This Is The French Bistro Classic You Have To Try

My version of tarragon chicken is deceptively simple-to-make and punches well above its weight class when it comes to looks and taste. Here’s how to make it:

4 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
1/4 cup white rice flour
6 button mushrooms, sliced thin
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup brandy
2 – 3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped

1. The day before, trim any loose fat and skin from the chicken thighs. Season them liberally with salt and leave them uncovered in your fridge overnight. This will dry brine the chicken, leaving it juicier once cooked while also seasoning it to the bone.

2. Dredge the chicken, skin-side only, in the rice flour. Add a splash of olive oil and a knob of unsalted butter to a pan on medium-high heat and lay in the chicken, skin-side down. Let fry for 3 or 4 minutes until deeply golden, then remove them to a plate. Add the mushrooms to a pan and fry until they release their water, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the shallot and continuing frying 1 minute. Pour in the wine and let simmer until most of the liquid evaporates. Repeat with the brandy. Return the chicken to the pan and add enough stock to cover the chicken by about 3/4. Cover and turn the heat down to medium-low. Simmer until the chicken reaches 165 F internal temperature, about 20 minutes.

3. Remove the chicken and turn the heat up slightly. Reduce the sauce by about half. Turn the heat back down to low. Once the boiling slows, pour in the cream and add most of the tarragon (hold a bit back for garnish). Simmer gently for a minute or two, then add freshly cracked black pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Return the chicken to the pan to allow them to warm up again, then serve. Garnish with the remaining tarragon.

Cheers!

Robert

Hey thanks for dropping in uh this is dinner by dad and today we’re going to make one of my personal favorites Teragon chicken if you’re wondering what happened to the soup series that’s on pause for this week I need some special equipment which some recent blizzardy

Weather has made difficult to go out and get case in point this is the view for my dining room it’s pretty to look at but not easy to get around in unless you have snow tires which I do not anyway I’m not disappointed about skipping soup because as I mentioned

Teragon chicken is one of my favorite dishes and best of all it’s ridiculously easy to make it starts with surprise surprise some shallot uh chopped somewhat finely uh you can use an onion if you prefer but I like how the shallot almost disappears into the sauce while chicken and Teragon are the

Stars of the dish uh it is nice to have a little little variety so I’ll be throwing in a handful of button mushrooms uh these are stragglers from when I made a beef stew a few nights ago I’ll just pop off the stems and give them a trim then slice everything thinly the

Earthiness of these will go really nicely with Teragon as for other sporting ingredients I’ve got some dry white wine a bit of Brandy a bit of heavy cream and some white rice flour oh and chicken stock I almost forgot the chicken stock NOW Our Stars first the chicken

Which I trimmed yesterday and removed the loose fat and skin I’ve got four pieces here which is enough for my little family but scale it up according to your requirements I’m using dark meat only you can see these are all thighs you can make this recipe with breast but

Why would you uh thighs are so much tastier and so much more forgiving to cook see how dry and almost leathery that skin looks uh these thighs have been dry brined overnight that means I seasoned them liberally with salt and left them uncovered in fridge doing so allows the

Salt to penetrate deep into the chicken this has two advantages first it Seasons the meat thoroughly uh including the inside and second it allows the meat to hold on to moisture better so it doesn’t dry out even if you overcook it a bit our final star is this

Teragon this is of the Mexican variety which is the only type that my local market carries if you can get your hands on real French Teragon go for it interesting fact I just found out that Mexican Teragon isn’t really a Teragon at all uh but it’s actually from the

Marold family that doesn’t really concern me though cuz it’s close enough in flavor and it’s still going to be delicious I’m going to begin by spreading some of my rice flour in the baking dish and I’ll dredge the chicken on the skin side only that’s the presentation side

And it’s the only side we care about we want it to be nice and golden and pretty once that’s accomplished these can move to the stove first thing we need to do is put a little olive oil and butter in our pan we’ll lay in the chicken skinside

Down and give it a couple of minutes to Brown because I’ve only got four pieces I’m going to do this in one shot if you’ve got a lot of chicken do this span batches so you don’t crowd the pan and unintentionally steam the chicken that’s looking really good these birds can come out as I mentioned a second ago we’re

Not concerned about the underside of the chicken also you might be thinking that I missed a step and I didn’t season the thighs don’t forget uh these have been dry brind they’re plenty seasoned already all right next in the pan are the mushrooms these only need to fry for

A few minutes until they release their water once we reach that point the shallot can go in I’ll let him sweat for just a minute now the wine can go in as usual I’ll free pour it in oops uh that was a bit of a generous pour uh needless to

Say I make an excellent bartender at weddings I’ll let the simmer until most of the wine evaporates off then it’s in with a brandy free pouring again but a little more carefully this time like the wine we want most that Brandy to cook off we don’t want the alcohol only the

FL flavor all right everything’s looking good there so the chicken can go back in then I’ll add enough stock to mostly cover the chicken this can be covered I’ll turn the heat down slightly and let this cook about 20 minutes or until the chicken reaches 165 F internal

Temperature our chicken’s cooked so it can come out and we can set it Aside now we can finish a sauce first thing we we need to do is to reduce the liquid in the pan I’ll turn the heat up slightly and bring this to a more vigorous simmer that’s looking about right so now we can add a/2 cup of heavy

Cream as well as most of the Teragon which I just roughly chopped up pepper of course I’ve turned the heat down so this doesn’t boil and curdle uh we’ll give it a few minutes for the Teragon to infuse into the sauce well no we’re close when the sauce

Kind of sort of coats the back of a spoon which it kind of sort of does time for a Taste I’m very happy with that it doesn’t even need any extra salt now the chicken can go back into the pan for a minute to warm up and we’re ready to serve so here we are Teragon chicken perfectly browned perfectly juicy chicken sitting in a pool so unbel

Believably rich and creamy and Teragon that you’ll want to Dive Right In oh and yeah there’s mushrooms in there as well the only thing it needs is a little shower of fresh Teragon and we’re ready for a [Applause] flyby okay let’s try this Thing oh my God thanks for watching if you like this video please remember to hit like And subscribe and if you have any questions tips suggestions or even if you just want to say hi leave a comment I’d love to hear from here see you next week