Tarragon Chicken

tarragon chicken

Tarragon Chicken is a baked chicken dish which is cooked in a mushroom tarragon sauce.  It is nice served with rice (see Easy Steamed Rice recipe).

When I first made this dish years ago, I used a tin of mushroom soup as the base for this recipe. 

I have updated the Tarragon Chicken recipe to provide a less salty alternative to the original dish.  You can make it with boneless skinless chicken thighs, but it is equally tasty with drumsticks or chicken breasts.

 

Tarragon Chicken

Serves 8

Ingredients

  • 8 - 10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or 4 boneless chicken breasts)
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 2 Cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1 1/2 Cups thinly sliced mushrooms (white or cremini or a mixture)
  • 1 Cup (250ml) unsalted chicken broth
  • 3 Tsp all purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp soft butter
  • 1/4 Tsp salt
  • 2 Tsp dried tarragon
  • 2 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup sherry

Directions

Put the mushrooms and chicken broth in a saucepan and gently simmer them together for 20 minutes.
mushroom mixture
Put the tablespoon of butter in the bottom of another saucepan and melt the butter over medium heat. When melted, remove it from the heat and add the flour and salt. The mixture should form a soft roux (test: draw a line with a spoon in the middle and it should almost fill in). Add a little bit of the milk and the sauce should start to thicken. Put it back on the heat and gradually add the rest of the milk, while continuing to stir. The mixture should get nice and thick. Add the tarragon and Worcestershire sauce to this mixture. Set it aside.
tarragon cream sauce
Shake the chicken in a bag with 1/4 cup of flour and 1 tsp salt. Set aside. Heat a tbsp of butter and oil in a medium sized frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until just translucent. Set aside the onion and garlic. Add the chicken pieces to the same pan, browning on both sides (you may need to add some extra oil to brown the chicken). When it is nicely browned, add back the onion and garlic and deglaze the pan with the sherry.
Scrape up all the bits and put the chicken mixture in an oven going casserole dish. Mix the mushroom mixture with the tarragon mixture and pour this over the chicken in the casserole. Cover it.
Bake in a 350 °F oven for 45 minutes. Uncover for the last 10 minutes. If the sauce is too runny, make up a mixture of 1 tbsp of cornstarch and 2 tbsp of water and add this to the sauce. Stir until it thickens. Serve with rice.

Easy Steamed Rice

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup uncooked rice (makes 1 cup of cooked rice)
  • 1/2 Tsp salt
  • 3 - 4 Cups of water or chicken, beef or vegetable broth

Directions

Bring the water and salt to a rolling boil. Add the rice and stir it to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Cook the rice in the boiling water for 10 minutes.
Drain the rice into a strainer and then fill the bottom of the saucepan that you just used with about 2 - 3 inches of water. Place the strainer on the saucepan (ensure that the rice is not sitting in water. Cover the strainer and bring the water to a boil (steaming the rice). Cook for at least 20 minutes, but can continue to steam it until it is ready to be eaten. To increase the number of servings, just add more rice to the boiling water and follow the other steps.
steamed rice
Variation 1
I will often cook some onions and mushrooms in a small frying pan and add them to to the cooked rice before serving. Sometimes I just add a tablespoon of butter to the rice and stir it in.
Variation 2
If you would like to cook brown rice, increase the initial cook time in the water from 10 to 14 minutes and then steam it until it is tender.
Variation 3
Cook the rice in chicken, beef or vegetable broth instead of water for the first 10 minutes and then steam over water as described above.

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