Chicken Salad With Walnuts and Grapes

By Jill Santopietro

Chicken Salad With Walnuts and Grapes
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
15 minutes
Rating
4(760)
Comments
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A pile of this chicken salad plopped on top of a bed of greens or tucked between two slices of good bread would make a most excellent lunch or light supper. It starts with a quick dressing made of mayonnaise, chopped chives, parsley and tarragon and the juice and zest of a lemon. Combine the dressing with chopped, cooked chicken (for ease, use supermarket rotisserie chicken or Thanksgiving turkey leftovers), red grapes, red onion, celery and walnuts. It's a delightful and deeply satisfying combination of flavors (sweet, salty, tangy) and textures (cold, crunchy, juicy) that's almost impossible to stop eating.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings
  • ⅓cup plus 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • ¼teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • ⅛teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
  • 1½teaspoons finely chopped chives
  • 1½teaspoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1tablespoon finely chopped tarragon
  • 13-pound roasted chicken, skin removed, meat roughly chopped
  • ⅓cup finely chopped red onion
  • ½cup finely chopped celery
  • 1cup halved red seedless grapes
  • ¾cup roughly chopped walnuts, lightly toasted
  • Mesclun, optional
  • Crusty bread, optional
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

560 calories; 45 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 14 grams monounsaturated fat; 19 grams polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 32 grams protein; 302 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper. Add the chives, parsley and tarragon and mix gently.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, combine the chicken, onion, celery, grapes and walnuts. Add the mayonnaise mixture and fold together to combine. Season to taste. If desired, serve over mesclun or with bread.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
760 user ratings
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Comments

Peggy

Anyone know how much chicken breast meat to use to substitute for the meat from a three pound supermarket chicken?

Karen Strickholm

I have made almost exactly this recipe for years, subbing green grapes for red, and sliced (not slivered) almonds for the walnuts. Omit tarragon OR I put in mutiple herbs. Delicious and the sliced almonds are very satisfyingly crunchy in the salad. Yum!

Janet

This is so yummy. Great to make in the fall with fresh herbs from our garden. Excellent with leftover turkey.

Alex

I just made this for a Christmas carry-in and it's fantastic. I kind of winged it on the measurements. I used a one-pound tub of shredded rotisserie chicken from the grocer and way more tarragon and chives than were called for but I love both and they weren't overpowering at all. The mix of textures and flavors is superb.

Laurie

I added a 1/2 tsp of sugar to the dressing to give it a more complex flavor. Next time it will be 1/2 tsp of honey. I substituted rosemary for the tarragon and swapped the amounts of rosemary and flat leaf parsley, in other words 1 TBSP flat leaf parsley and 1 1/2 tsp rosemary. Finally, I added 1/3 dried cranberries for a slightly sweeter flavor and more texture and color.

D R Loude

I used cranberries in place of grapes.

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