The tarragon complemented the chicken well. Its flavour is difficult to describe, I'd say that once cooked it was partly reminiscent of lemon, raw green pepper and maybe a tiny bit of aniseed. I think the tarragon I used was Russian Tarragon which is inferior to French Tarragon. From doing some reading about this it seems like French Tarragon is a very particular plant and needs a fair amount of attention for it to flourish. The tarragon in the garden seems to be growing very happily without any special treatment, plus I think it didn't give as much flavour to the finished dish as French Tarragon should.
This version was 6/10 but I will try it with French Tarragon (and without burning it) and see if this elevates the score.
For anyone who has, or aspires to have, their own vegetable/herb garden, I was interested to read that not many pests like tarragon and growing it amongst other plants helps keep the pests away from these too.
Here is the recipe I used:
From Delia's Summer Collection: Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce
For 4 generous portions
1.75 kg chicken, jointed into 8 pieces
150 ml sherry vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
425ml medium-dry Amontillado sherry
12 shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves plus small sprigs of tarragon to garnish
1 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, while doing this season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Fry the chicken pieces until golden brown (this is best done in two batches) then remove these to a plate.Add shallots and garlic to the pan until these are slightly brown.
Turn the heat down, put the chicken pieces back into the pan with the shallots and garlic, scatter the tarragon leaves into the pan and add the sherry vinegar and sherry. Pour glasses of sherry for the people you are cooking for and yourself too, enjoy.
Let the contents of the pan come up to a simmer, then turn the heat down until barely simmering.
Leave for 45 minutes, turning the chicken pieces halfway through this time. The sauce will reduce during this time.
Do keep checking there is still some sauce, don't leave it and go and enjoy a summer's evening in the garden with everyone else and plenty more sherry as I did, or you risk the sauce starting to 'caramelise' and yourself starting to marinade in sherry.
Remove the chicken pieces, shallots and garlic from the pan onto a warmed serving plate. Whisk the creme fraiche into the remaining sauce and season to taste. This still works if the sauce has started to catch a bit, as I found out!
Serve with new potatoes, or rice, or whatever you fancy. As the picture shows, in my slightly inebriated wisdom I had decided to add diced carrots to the rice part way through cooking the rice.
