File this recipe in the category of “quick weeknight dinners that transport you to a restaurant”. This dish was one of the first dishes I ever cooked and it’s also one where I enjoyed the experience of cooking with “significant other” and loved it. Do you like cooking on your own or do you allow others to assist? Do you ever hand the reigns over to someone else and serve as “sous chef”?
One of the best cooking experiences has to be when a couple cooks. The dance, the synchronicity by the sink, the Cha-Cha in the kitchen. You get my drift. It’s another facet for a couple to connect and when this dynamic exists between two people in the kitchen, it’s a wonderful aspect of relationships.
Back to the dish, much like this recipe, this post will also be quick. You need a couple of orders of chicken breast, some butter and oil, frozen or fresh peas, diced fresh carrots, some white wine, chives or scallions, chicken or vegetable stock and some whipping cream and tarragon.
The herbs in the garden are almost in full gear with stragglers like parsley, basil an sage delaying “Team Herbs”. The Tarragon I have in my garden is perennial i.e. it returns to grown after each winter. Do you have this anise-flavoured herb in your garden?
As an added “twist” to this dish, I added some ground mastic resin to the dish. Mastic is a gum/sap from these unique trees that grown only on the southern part of the Greek island of Chios. The flavour is difficult to describe but in small, measured amounts, it’s a wonderful to use in both sweet and savory dishes. My friends at the Mastiha Shop in NewYork would be delighted to set you up with some.
This dish is quick, it’s delicious, ideal for for making on a weeknight and it’s most definitely easy. I served this with some pasta and on this occasion I used fettuccine. Linguine, spaghetti or even angel hair pasta would also work in a pinch.
On this occasion, I cracked open a bottle of Greek wine. This time uncorked a bottle of the Pavlou/Kappa Blanch de Noir...a white wine made of Xinomavro and Riesling grapes.
Tarragon Chicken With Peas and Carrots
(serves 2)
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3Â tsp. chopped fresh tarragon
1 Tbsp. butter + Tbsp. of olive oil
1/4 dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup stock
1/2 tsp. ground mastic (optional)
1/2 cup fresh of frozen peas
1/3 cup diced carrots
1 scallion, finely chopped (green and white parts separated)
- Rinse and pat-dry the chicken breasts and place between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Pound to thin paillards of about 1/2 inch thick. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place a pot of water on your stove-top to boil and place another skillet over medium-high heat. Boil your pasta of choice according to package’s instructions. Place your mastic in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Take out, place between two pieces of cling-wrap and crush/roll with a rolling pin. Carefully remove the ground mastic resin and reserve.
- Add the butter and olive oil into the skillet and when the fat stops bubbling, add your breasts and brown for 2-3 minutes a side. Transfer chicken to a plate and reserve. In the same skillet over medium heat add more more olive oil if needed, the white part of the scallions, the diced carrots and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Now add the wine and reduce for a couple of minutes while scraping up brown bits and then add the stock and bring to boil. Add the chicken breasts into the sauce along with the peas and cream, ground mastic and simmer until your sauce has thickened. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, stir in the chopped green part of the scallions and set aside and keep warm.
- Toss your pasta with some brown butter and fresh ground pepper, divide and plate. Place the chicken on the pasta and pour sauce over. Top with some more cracked black pepper and some grated Parmesan.
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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis
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22 Responses
This looks so delicious…
and to answer your question, I usually cook alone. :)
I think when the kids grow up and our lives are less hurried , K and I will have that dance in the kitchen again. :)
Hmm, I think I wanna hear more about this significant other Peter! ;)
Anyway, I usually cook and bake alone. I like having someone else there, but to be honest it doesn’t make it easier – it becomes a teaching experience. (But I like teaching, as long as there’s time.) Anyway. I’m soooo hungry now. Chicken and pasta is one of my favorite go-to quick meals :)
Very flavorful! Tarragon goes perfectly well with white meat!
Cheers,
Rosa
I hope you were cooking this up with a significant other in the kitchen Peter and harmonizing over the stove. It looks delicious!!
Your blog is super. So are your photographies. They make me hungry. I have spent a nice moment when seeing them. Thanks a lot.
I love this dish; looks scrumptious!!
Another delicious meal – but I want to hear more about the cha-cha in the kitchen.
That looks like such a comforting dish! As you know Matt & I love to cook together.
Nothing like cooking for two! Love the flavours in this dish Peter…tarragon is one herb I hardly use. This provides great inspiration!
Gorgeous dish Peter! I actually really like cooking together with Tom, although we don’t do it that often. We both love cooking and when we cook together we are a great team!
δελεαστικό, πως να αντισταθεί κανείς
I love cooking for two! Well I always do since I met M. anyway. I like having help in the kitchen, or being the help and it has happened a few times, but when I want to be quick and efficient I cannot have anyone in there interfering! Tarragon is one of those herbs I discovered quite recently, but the combination with chicken and cream is definitely a winner!
this is most definitely a dish worthy of being served in a restaurant! in fact, it’s presented more beautifully than many of the plates i’ve been served. very nice, peter–i’m always a fan of the fowl. :)
Tarragon is an excellent herb with chicken. And while this recipe is lovely (and I have already copied it) I really must comment on the lovely photo you’ve taken. It’s difficult to take photos of a dish like this and you’ve done a fabulous job. The peas and carrots set things off color-wise! Lovely presentation.
I cook alone…always did. But then my ex couldn’t have been less interested in the kitchen. Food was fodder to him. Luckily, all three of my kids love to cook and love to eat. My two boys are really quite good in the kitchen.
That all sounds so poetic! The cooking … together … in the kitchen, I mean. I wish I weren’t such a spaz and a control freak and that my husband felt more comfortable cooking … I guess we’ll try to work on that!
As for this dish, it is a superb outcome and result of the great cooking experience you describe. Love the tarragon here.
I eat chicken a lot and this sounds really good. Beautiful pic, too! I’ve got a one-butt kitchen… no room for more than that :)
as gross as this will sound i could drink that sauce. i love my tarragon sauce so much. this is just heaven to me.
My grandmother always used fresh tarragon with chicken too; she would slide it under the skin, and Oh it made the chicken taste so good
Ha Ha! Though my husband and I are the perfect couple, the kitchen is one place we do not stand side by side. I am the persnickety, just so, precise pastry-type cook, he’s the ad lib, throw whatever into the pot, use every pot, pan, utensil we own and leave them lying around for later cook. So no go. But I would be happy to make this wonderful chicken dish for him any night. Luscious! And easy? I’m there. And he’ll wash the dishes :-)
This looks really delicious, Peter. I like tarragon but I admit I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with it! I will have to give it a try.