Recipe: Creamy Lemon-Tarragon Chicken

Last year I planted tarragon in my herb garden for the first time.  I used it a few times along with other herbs but I really had no idea what to do with it.  This year it is growing like a weed, so I decided to try to make a dish with tarragon as the star.  After reading dozens of chicken tarragon recipes online, this is what I came up with:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 pounds) cut into 8  pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons butter

1 small sweet onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cup half and half

2 to 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh French tarragon, divided

The juice of one lemon

The zest of one lemon

Linguini, cooked for 10 minutes in water and then the last two minutes in cream sauce.

Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and brown in olive oil and butter.   Brown on both sides but don’t cook through.  Remove to platter while you build your sauce.

Sautee the onion in chicken drippings until translucent but not browned.  Add the wine and reduce for one or two minutes. Add the 'half and half' and half the tarragon.  Return the chicken breasts to the pan and simmer gently on low. Cover and cook until the chicken is firm and just cooked through.  Don't overcook.

Remove the chicken to a platter and keep warm. Whisk in the remaining tarragon and the lemon juice and check your seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary.  Finish cooking the noodles in the sauce then place in large pasta bowl.  Sprinkle lemon zest over noodles and serve with chicken .  Yum!

Two days later, I re-created the dish to use up the leftovers.  I cooked two pieces of bacon until crisp and set the bacon aside to cool.  I poured off the bacon grease and added the leftover chicken, sliced thinly, to the hot pan, turning the chicken until heated through.  Then I added the leftover cream sauce (linguini was gobbled up the night before) and enough half and half to bring it all together and added the noodles and crumbled bacon to the pan.  (Forgot to mention that I had made a white cake and had 3 egg yolks to use up so I made some fresh noodles--cooked them the same way I did the linguini, finishing them up in the sauce.)  A toss with a little freshly chopped parsley and it was lunch.  The tarragon really took a back seat to the bacon but it was tasty and an easy way to use up the leftovers.

Comments

[ellen b]

That sounds wonderful!

[rosemary]

As I said to my kids when they were little, yummy in the tummy! I use tarragon in chicken salad, so I think I'd like it in the pan sauce. Mmmm.