Tarragon Chicken with Blood Lime, Honey & Cumquats
It had been a while since I dreamt up a dish using tarragon, but high time since I got myself a fresh bunch on Saturday. Only it doesn't stay fresh forever! So this evening I decided to improvise a quick and quirky dish of chicken, tarragon and citrus- perfect for the warm if not quite sunny weather...
Tangy cumquats and super-zingy blood lime were the show-stoppers with this dish of course- but you can easily substitute them with regular lemon, orange or lime as long as you slice them thinly- it is the sweet and sour of the honey and the fruit juices that make this dish work, along with the anise seed flavor of the tarragon. Along with some simple, shaved fennel salad and a light and colorful dinner is served! Enjoy!
I know I say this every time- but the Italian name for tarragon, "Dragoncello", just gets me! I love it! And I love its delicate and yet pungent flavor too. Yet most of us find it difficult to use and hard to dose properly. This method is easy and sure to please.. let me tell you what I did!
I started off by preparing the fennel, which I simply sliced very thinly and sprinkled with a little orange juice, sugar and salt and left to marinate whilst I prepared the chicken. For the chicken, I got my griddle nice and hot, added a few drops of olive oil and started it frying at a high heat. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, added a couple of cloves of garlic to the pan for a little flavor and fried it for 1-2 minutes from each side.
Whilst the chicken was frying, I sliced the blood-lime and cumquats as thinly as possible, and added it alongside to brown a little. I flipped them over and got them lightly browned off, likewise the chicken, and then deglazed the pan with a little white wine and added a couple of stalks of tarragon. Once the tarragon had softened up in the moisture of the wine, and the chicken had begun to soak up the juices from the citrus fruits, I drizzled everything with honey and then placed a nice decorative stalk on top of the chicken. I then spooned the citrus slices on top, added a final extra trickle of honey and then popped the pan under the broiler for 2-3 minutes, just to get everything nice and brown... mmm!
And there you have it! Tarragon chicken with the tasty tang of citrus juice and zest and the sweetness of honey! Now doesn't that look and sound good to you? ;-)
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