This is a great classic little recipe, the kind that’s really not that difficult to pull together and you are sure to hear “bravo-bravo” all around when this dish is presented tableside. It’s the Fall season, so I consider this dish as a respectable entrance into the season, it’s not too light (a little cream and butter only) and really not so heavy as to leave your guests slumbering in their chairs. What appeals to me is that it incorporates the things I enjoy cooking with such as red wine vinegar flavored with taragon, fresh taragon, mushrooms and a real slow chicken.
Ingredients:
5 mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
4 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 – 8 pieces of chicken, skinned
salt and pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 cup tarragon vinegar
2 sprigs fresh tarragon
3 tablespoon heavy cream
(Cooks note: if you don’t happen to have a variety of vinegars on tap, just add tarragon to a cup of vinegar set aside for a while. No problems. This is about cooking not headaches!)
Directions:
Makes 6 – 8 servings
In a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium heat until the butter melts. Add the mushrooms, carrots and shallots. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the pan.
Add the rest of the butter and olive oil and heat until the butter melts. Salt and pepper the chicken on all sides and than add the pieces to the pan, browning on all sides for about 5 minutes per side.
Add the vegetables, vinegar and tarragon. Cover and simmer on low-medium heat for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Remove chicken and vegetables to a serving dish.
Continue cooking the vinegar on medium to high heat until reduced to about a third (about 8 minutes).
Stir in cream and pour sauce over chicken and vegetables.
Serve with white rice or perhaps little white potatoes done in the pan with a little olive oil and sea salt and parsley. If your thinking salad, I would zero right in on some delicious endives (yes once again, I’m a fanatic) toss with a little olive oil and red wine vinegar, crumble some blue cheese and add chopped walnuts. Voila – a true bistro salad, a true bistro meal.
Note: I have made this dish several times over and what a truly delicious meal. Of course you have to appreciate vinegar and taragon. But wow!