Sautéed Chicken With Tarragon-Cream Sauce

Sautéed Chicken With Tarragon-Cream Sauce

Backstory

My wife came home one evening about a month ago with a cooking magazine called Cuisine Tonight Favorites which is a supplement to Cuisine At Home Magazine. Soon after she adapted this recipe contained in the issue she purchased, but we didn’t have all the ingredients readily available on the evening she had done so, so I wanted to go back and redo the dish again. I might have chosen a different recipe to profile, but I had purchased boneless skinless chicken breasts on a recent trip to the supermarket and I also had some heavy cream nearing its expiration date.

This particular collection of recipes were intended to make for quick weeknight dinners, a la Rachael Ray, as the cover clearly states “Quick & Easy Meals” and “Fast & Flavorful 30 Minutes or Less”. (If I could insert an editorial opinion here: How did 30 minutes become the benchmark for weeknight cooking? Seems a bit arbitrary.)

Regardless, I have included a picture of the magazine cover because the publishers did not date this issue.

Cuisine Tonight Favorites Magazine

Recipe

This recipe appears on page 21 of the magazine referenced above. The plated meal also appears on the issue’s cover.

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

salt and pepper for seasoning

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 cup dry white wine or chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon dried tarragon leaves

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

2 teaspoons fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped (optional, for garnish)

Ingredients

Method

1. Season both sides of each chicken breast with salt and pepper. Dredge each breast with flour, shaking off any excess. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet and sauté chicken until lightly browned on both sides, 5 to 7 minutes per side.  Remove chicken from pan and set aside but keep warm.

Chicken In The Skillet

2. Add mushrooms to the heated pan. Cook until they soften and begin to brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Mushrooms In The Skillet

3. Add wine and cream to the mushrooms in the pan. Return chicken to the pan and reduce heat. Simmer until sauce thickens slighty, approximately 8 minutes. Stir in tarragon and vinegar. Cook an additional minute. Garnish the sauce with parsley and season it with salt and pepper. Plate by spooning the sauce over the chicken breasts.

Chicken Just Added To The Sauce

Note

1. Ingredients. The recipe in the magazine used 3 ounces of sliced prosciutto or crumbled bacon but noted to omit it if none was available. None was, so I did.

Baptism Evaluation

Taste: 8

Ease of Preparation: 7

Sophistication: 7

Bottom Line: Yes

Final Thoughts

This dish would make a perfect addition to Project: Baptism because the recipe was true to its word: I was able to prepare it under 30 minutes. The star of the dish is the sauce, as it was a perfect complement to the chicken with strong and sophisticated flavors. For the picture of the plated dish above, I put the chicken and sauce on a bed of mashed potatoes, which segues nicely to my next post, where potatoes will be the theme.

Enjoy!