Ingredients
- 4 × 260 g chicken breast fillets from a Barossa or other well-brought-up chook, skin-on
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- sea salt
- 5 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ½ cup (125 ml) verjuice
- ½ cup (125 ml) Golden Chicken Stock
- handful shredded French tarragon
- ¹⁄₃ cup (80 ml) pure cream
- 1 teaspoon lemon thyme leaves
- 140 g green grapes, cut in half
- freshly ground white pepper
Tarragon chicken breasts with grapes
Whenever I cook with chicken, I always use one of my daughter Saskia’s Barossa chooks, of course, but any well-brought-up, free-range chicken (or chook, if you’re my age) will make all the difference to the end result. Tarragon shares star billing here, but it must be French: the Russian variety won’t impart the same flavour. This means it is a dish for spring and summer, when French tarragon is available.
Method
Place the chicken on a plate, drizzle with oil and season with salt, then leave to come to room temperature.
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large heavy-based frying pan with a tight-fitting lid that will fit the chicken snugly in one layer.
Add the spring onion, then stir and cook for 1–2 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add the chicken to the pan, skin-side down, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until the skin is golden brown. (If the spring onion and garlic start to burn, scrape from the pan and place on top of the chicken).
Turn the breasts over and cook for 4 minutes. Increase the heat to high, then add the verjuice and cook, stirring, until the verjuice has evaporated.
Add the chicken stock, tarragon and cream, and cook until the liquid bubbles up. Season with salt, cover with the lid and cook for 2 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover loosely with foil to keep it warm (the chicken will continue to cook while it rests).
Increase the heat, bring the remaining liquid to the boil and reduce by half. At the very last moment before serving, sprinkle in the thyme, add the grapes and season with salt and pepper.
Serve the chicken breasts immediately, with the sauce spooned around.
This recipe was provided to Foodwise from the book “Maggie’s Verjuice Cookbook” by Maggie Beer and photography by Sharyn Cairns, published by Lantern rrp $39.95.
Submitted byMaggie Beer
