Earl Grey Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches
Makes 36
- 1⅓ cups heavy whipping cream
- 6 double-bergamot Earl Grey tea bags*, divided
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 cups coarsely chopped roasted chicken**
- ⅓ cup chopped green grapes
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
- 2 tablespoons chopped toasted unblanched almonds
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- 18 slices potato bread
- In a small saucepan, heat cream over medium-high heat until very hot, steaming, and bubbles form around edge of pan. Remove pan from heat. Add 5 tea bags, and cover pan. Let steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags from cream, and place in a fine-mesh sieve over saucepan. Press tea bags over steeped cream to extract any remaining cream. Stir in sugar, salt, and pepper until combined. Let cool completely.
- Place chopped chicken in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until chicken is finely chopped, being very careful not to over-process chicken.
- In a large bowl, stir together finely chopped chicken, grapes, celery, almonds, tarragon, and steeped cream. Stir in 1 teaspoon loose bergamot tea from remaining tea bag. Stir mixture together thoroughly until combined. Cover and refrigerate until flavors meld, at least 4 hours and up to a day.
- Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise onto bread slices. Spread chicken salad in a thick even layer onto 9 bread slices. Top each with a remaining bread slice, mayonnaise side down, to make 9 whole sandwiches. Using a serrated bread knife in a gentle sawing motion, trim and discard crusts from sandwiches. Cut each sandwich into 4 equal rectangles, creating 36 tea sandwiches. Serve immediately, or cover with damp paper towels, place in a covered container, refrigerate, and serve within 4 hours.
*Be sure to use a brand of tea that offers a double-bergamot version so the iconic taste will be noticeable on the first bite.We used Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey Black Tea.
**For best flavor, we used white and dark meat from an unseasoned rotisserie chicken.