Picture: Orange Tarragon Chicken Breast and Asparagus with toasted pecans
I always keep boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the freezer for those nights when I don’t want to put too much effort or time into the meal. I just season the breasts with salt and pepper, fry them in a skillet with a little olive oil, then use a little liquid (preferably vermouth or bourbon) to deglaze the pan. Add a touch of butter and I have a nice sauce to pour over the chicken.
To dress it up some, I’ll add a few other choice ingredients like raisins and herbs. Here is one of my favorite chicken breasts recipes. Just serve it with a simple side dish or salad for a full meal.
A list of suggested sides is provided at the end of this post.
Orange Tarragon Chicken Breast with Raisins Recipe
*See Kitchen Notes for more information or additional links
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- ½ cup vermouth or white wine
- 1 ½ Tbsp. orange juice concentrate
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup raisins
- ½ tsp. dried tarragon or 1 tsp. fresh tarragon, chopped
- ½ Tbsp. butter
- Salt and pepper the breasts on both sides.
- Heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, place the breasts in the skillet. Cook 8 – 10 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the breasts. To test for doneness, press on the thickest part of the breast with your finger. If it feels soft, cook another minute or two. If it feels firm, it’s done.
- When done, remove the breasts from the skillet, cover and keep warm. Pour half of the vermouth in the skillet and deglaze the pan, scraping up the bits stuck to the bottom.
- Add the orange juice concentrate, remaining vermouth, water, raisins and tarragon. Cook on medium-high, stirring for 3 to 4 minutes or until the raisins are soft and the sauce has thickened.
- Stir the butter into the sauce. Return the chicken breasts to the skillet with any juices that have accumulated on the plate. Coat the chicken with the sauce.
- Place each breast on a plate. Pour the sauce and raisins over the chicken breasts and serve. You may choose to slice the breasts before topping with the sauce.
Chicken Breast – The thicker the breast, the longer it will need to cook in order for the thickest part to cook through. This could cause the thinner section to overcook. To provide for a more even cooking, you could gently pound the breast with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. Just don’t go overboard. You don’t want a cutlet.
Vermouth – The deglazing and sauce liquids can be just about anything – vermouth, a little wine, bourbon, stock, juice, water or a combination of two or three. I’ve used them all. Use the breasts seasoning and the other components of the meal to decide which liquids to use.
Orange Juice Concentrate – If you don’t have orange concentrate in the freezer you can substitute the concentrate and the water with a generous ½ cup of orange juice.
Pan Fried Chicken Breast Variations
Below are some variations for skillet fried chicken breasts. The prep and seasonings differ, but the method of cooking is the same.
Bourbon and Cranberry Sauce – Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Cook. Make a sauce of minced onion, cranberries, crumbled sage, bourbon and apple juice (or water).
Garlic stuffed Chicken Breasts – Make four slots in the side of each breast with a paring knife. Insert ½ of a roasted garlic clove into each slot. Season the breasts with Creole seasoning and cook. Deglaze the pan with your liquid of choice and add a little butter to finish off the sauce.
The Easiest of all – Salt and pepper each breast, cook, deglaze with your liquid of choice.
Suggested sides
- Asparagus with toasted pecans (shown in the picture)
- Asparagus, green beans, or yellow squash fixed your favorite way
- Couscous, rice or this Smoky Polenta with Aged Cheese
- A green salad with a few fixings and a simple dressing like this Arugula, Fresh Pea and Orange Salad
- Glazed Carrots with Sage (One of our favorites)
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MJ, I love the idea of using different alcohols or acids to deglaze the pan to create a sauce. I don’t often cook chicken in a pan (normally I end up roasting), but your tips and suggestions are quite useful and have me thinking about ways to use them… Thanks so much for sharing and love that this includes raisins 🙂
This looks fantastic! I’ve never used tarragon but I keep meaning to try it, so this is the perfect dish for my tarragon intro!
wow!! inviting!! Thanks a lot for sharing this delicious dish with Midweek fiesta…
Hi MJ,
I just love the combination of flavor that your have in this great recipe for Tarragon Chicken. I looks delicious and we would really enjoy it. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Happy New Year to you and your family and Abundant Blessings in 2012!
Miz Helen
Would love you to join us on creative Thursday (which is ing this week to creative mondays ?http://clairejustineoxox.blogspot.com/2011/12/creative-thursday_21.html
Simple but elegant. The step-by-step directions were great. When I get vermouth and tarragon in the house, I’ll try the recipe as given. Meanwhile, my version used rum and fresh thyme, because that’s what I had on hand… it was delicious! Thanks!
Janet, You are most welcome. I love the substitution of rum and thyme. That’s the nice thing about recipes like this – it’s so flexible that you can use whatever you have in the pantry or the garden.
Excellent! And thanks for the substitution info. I never have OJ concentrate on hand, but I always have orange juice.