Dinner Tonight: Chicken salad

Complete the dish with nectarines, walnuts

7/14/2014

This is also “a great salad for brown-bagging, sandwiched between slices of crusty, country-style bread,” write Brian Nicholson and Sarah Huck in Fruitfull.

Chicken salad with nectarines, walnuts

Slightly adapted from Brian Nicholson‘‍sand Sarah Huck’‍s Fruitfull: Four Seasons of Fresh Fruit Recipes, published by Running Press.

1/3 cup walnut halves

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons walnut or olive oil

1 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 cups diced roasted chicken

1-1/2 cups pitted and diced nectarines

2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion

2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon

4 large Boston lettuce leaves, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast them in the oven until fragrant and lightly colored, 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, let the nuts cool, and then chop them coarsely and place them in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.

Add the chicken, nectarines, scallion, parsley, and tarragon to the walnuts in the large bowl and toss to combine. Fold in the mayonnaise mixture. Taste the salad and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Spoon the salad onto the lettuce leaves and serve immediately.

Serves 2.