Tarragon Cream Gravy

Tarragon and cream is one of those combinations that makes a plain chicken breast taste like something you ordered. The trick is using the stalks in the reduction and the leaves at the very end, because tarragon loses its aniseed scent within a couple of minutes of simmering.

Ingredients

Makes about 300ml, enough for four plates

• 20g (3/4oz) butter
• 2 shallots finely chopped
• 1 small bunch fresh tarragon about 15g, leaves picked, stalks kept
• 75ml (3fl oz) dry vermouth Noilly Prat or similar, or dry white wine
• 250ml (9fl oz) chicken stock
• 150ml (5fl oz) double cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard optional, adds grip
• salt and white pepper to taste

Kit

• Small saucepan
• Fine sieve
• Sharp knife
• Wooden spoon

Method

1. Strip the tarragon leaves from the stalks and set the leaves aside. Chop the leaves only when you are ready to use them, right at the end, because chopped tarragon fades fast once it is cut.

2. Melt the butter in the saucepan over a medium low heat and cook the shallots for four to five minutes until soft with no colour. Add the tarragon stalks and turn them over in the butter for a minute.

3. Pour in the vermouth, raise the heat and boil it down until only a tablespoon or so of syrupy liquid is left in the pan. This takes about three minutes and is the single most important step. Any harsh alcohol or acid left in the pan now will attack the cream later.

4. Add the chicken stock and simmer for six or seven minutes until reduced by about a third. Taste and season while you still can do it accurately.

5. Turn the heat down low. Pour in the double cream and let it barely simmer for three minutes, so the surface just shivers, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

6. Lift out the tarragon stalks with a fork, or strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean warm pan if you want it perfectly smooth.

7. Off the heat, stir in the mustard if using and then the freshly chopped tarragon leaves. Give it thirty seconds to infuse and serve immediately, before the green fades to olive.

Tips worth knowing

• Use French tarragon, not Russian. French tarragon has the sweet aniseed scent, while Russian is coarser and can taste faintly of grass. If the leaves smell of very little when you rub one between your fingers, it is Russian.
• Dried tarragon is not a substitute in a sauce like this, but if it is all you have, use half a teaspoon and add it with the stock rather than at the end.
• Reduce the vermouth almost to nothing. Cream sauces split far more often because of unreduced wine than because of anything that happens after the cream goes in.
• This is a good sauce to make in the pan you fried the chicken in. Do not wash it, just tip out the excess fat and start with the butter and shallots.

Keeping and reheating

Two days in the fridge, though the tarragon dulls after the first day. Reheat gently without boiling and stir in a few fresh leaves to wake it up. Freezing is not recommended, as the herb flavour disappears entirely.

Questions people ask