I know, it’s been a minute. It’s been a lot of minutes. My apologies for my disappearance. There is a lot going on personally right now in my world and sadly because of it, The Passport has taken a back seat. But I’m here and I promised us a trip to a true British Tea. So here we are and here we go!
One thing Randy and I agreed on during our first trip to London was that we had to have a Traditional British Tea experience. While both of us are coffee drinkers, we knew you couldn’t go all the way across the pond without a proper tea. I enjoy tea in the cooler months as a midday pick me up and love trying different flavors. The only problem was, where to go.
Just like narrowing down restaurant choices can be overwhelming and tedious, we found the same with choosing a tea to attend. Did we want traditional and high end? Or did we want fun and adventurous? Did we want to have it on a bus while exploring the town? Or did we want it high up above the clouds of London Town? So many options. So many choices. I leaned more towards adventurous and unique. Our hotel Chesterfield Mayfair, had a fun candy shop theme that looked adorable. There were Alice in Wonderland ones, mad Scientist ones, and Molecular Gastronomy themed ones. Randy was leaning more towards a classy, traditional experience that would set the standard for what a true British tea should be. In the end, I compromised and agreed that a true British tea should be had for the first experience. We could always go back and try a fun themed one in a future trip, which I swore there would be.
Now began the real research. I searched for the best traditional teas in London. The Ritz-Carlton, the Claridge and Fortnum & Mason all ranked high in the city for quintessential British Tea experiences. But after researching and going back and forth, The Dorchester finally won out. For my fellow Great British Baking Show fans, this infamous hotel was home to part of Mr. Paul Hollywood’s pastry career. It was the classy, or posh, Tea Time that we were looking for.
Both of us dressed nicer on our day of tea, knowing that you needed to be prepared for such a classic Well Bred event. Upon arriving at the Dorchester, we found an atmosphere very similar to The Plaza in New York City. Luxurious, high-end and classically English, we checked in and were shortly led to our table.
Can I tell you every single thing we ate at that tea? No I can’t. I know I have a print out of the menu somewhere in my collection of things we brought back. But what I do remember was some of the items you will see this week. We had pillowy light scones, nothing like the hard and dry ones I’ve had before. A specialty tea was brought to the table with a beautiful blooming flower in it. We had a small tier of amazing desserts brought to us that were masterfully and decorated with incredible detail. Everything was flawless. If you were to ever think that an afternoon tea won’t leave you full, I’m here to tell you that you are wrong. We both rolled out of there full as can be.
The one thing though, the one item that we still talk about to this day from that tea, were the tea sandwiches. Specially, the coronation chicken sandwich. This little sandwich was so good and so packed full of flavor, it was the only thing that we had that we asked for seconds of. It was sweet and salty. It was lightly flavored with curry. It was moist and delicious. It was INCREDIBLE. Randy has since purchased curry chicken salad trying to recreate that experience in the Dorchester. But nothing tasted just like what we had.
I knew when we were doing tea week that I had to try and recreate what we had. I did some research and decided to take a spin myself. For those of you who don’t know, Coronation Chicken is a creamy mayonnaise and curry based chicken salad that was created for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 by two women that were leads at Le Cordon Bleu that was inspired by Jubilee Chicken, another celebratory dish.
I knew as with most chicken salads that obviously the chicken had to be cooked and chilled before moving on with anything else. So I pulled out my trust instant pot to get the job done. Along with putting chicken stock though, I put a bit of curry in with the liquid to help infuse more flavor into the actual chicken itself. After I cooked it, I cooled it whole, in the liquid to ensure maximum moisture.
Now the next part is going to seem a bit intense and a bit much for a chicken salad. But I promise you, it’s so worth it. After dicing up the chicken breast into smaller, bite size pieces, I started preparing the additional sauce. In a saucepan, I heated the extra-virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Then, add in the onion, bay leaf and curry powder and saute for 3 minutes. Next, Add in the tomato paste, red wine and water and bring to a simmer. Add in the lemon juice and a pinch of brown sugar, then season with salt and black pepper to taste as you’d like.
Simmer for 2 minutes, until the sauce is slightly reduced, then remove from the heat. Strain the sauce through a fine strainer and allow it to cool.
Once this is cool, combine this sauce mixture with your chicken, mayonnaise, sour cream, diced dried apricots, chopped celery and slivered almonds. Mix thoroughly to combine and serve on sandwiches, a salad, with potatoes or in a wrap. You can enjoy this with a light tea or not. It’s a perfect spring time lunch or brunch option.
English Tea Time Coronation Chicken Salad
Serves 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp white onion, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream or unsweetened whipped cream
- 2 tbsp dried apricots finely chopped
- 2 large skinless chicken breasts cooked, cooled and cut into chunks
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup minced celery
- 3 tbsp toasted slivered almonds
Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add in the onion, bay leaf and curry powder and gently cook for 3 minutes.
Add in the tomato paste, red wine and water and bring to a simmer. Add in the lemon juice and a pinch of sugar, then season with salt and black pepper to taste.
Simmer for 3 minutes, until the sauce is slightly reduced, then remove from the heat. Strain the sauce through a strainer and allow it to cool.
In a large bowl mix together the prepared sauce with the mayonnaise, sour cream, finely chopped dried apricots and celery.
Add in the cooked chicken breast, and mix gently all the ingredients together. Finally, add in toasted almond slivers.
Serve on sandwiches, in a salad or for a brunch! Enjoy!