British summer and time for picnics and alfresco dining whatever the weather!   This delicately flavoured  chicken salad is perfect for  summer entertaining. It is easy to prepare what ever your number of guests and makes a brilliant and unusual addition to a picnic or a buffet table.

Serves 6 – (scaled up quantities for larger parties can be found at the bottom of the page).

Ingredients:

1 poached and cooled chicken or 1 large ready cooked chicken or equivalent in chicken pieces.

20g fresh tarragon

1 clove garlic

70ml olive oil

100ml mayonnaise

2 heaped tablespoons crème fraiche

100g seedless green grapes, washed

Method:

Poach the chicken the day before following in the instructions below. Alternatively buy a ready cooked chicken or its equivalent in ready cooked chicken pieces and skip to the heading ‘Prepare the Salad’.

 Poaching the chicken:

Click the link to Chicken in a Cheese and Sherry Sauce for poaching instructions.

 Tarragon Pesto:

To make the pesto roughly chop the tarragon and put it into a large mortar and grind to a paste along with the garlic. Mix in the oil slowly, blending well. Season with pepper and a pinch of salt. (You could also blend the tarragon and oil with a stick blender or the small bowl of a food processor).

Prepare the salad:

Remove the meat from the cooked and cooled chicken and tear  into bite sized pieces  putting them into a large mixing bowl as you go. Halve or quarter the grapes and mix  with the chicken.

Put the mayonnaise and the crème fraiche into a small mixing bowl and stir in the tarragon pesto. Spoon the blended tarragon mayonnaise over the chicken and grapes and mix to combine. Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Spoon the chicken salad into a pretty dish and  scatter over a few extra halved grapes and a sprinkling of chopped tarragon or parsley.

 Scaled it up for summer entertaining.

Serves 15-20

3 x 1.8-2kg sized ready cooked chicken,

400g seedless green grapes, halved

Tarragon pesto –

2 x 35g fresh tarragon or a mix of tarragon and basil leaves

2 garlic clove, peeled

100ml olive oil

250ml  mayonnaise

5 tablespoons crème fraiche

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