American Cafe chicken tarragon salad

[Anonymous]

This sandwich (on a croissant) was a favorite back in the day, with big chunks of chicken, excellent herbs and the right amount of mayo. Sadly, I never got a recipe before American Cafe closed and have not experimented because it’s the only time I have ever liked tarragon.

Has anyone else reasonably recreated this masterpiece?

[Anonymous]

Nope. I’ll be watching this post just in case someone adds a recipe.
I think Firehook bakery has tarragon chicken salad sandwiches. I haven’t been there in a while though, so you might want to check to see if they still have them. They were very good — but different flavor vs the American Cafe.

[Anonymous]

The recipe out of Silver Palate is similar. At least that's my memory. The ratio for 3 lbs raw chicken breasts is 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 mayo, 1 Tbl dried tarragon. You can add celery, grapes, nuts.

Silver Palate recipe bakes the chicken in creme fraiche, but I've always just poached them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The recipe out of Silver Palate is similar. At least that's my memory. The ratio for 3 lbs raw chicken breasts is 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 mayo, 1 Tbl dried tarragon. You can add celery, grapes, nuts.

Silver Palate recipe bakes the chicken in creme fraiche, but I've always just poached them.

One other note--it needs to be refrigerated for the flavors to work. Preferably overnight but at least a few hours.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much for this lead!! I did see one recipe that mentioned sliced almonds - had forgotten that American Cafe version had that for crunch (and no celery - I don’t like celery). Sour cream or crème fraiche I would not have thought of. Weekend experiment coming up!

[Anonymous]

Wow - I was just thinking of this chicken salad this past week, and how it was popular back in the 1980s. It was so good. I also have not been able to recreate it.