Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 28

Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches are a summertime classic, and Joanna’s recipe was absolutely wonderful. Filled with grapes, pecans and green onions, this chicken salad is everything I could want from a classic chicken salad. Similarly, Joanna recommends either shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken or from the Poached Chicken Breasts (review below), however I would highly recommend using the Poach Chicken Breasts recipe as the chicken became infused with flavoring that took this chicken salad to a whole other level. While this chicken salad is very different than Joanna’s Currey Chicken Salad of Week 9 (which was also delicious!), if you have even the slightest hankering for a classic chicken salad, you must try this recipe!

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Coming in with a very high rating, these Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches gained an average rating of  8.5. Charlie absolutely loved these sandwiches and was thrilled when I told him that we would be having leftovers for lunch. While I can not think of a thing that I would want to change within the chicken salad recipe, I was a little thrown off by the addition of tomato on the sandwiches as it seemed to be a slight disconnect from the grapes in the chicken salad. In the future, I likely would leave this bit out, however this is an easy change that is more tailored to my preference. Overall, this recipe was wonderful!

Like many recipes within the Magnolia Table cookbook, this Poached Chicken Breast recipe took me by surprise. While the recipe primarily is boiling chicken breasts in chicken broth, lemon, garlic and bay leaves, I was so surprised at how this simple combination absolutely infused the chicken with flavor! Each bite within the chicken salad had the flavoring not only from the chicken salad toppings, but also internally with a hint of lemon and garlic which was a lovely touch to a traditional dish. 

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While slightly less than the chicken salad rating, this Poached Chicken Breast recipe came in with an average rating of 6.5! Despite this recipe being a crucial part of the chicken salad above, I am not sure that these chicken breasts would be enough to entirely stand on their own. I certainly will make this recipe in the future and will not change a thing, but I believe it is a recipe best incorporated into other dishes.

As this recipe was one of the few that we have tried before, I was excited that it was on our list to have again this week. Creamy, light and perfectly sweet, this banana pudding has a beautiful balance of creamy pudding, sweet bananas and crunchy Nilla wafers. While some banana puddings are very dense, I love that this banana pudding is rich but still light and airy. Similarly, no cooking is required for this recipe, so it is an easy dessert to provide for your weekend cookout, family function or bible study! 

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As we have had this recipe before, I was not surprised when this recipe gained an average rating of 8.5! Whether making it in individual servings or in a dish all together, this recipe will leave you wanting to scrape the bowl. It certainly is best served very cold however, so if you are able to serve it straight from the refrigerator, I would highly recommend it.

• Black pepper
• Kosher salt
• White balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• White peaches
• Yellow peaches
• Fresh mozzarella balls

• Fresh basil
• Mayonnaise
• French or country bread
• Havarti cheese
• Tomato
• Graham crackers
• Sugar

• Butter
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Eggs
• Lemons
• Heavy cream
• Vanilla extract 
• Mint sprigs