Ingredients:

2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
handful Italian parsley, chopped
1 “baby” cucumber, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
3 oz crumbled feta (tomato basil flavored if possible)
1 tablespoon nonpareil capers
2 teaspoons tahini
3-4 tablespoons mayonnaise
salt
freshly ground black pepper
zest of one lemon

Directions:

Place the chicken, parsley, cucumber, onion, feta, and capers in a large bowl. Toss to evenly distribute all ingredients. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, mayo, salt, pepper, and zest. Spoon over the chicken mixture and stir to combine. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 48 hours.

Serving suggestion: I served this on lavash with sliced cherry tomatoes.

My thoughts:

I made a different sesame chicken salad 11 years ago(!!) using sesame oil and sesame seeds and haven’t made it since for no real, good reason. I really liked the flavor of sesame in the chicken salad so I thought I’d try it again but this time using the sesame paste, tahini,  for the sesame flavor. I love the tahini/feta/caper combo so those were obvious add-ins and I chopped up some cucumber for crunch.

I really hadn’t thought of sharing the recipe (I was trying to use up some rotisserie chicken from Costco) but it was so good, I have too! It was really satisfying a super flavorful. The flavors really complemented each other and the dish was easy to make but the final product seemed a lot more exciting than traditional chicken salad. Plus it’s always good to have a use for tahini that isn’t hummus or baba ghanoush!