Salade de Poulet aux Herbes

Leftover roasted chicken makes a great Chicken salad. And turn it a bit French by dressing it with a tarragon flavored lemony vinaigrette.
By Mitch Weinstein

For all you non-French speakers out there (including me – isn’t Google translate awesome?), that’s chicken salad with herbs. And because this chicken salad is made in what I consider a French style, I think it sounds so much nicer in French.

The great thing about chicken salad is that it’s a wonderful way to use up leftover chicken; oh sure, you can cook some chicken expressly for this purpose, but if you’re like me and enjoy roasting a whole bird even if it’s only two for dinner, there are going to be some leftovers. Significant Eater and I enjoy eating the leg, thighs and wings right off of the roasted bird, since they’re so much tastier than the breast – but in a chicken salad the flavor of the white meat gets a nice boost, so it works out perfectly.

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The “French” part comes in because instead of the usual American deli-style chicken salad that’s loaded with mayonnaise, this one is dressed with the ingredients for a vinaigrette, along with a good handful of chopped herbs including that most French of all herbs, tarragon.

I think that shredding the chicken by hand, rather than cutting it up into cubes, makes for a more home-style salad, both visually and texturally.  In this case, picking the meat off the carcass actually results in shredded chicken, so that’s another reason to roast a whole bird…just wash your hands really well before you start.

Les ingredients…

Toss everything together along with salt and pepper to taste.  Keep tasting and adjusting with lemon juice/vinegar and olive oil until it’s to your liking. This will make a great sandwich; I think it’s also perfect  served on a bed of lettuce with some sliced tomatoes and avocado…