Earl Grey Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches Recipe

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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
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.