The Knorr recipe challenge: roast chicken with creamy tarragon sauce

The very generous and lovely people at Knorr recently sent me a parcel of goodies and challenged me to cook up something lovely using the ingredients and their new stock pots.  The ingredients came beautifully packed from Forman & Field and, amongst other things, included:

1 Rhug organic chicken

2 shallots

Biddenden Ortega white wine (from Kent!)

A bunch of tarragon

A bunch of parsley

I also used a Knorr chicken stock pot and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream.

On to my recipe, then. Frankly the chicken looked so beautiful: plumptious breasted and yellow skinned that I decided to simply roast it, then make a delicious sauce to accompany it from the ingredients.  There were mushrooms in there, but the Death Wish Dude is a mushroom hater, so I had to leave them out.  Feel free to add them in if you like while you’re frying the shallot.

This is a lovely way to serve a roast chicken and different from my normal ‘stick a chicken up its bum’ method,( or ‘poulet avec citron au derrière’, to give it its full title – which, hilariously, Google translates to ‘chicken with lemon behind’).

First, then, roast your chicken.  This one was quite small, about 1.5kg, so I just roasted it for an hour and 15 minutes (see my rule of thumb on the other post) at 190 degrees/gas 5.

By the way, if you’d rather do this with chicken breasts, just roast them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes (check they’re done by pushing on them – they should feel firm – or if you’re worried, cut them in half and have a look – you can always serve them in slices) and prepare the sauce in the same way.

On to the sauce, then.  Drop a knob of butter into a heavy based saucepan and add in a finely chopped shallot.  Fry gently until translucent then add in a glass of the delicious English wine (drink the rest) and about 150 ml stock.  Leave it to bubble and reduce right down to at least half, if not more.  Finally, add in the tarragon (don’t use too much, it’s quite strong – a level tablespoon of chopped leaves is enough), and a handful of chopped parsley, then the sour cream.

Serve with the roast chicken, a fresh green salad and maybe some baby new potatoes.

Many thanks to Knorr.  By the way, if you’d like to win one of these lovely seasonal boxes, leave a comment here or pop over to my Facebook page, where you can enter too.

 

**************THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED – THANKS FOR YOUR ENTRIES! *****************

6 Responses to “The Knorr recipe challenge: roast chicken with creamy tarragon sauce”

1. The Fool says:

   July 1, 2012 at 11:22 am

   That looks awesome, sauces are definitely a weak point for me but they can make a real difference can’t they?
   • English Mum says:

     July 1, 2012 at 3:01 pm

     They really can. And I think I get in a bit of a gravy rut with roast chicken. This was a nice change x
2. notsupermum says:

   July 1, 2012 at 8:20 am

   That sounds great, I’d love to try the recipe on my girls. Btw, the Teenager also hates mushrooms – but both me and Tall Daughter love them.
   • English Mum says:

     July 1, 2012 at 3:00 pm

     I don’t mind a mushroom – I’m not sure about those massive big saucer-sized ones – it’s a texture thing x
3. jenny says:

   June 30, 2012 at 11:30 pm

   Ooooh! I’m commenting! Or is this an ‘Irish need not apply’ competition? If so – down with that sort of thing!*
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   * If you got the Fr. Ted reference, congrats!!!
   • English Mum says:

     July 1, 2012 at 11:38 am

     Hmmm sorry my darling, I think sending fresh food to Ireland would be a bit of a mare. Just means you’ll have to come and see me! Oh and yes. I miss Father Ted;)