Franglais: Tarragon Chicken Salad Tartines

Tarragon Chicken Tartine

Read the full article at The Huffington Post.

People always say “you’re chicken” like it’s a bad thing. You don’t need to be bold and brave all the time. Lunch, I think, is an especially perfect time to lack courage. I like to save the habaneros and the escargot, the durian and the sea urchin for dinner, when I have finished my day and can siphon all of my time and my energy to tackling my plate, steak knife-sword in hand, and bravely eat what no girl has eaten before.

But at lunch, sandwiched between two halves of a hectic day, I don’t want a challenge. I want something familiar, and inexpensive, and perhaps a bit virtuous. Don’t forget, it was Clark Kent who went to the office–not Superman.

This recipe is a traditional American chicken salad made French with the important addition of tarragon, an herb so common in the French kitchen that where I buy my tarragon, the box reads “French tarragon.” It tastes like basil and anise together, and is delicate and fragrant, and the perfect partner for anything creamy. What I love about this recipe is that it is made from leftovers. I say to use rotisserie chicken, but you can also use any roasted or poached chicken you have hiding in the fridge. I pack up this chicken salad with a long slice of good wheat or sourdough bread, and pile it up on top. Eating this sandwich open-faced, as a tartine, makes me feel good at once because I imagine I am having it at Les Deux Magots on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, and because I save the calories from phantom slice of bread I’m not eating.

I’ve reduced my lunchtime expenditure, reused my leftover chicken, and recycled an old idiom. I would say being chicken is actually pretty good. Bon app.