This recipe for creamy Dijon tarragon chicken is a standard in our house when – not many years ago – I didn’t even know what tarragon tasted like.
Tarragon in French is “estragon.” You can imagine the mistake made by Frenchies standing lost in the American supermarket spice aisle, searching under “e” and turning to their neighbor – “Par-don. Do you know where to find the…”
And what the heck are you supposed to do with tarragon anyway? I mean basil and parsley I can do. Thyme okay. Sage on the rare occasion and Herb de Provence for the true chefs (outside of France). But tarragon?
Well have I got news for you, my friends. I have a super easy recipe that will have you licking your plates. (Unless you have company).
You take some onions.
Peel, quarter and stick them in the cuisinart.
You could chop them by hand, I suppose, but this way your children, your husband and any other finicky eater will thank you for the uniform texture.
Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet,
and add the onions.
Fry about 10 minutes on high heat. When the onions start to brown too quickly, add some water.
Like this.
They turn soft and blend well into the sauce.
Chop 4 chicken breasts into small pieces. If you’re a multi-tasker, you can do this while frying the onions. If you’re taking pictures and trying to blog about it, you might resist the temptation.
Dump the chicken breasts in the skillet with a teaspoon of salt. (I suppose there are more elegant words than “dump” but nothing comes to mind).
Fry them up as well, about 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t use water if they start to burn, but do turn the heat down. Make sure they are fully cooked.
Done? Then add a tablespoon of tarragon. It smells a little like anise, doesn’t it?
When the tarragon is nice and wilted, add a heaping tablespoon of dijon mustard. Go easy if you’re serving kids (or aforementioned finicky eaters). I used a mild variety since we’ll all be eating this tonight.
Then add 2/3 cups crème fraiche. (Sour cream will do just fine). Make sure you scrape up the chicken bits that are stuck to the pan and incorporate them in the sauce. When it’s all melted, you’re good to go. Just serve a couple spoonfuls over rice.
You don’t know how to boil rice? We can remedy that.
Tip One Do not buy Uncle Ben’s rice.
Tip Two Avoid anything that hints at risotto on the packaging. And for the rest, click over to my tutorial on how to boil rice right here!
Then you’re ready for your finished pièce de résistance!
- 2 onions minced
- 4 chicken breast, cut in small pieces
- 1t salt
- 1T olive oil
- 1 heaping tablespoon dijon mustard
- ⅔ cup crème fraiche
- 1T tarragon
- Chop and fry the onions.
- Chop and add the chicken.
- When it's done, add the rest of the ingredients until they are all melted together in a nice sauce.
- Serve over rice.
Nice- I like that your accepting donations for a new kitchen 🙂 cute.
I am obsessed with chicken dijon recipes, never tried one with estrogen, er, tarrogon. Can’t wait to try this one!
Oh good! Let me know how it goes. The only other thing I do with dijon is to spread it over the whole chicken with herbes de provence. What do you do?
What a great recipe to make! Thanks!!!! I’ll make it this week!
Let me know how it goes.
I”ll have to try this, it looks good. That is too funny about the name! Love your kitchen side comments!
Thanks Caren! Do let me know if you like it when you try it.
Looks completely wonderful! And, to think, I thought a post about Estrogen Chicken was going to be about how you should only buy organic chicken so your daughter doesn’t get her period when she is seven years old and stuff due to the hormones in some of the chicken on the market.
I knew people would think that. I don’t think any hormones are allowed in meat in France. (phew).
Thanks for the play by play on the rice, here I thought I was the only one in the world that couldn’t make it!!! lol It’s always crunchy no matter what I do! No matter what!!!
I bow to your superior cooking abilities.
I hope that the tutorial gives you many successful years of boiling rice, ha ha. 😉
i love the smell of onions browning. it really carries through the house and makes anyone salivate!
ok, so i’m asian, and i grew up eating rice almost every single day, but i still can’t seem it get it right. so, i will try it your way. my mom thinks i’m a few tools short of a toolbox for not having figured it out yet. =)
Wow. That looks good. I am going to have to hunt for some Tarragon. What other dishes do you think might be yummy with this herb? I’ll let you know how the boys like it when I make it.
There’s that sour cream again. You really do use it in everything, don’t you? By the way, that’s the most elegant photograph of an onion that I’ve ever seen. Well done 🙂
This looks delicious! Though I’m pretty sure most men wouldn’t be interested in eating Estrogen chicken! 😛
That ALWAYS cracked me up too! The recipe looks yummy!
Just wanted to let you know that I used your recipe last night for the fam – to rave reviews! And? My husband hates onions and loved it. And? I hate cooking and thought this was a piece of cake – THANK YOU! (I forgot the salt – but it was delicious anyways)
My first feedback! Yay! You know it was that puréeing of the onions. It’s like my husband who says he doesn’t like makeup but he has no idea what goes into it. And he likes the finished product.
You get what I’m talking about right?
Well. I tried the dish tonight! It was absolutely, (Sing) Yum-my. Of course I added a bit more salt my taste. Extra Tarragon that I was surprised for whatever reason , to find in the supermarket. I did a full cup of sour cream as I love sauce on my rice. Then I only had honey mustard salad dressing. Sorry to mess up the original recipe, but it worked great with regular mustard. I told my hubby I got the recipe from you. The whole family loved it, when they were finished an hour later, they said can we have more of that chicken? Thanks so much and keep’em coming.
Wow, this looks good! My rice never turns out right, so will try your method.
I made it and LOVED it!!!!! I couldn’t find the creme fraiche at the first store but found it at another one. I’m going to try to use it with sour cream next week. I did use Uncle Ben’s rice-SORRY! That’s all I had.
So glad you liked it! Let me know how it works out with sour cream.