Chicken Salad (The Best Recipe Ever!)

If you are looking to a light, crisp, fruity chicken salad, you have found the wrong recipe. This chicken salad has no grapes, no raisins, no craisins, and definitely no nuts. It is a savory take on your traditional chicken salad filled with herbs, salt, & pepper with a hint of tang from the salt, mayo, & relish.

The Recipe:

Ingredients
1.65 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
2 hard boiled eggs
1 c. celery, chopped
1/3 c. yellow onion, chopped
1/4 c. green onion, sliced
1/2 c. sweet relish
1 1/2 c. mayonaise (has to be real...no miracle whip or lite mayo)
1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
1/4 Tbsp. lemmon pepper
1/4 Tbsp. tarragon (dried or 1/2 Tbsp fresh)

Step 1: Put your two raw eggs in the bottom of a large pot that you will use for boiling. Fill it with water.

Put it on high heat to bring to a boil. Do NOT add salt. Once it is boiling, add the raw chicken breast.

Reduce heat, but continue to boil until the chicken is fully cooked. (Cut into it and make sure the juices run clear)

Put the chicken & eggs into the refrigerator. They will be easier to peel & chop when cool.

Step 2: Meanwhile (while the chicken is boiling or cooling) cut up your veggies.
The celery should be sliced straight down the rib. If it is extra wide, make 2 lengthwise slices. Slice up 1 cup.

Then chop up the rib.

Add celery to a large mixing bowl (everything ultimately ends up in this bowl).

Next up is 1/3 c. yellow onion (about 1/4 of a medium onion).

Add onion to the medium mixing bowl.

1/4 c. green onion, sliced goes in the bowl next.

Then 1/2 c. relish into the same bowl.

At this point in time, if the egg and chicken are cool, start chopping that. If not, make the dressing first.

Peel the hard boiled eggs & chop them.

Chop the chicken.

Now it is time to make the dressing. in a small mixing bowl, start with 1 1/2 c. real mayonnaise. Add all of the seasonings. Mix this up really well.

Add the dressing mixture to the large mixing bowl that has the chicken & veggie mixture. Give it all a good stir. The salad is best served cold (but go ahead and take a taste of all of your hard work before you refrigerate it)!

And here it is...

Recipe notes:
1 - Some say that roasted chicken is better than boiled in chicken salad. I have found that boiling the chicken keeps it more moist. However, roasting imparts more flavors of the chicken. In this particular recipe, I chose to boil the chicken because it is faster and easier than roasting (I'm also not quite sure how to roast chicken). According to my taste, there are enough seasonings added to make up for the loss of chicken flavor--and that says alot, because I typically don't like any food that isn't exploding with flavor.

2 - Go buy tarragon if you don't have it (you can find it in the spice section or as a fresh herb). It is the secret ingredient in this recipe...without it, it just isn't the same, so to give it a fair chance, make sure you add this necessary ingredient.

3 - This recipe is really meant to be served on a croissant, because the runny dressing fills up those little holes :-)