Ina Garten’s Chicken Salad Contessa
You can always trust the Barefoot Contessa to bring you a classic.
Ina Garten got her start in the food world when she purchased a specialty food store in the Hamptons called Barefoot Contessa. Over the next couple of decades, she became well known for a lot of delicious things, but chiefly her classic chicken salad. This chicken salad, the Chicken Salad Contessa. It has everything you want from chicken salad — classic flavor with a light herbaciousness, some crunch, and plenty of creaminess.
What’s in Ina Garten’s Chicken Salad Contessa?
It’s very classic! She calls for:
- Two bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts.
- “Good” olive oil.
- Pecan halves and walnut halves.
- “Good” mayonnaise. (We used Duke’s.)
- Sour cream.
- Fresh tarragon.
- And green grapes.
How Do You Make Ina Garten’s Chicken Salad Contessa?
It’s pretty simple!
She has you start by roasting the chicken breasts in the oven (that’s what the good olive oil is for) and toasting the nuts in the oven once the chicken is out and cooling. From there, you simply dice the chicken, and toss it together with the nuts, the mayo, the sour cream, the tarragon, and the grapes.
She has you cut the grapes in half but leave the walnut and pecan halves whole, which means you get big mouthfuls of the toasted nuts. It was my only hangup with this salad — the nuts were a little unwieldy in size. The flavor, however, was wonderful! I loved the fresh tarragon and the balance of creaminess with the mayo and sour cream. Next time, I would roughly chop those nuts and it just might be the perfect chicken salad.
We made this as part of our Celebrity Recipe Showdown.
To see how it stacked up, read on here:
Celebrity Chicken Salad Recipe Showdown
You can see the other celebrity Chili recipes here:
Nicholas Sparks’ Chicken Salad.
Alan Jackson’s Favorite Chicken Salad
Martha Stewart’s Classic Chicken Salad
Ina Garten's Chicken Salad Contessa
Diet: Gluten-Free
Ingredients
- 2 split chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on (about 1 1/2 lbs)
- Good olive oil, as needed
- 1/2 cup pecan halves
- 1/2 cup walnut halves
- 1/2 cup good mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves, chopped and divided
- 1 cup green grapes, cut in half
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Place chicken breasts, skin side up, on a baking sheet and rub with olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper, then roast until chicken is cooked through, 35-40 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Once chicken has cooled, remove meat from the bones, and discard skin and bones.
- Dice chicken into 3/4-inch pieces.
- Place pecans and walnuts on a clean sheet pan and toast in the oven until golden, 7-8 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Fold in half of the tarragon.
- Add chicken, walnuts, pecans, and grapes, and toss well. Serve with remaining tarragon sprinkled on top.
- Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!
Recipe from Ina Garten.