts with butter. Bake chicken at 375º for 1 hr.
- While the chicken bakes, boil and chop the eggs, mince the white onion and celery, and gather remaining ingredients.
- Let chicken cool and wash dressing off.
- Slice and cube chicken breasts.
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Taste and make adjustments to taste.
- ENJOY!!
- Great as a sandwich, but also great atop a cracker.