Tarragon Chicken Salad on Croissants -- a tasty recipe from Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Sometimes you see a recipe and instantly know you want to try it. Why this one struck me, I couldn’t say – chicken salad isn’t part of our regular cooking – but hey, tarragon! Croissants! And the bottle of tarragon vinegar I’d been brewing on the kitchen window sill since last summer, amazingly still good. 

Et voila! Dinner, followed by lunch two days later. These would also be great picnic food – take the salad with you in a covered bowl, along with sliced croissants and a table knife, and assemble just before eating. (That will reduce the mess and keep the croissants from getting soggy.) 

Tarragon became a staple in our house after our first trip to France, and it’s a natural partner for for chicken. I made the vinegar by sticking a few stalks in an empty vinegar bottle and adding white wine vinegar; let it sit at least a week – or over the winter if you’re like me! If you don’t have tarragon vinegar, use a good white wine or champagne vinegar. And yes, boiling golden raisins in vinegar seems odd, but they plumped up beautifully and were not too acidic. Just right, in fact!

We made a half recipe, and that’s what I’ve given you. 

Bon appetit!

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Tarragon Chicken Salad on Croissants  

1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup golden raisins

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

½ cup + 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped

1-1/2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

½ tablespoon Dijon mustard

kosher salt

black pepper

4 croissants, sliced in half

Fill a 3 quart pot with salted water and add the chicken. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 15 minutes. If you use a thermometer, the goal is an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Drain and cool slightly, to the touch. Shred with a knife and fork.

Meanwhile, place raisins and 1 tablespoon vinegar in a small pot. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and steep until plump, about 15 minutes. Drain through a mesh strainer. 

Place the shredded chicken in a medium or large bowl. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar, mayo, tarragon, dill, and mustard. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. 

Spoon chicken salad onto the bottom halves of the croissants. Top and serve. 

Makes 4 croissant sandwiches. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.