A dinner special for the family!
This morning, I woke up with a craving for simple roast chicken but cracked my mind as to what would be good and sophisticated enough to entice the family (well, just one) to dinner! Last weekend, we were invited to dinner at my partner’s boss’ house with a group of new colleagues and she made stuffed chicken on a bed of tarragon leaves with grapes, which was pretty good. It was the first time I learnt about the pungent exotic flavoursome taste of tarragon – it packs a punch! I bought three pieces of chicken breasts yesterday whilst grocery shopping (should I have gotten four pieces?!) and some tarragon hoping not to make the same dish… but to innovate. We were actually thinking of roasting another round of beef… this time, wagyu mound. I’m not sure if that’s going to take off today. However, chicken sounds good. Chicken is good for the soul 🙂 I should mention that my partner made tagine wagyu stew last night and it was HEAVENLY!!!! Darn I should have taken a picture!!! It was the second time he made wagyu stew and omg.. it was SO good I could melt and go to heaven!
Right, putting that aside now let’s focus on creating dinner tonight 😀
Tarragon Chicken Marinade Recipe
Tarragon leaves
Three or four skinless chicken thighs (dinner for two)
Garlic
Oliver oil
Half cup chicken stock
Marinate chicken by slipping tarragon leaves between the flesh, garlic slices, salt and pepper; and rub the chicken with olive oil. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes.
Then, sprinkle garlic cloves around the baking pan, then add chicken plus half cup of chicken stock to the pan. Roast for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
Creamy Shroom Sauce
3/4 cup of heavy cream
Fresh tarragon and sprigs
Sliced button mushrooms
With what is left from the baking pan, pour chicken stock remains into pot and stir in the cream and bring it to boil. Cook until reduced by half or less. Stir in tarragon and shrooms for two to three minutes until shrooms are done. Then serve the sauce over the chicken.
Note: I didn’t make this in the end because I thought it wouldn’t go. Instead, I minced some garlic and stuffed them into the ordinary button mushroom and let them bake in the oven with the chicken.
Small Potato Wedges / Cubes
It’s because I have these small leftover potatoes. You could either bake them dry separately from the chicken or bake them with the chicken in which case they may not turn out crispy because of the stock. My oven isn’t very big so I would rather bake them together if it is at all possible.
1) To bake them separately, simply slice potato into wedges shaped pieces, arrange them on a baking pan. Season with salt and paprika, drizzle with oliver oil. You can also add other spices such as chilli powder, ground cumin, ground coriander to add spice.
Bake until crisp and cooked.
2) To bake them together, add the potatoes to the pan after you remove the chicken and stock for the sauce, and leave in oven for another 40-45 minutes. Long time ain’t it?
Alternatively, I would simply chop up the potatoes into tiny squares and then fry them in small spoonful of olive oil. Season with all or one of the spices above. Voila !
Let’s hope dinner turns out as good as it is looking on theory! Keep you posted with pictures to follow…. Watch this space!
Review: I ended up lacing the plate with spinach leaves and sliced pink lady apples, then added the potato cubes on the side, and served chicken on top next to the baked shrooms! My partner absolutely loved it.
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