The tarragon chicken is from a recipe in Olive magazine and has one, well maybe two ingredients - Tarragon and Chicken.... so what could I not find in Sainsburys??
A complete lack of tarragon, they did have chicken though!!
So this is my tweak on the recipe using lemon thyme instead - lemon and thyme and chicken go well so I thought it would be a good combination to try.
For 4 you'll need the following:
sunflower oil 1tbsp
shallots 2 sliced
garlic 2 cloves crushed
chicken thighs 8 skinless and boneless
dry white wine 100ml (and the rest of the bottle for the chef?!)
chicken stock 400ml - I religiously use the jelly ones now
cornflour 1/2 tbsp
half-fat creme fraiche 3 tbsp
tarragon leaves (or if you want to follow my variation lemon thyme) 2 tbsp roughly chopped
- heat the oil in a large non stick frying pan and gently fry the shallots for 5 mins until soft and lightly coloured. Add the garlic for the last minute of the cooking time.
- Season the chicken thighs and add to the pan. Fry for 2-3 minutes, turning once until very lightly coloured. Pour in the wine and bring to the boil. Stir in the stock and return to a gentle simmer. Cook for 10 mins.
- Mix the cornflour with 1/2 tbsp cold water and stir into the pan. As soon as the sauce thickens, stir in the creme fraiche and tarragon (lemon thyme) then season. Remove from the heat. Serve with new potatoes.
I also served green beans with my lemon thyme chicken and the 3 of us polished off the lot! (Enough for 4 people supposedly - I blame V&I!)
I don't have any pictures of the chicken seeing as we polished it off waay too quickly, but I managed to pause and take a couple of pictures of the Chocolate Mousse before we dove into that!
The chocolate mousse was another Olive recipe - thanks to T for buying me that gift subscription!
Again this serves 4 and this time we didn't eat the lot between the 3 of us as it was very rich:
125g good quality plain chocolate
4 eggs separated
2 tsp golden caster sugar
splash of booze (this is my addition - brandy or grand marnier would be very nice!)
Break up the chocolate and put into a heatproof bowl resting on top of, but not in, a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate melts (this is where I would add booze). Cool a little, then stir in the egg yolks mixing well.
Whisk the whites in a bowl until the form soft peaks, then stir in the sugar and whisk again to regain the texture you have lost. Carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix, spoon into small glasses or I used small coffee cups and chill until set.
This is ideal to make the day before a dinner party and keep in the fridge, I actually made it in the morning and it was set by dinner time.
Happy eating!!
The Camden Road Cook
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