Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sunday Salad Samplers # 10 (6/28): Grilled Chicken Salad with Tarragon Pesto

This week's selection was made by MarciaB, Happy Trails For Us, My Relunctant Blog. Marcia found this recipe from the April Edition of Bon Appetit.

I found this recipe so easy to make and very delicious. With the grilled chicken and bread it made a pretty hearty meal and I'm going to enjoy leftovers for lunch tomorrow at work and also dinner. Yay! I really loved the pesto dressing and managed to use my food processor for the first time in more than a year! :) I really loved this salad and will definitely make it again.



Here is Marcia's recipe and instructions:

Grilled Chicken Salad with Tarragon Pesto

Makes 4 servings Ingredients

1/4 cup (packed) fresh tarragon leaves plus 2 teaspoons chopped
1/4 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves
4 tablespoons pine nuts, divided
5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, divided
2 teaspoons chopped shallot
6 tablespoons (or more) olive oil, divided, plus additional for brushing
4 boneless chicken breast halves
4 1/2-inch-thick slices country-style French or sourdough bread
1 5-ounce package mixed baby greens
1 cup thinly sliced radishes (from 1 large bunch)
1 cup thinly sliced Japanese cucumbers (about 1 1/2)

Preparation

Place 1/4 cup tarragon leaves, parsley, 2 tablespoons pine nuts, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and shallot in mini processor; chop coarsely. With machine running, gradually add 3 tablespoons olive oil. Season pesto to taste with salt and pepper. Add more olive oil by teaspoonfuls to thin, if necessary.

Whisk 2 teaspoons chopped tarragon, remaining 4 teaspoons lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons oil in small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush chicken breasts on both sides with oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill until grill marks form, skin is crisp, and chicken is cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes per side. Transfer to work surface; let rest 5 minutes. Using clean brush, brush both sides of bread with oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill until dark-brown grill marks appear on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Place greens, radishes, and cucumbers in large bowl. Toss with dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide salad among 4 plates.

Cut grilled chicken breasts crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices. Arrange 1 sliced chicken breast atop salad on each plate. Spoon tarragon pesto over chicken. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons pine nuts over salads. Serve with grilled bread slices.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Kathy, I'm so glad you were inspired to make this one - it's a great salad isn't it? Your photo is great and makes me wish I hadn't skipped the grilled bread.

    And good for you for busting out the food processor. About the only thing I use mine for is to make pesto, and this was a great pesto, I thought. And yay for leftovers!

    Hope you've had a great weekend and here's to a short holiday work week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Annie, thanks so much for the continued inspiration. I liked this salad and I'm so glad that ended up making it. I loved the toasted french bread with Olive oil on the grill (firt time doing that too). Yum!

    I really liked the pesto dressing too and it's going to make a great lunch tomorrow.

    And yes, a nice three day weekend and short work week is going to be fabulous! If only there wasn't a Monday thru Thursday! :) I guess I should be more appreciative, but I can't help it. I love long weekends.

    Have a great Sunday evening!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kathy, your salad looks great!
    We really enjoyed this salad very much.
    I was thinking about your food processor comment, and realized that I never even put mine away. LOL. I guess I always take the easy route:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Candi, thanks so much for your comments. This was definitely a keeper. And btw, nothing wrong with the easy route. :)

    Have a great day today!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for joining us this week - who knew that tarragon would make such a great pesto - I see us using it in other ways, drizzling it over grilled fish, things like that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Marcia, thank you for your comments and for your wonderful recipe. Great idea, I think the pesto would do great on a grilled filet of fish.

    I almost didn't participate this week but after visiting Annie's Blog and then then Candi, and then Nancy ... I just knew it would be a mistake not to and I'm so happy that I did. Thanks again for your great recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your salad looks wonderful. I really enjoyed this salad also. You mention that it would be good with fish, and that's what I used with mine. We had just got some fresh sockeye salmon over the weekend, so I used it instead of chicken and it was great with the tarragon pesto.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Cindy, thank you very much for your comments. I'll have to have a look at your salad. How fantastic that you used fresh sockeye salmon on it over the weekend. I love seafood and Salmon is one of my favs.
    I'm definitely going to try it with seafood soon too. Thanks for the tip.

    Have a great day today!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Kathy,

    I just saw that tonight Fox is going to re-run the episode of AI with the Top 13 singing the songs of Michael Jackson. It comes on at 8 pm here on the East Coast. I'm going to watch! Just wanted to make sure you knew about it. Nice tribute to MJ.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Annie, just got home and saw your comments! Thank you soooo much for the heads up tip! I loved that episode and especially Adam's performance with B&W. I just checked and it airs at 8:00 pm here too! I'm definitely watching it.

    It is a great tribute to Michael to air this episode again! I'm trying to remember what other songs the other idols sang. It's been so long I forgot except for Adam's performance. This will be a lot of fun watching it again.

    Thanks so much Annie! Enjoy watching it tonight. But I think you're already watching it since you are ahead of me. I still have almost an hour to go. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Kathy, it was really fun to watch that episode again. I too had forgotten what songs people had chosen. Anoop's "Beat It" was such a wrong song choice, LOL.

    Have to agree with Simon that Adam was head and shoulders above everyone else. I thought Danny's PYT was second best. At that point, Kris was good but hadn't really come into his own yet. And I had to laugh again at Simon's comment about keeping the wife a secret (turns out being married didn't hurt Kris at all Simon!).

    It was a great tribute to Michael Jackson. He had so many great songs! And it was fun to get a little AI fix in the off-season.

    Happy Tuesday (I'm only working a three-day week this week, woo hoo!).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Annie, yes it was so much fun watching the episode again. I actually downloaded Adams performance that night from i-Tunes but have not seen the other performances since it aired. It was totally fun seeing it again. Rocker girl Alison, Anoop (and I agree that Beat It was the wrong song choice for him) and even quirky Megan. I also thought Danny's PYT was second best. And Simon's comments was just so Simon. I liked how Kris stood up for his wife. Who would've thought that he was going to win it from that episode!

    Can you believe that they are already holding tryouts for next season...

    I'm glad they reran it as a tribute to Michael. Thanks so much again for tipping me off Annie!

    And a 3-day week! Whoo hoo! Have an awesome 4th of July weekend!

    ReplyDelete

It's me Trekcapri (aka Kathy). Thanks so much for visiting and leaving a comment.