This recipe comes from the new Comfort by John Whaite, a lovely and an important book. The spotlight is on the tarragon, ideal for chicken and mushrooms. Now, the thing about John’s book is that the recipes are important as written but also serve as templates. For example, we had tarragon in our herb garden, holding out before the first frost. And we had chicken. The mushrooms and rice? Uh, no. But we had lovely potatoes and farmers market carrots, so Suzi did some substituting.
She followed the recipe’s preparation technique but, as the picture shows, our dish was a bit different. Equally compelling. And a powerful reason for you to look at Comfort and consider adding it to your kitchen. I’ve called Comfort an essential cookbook, one to have on hand for those times when, gee, you don’t have mushrooms or rice!
The recipe below is the original one from the book. Feel free to experiment!
I do have a question in for John. In the recipe below you see a mixture of measuring units, some metric like ml and g and some English like tablespoons. I’m curious what is the British “standard” nowadays.
One-Pot Tarragon Chicken, Mushrooms and Rice
Yield: serves 4
Ingredients:
- 800ml chicken stock
- 150ml dry white wine
- 225g basmati rice
- 200g mixed mushrooms finely sliced
- 1 banana shallot, finely sliced
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves
- 6-8 chicken thighs Olive oil
- Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Put the chicken stock and wine into a large, shallow ovenproof casserole and bring to the boil. Put the rice into a sieve and rinse under the cold tap until the water runs clear.
When the liquid is boiling, add the rice, mushrooms, shallot and tarragon with a pinch of salt and pepper and stir to combine. Place the thighs,
I skin-side up, on top, drizzle them with oil and sprinkle over a little salt and pepper. Cook in the oven, uncovered, for 45 50 minutes, until the chicken is deeply bronzed and the rice is tender. Serve immediately.
Source: Comfort, Food to Soothe the Soul by John Whaite [Kyle 2018]
Photo Information: Canon T2i, EFS 60mm Macro Lens, F/3.5 for 1/30th second at ISO‑320