Getting fancy, the easy way: Chicken in tarragon mustard cream sauce

Ragazzi, let us face it.  At some point or another, everyone of us is faced with a situation where we need to turn out "something special" from our kitchen.  Perhaps  you've been dating for a while, decided that "he's the one," and you need to seal the deal.  Or,  let's assume you want to give your partner the night off .  Or, there's a mini celebration where you really don't want to leave the home.

Well, for any of these reasons, or just because, Annalena has a dish for you.  It is actually a dish that she knew, and forgot about.  Probably because she is not a big fan of tarragon, which is odd.  See, Annalena loves licorishy/anisy flavors:  fennel, anisette,   hoja santa, etc.  All of these things.  Yet tarragon, which also has that flavor, is not quite to Annalena's taste.  It is, nonetheless, a classic herb in French cooking (where they call it "estragon," if Annalena recalls things correctly), and it is part of a "fines herbes" omelet.  It actually works here, because of the combination of ingredients.  You may want to substitute something else, but do it with the tarragon the first time.  And let's just thing of tarragon as Annalena's version of the Guyman's cilantro.

Let's begin.  Your ingredient list is pretty simple.  You need olive oil,  about a pound and a half of boneless skinless chicken, be it thighs or breasts.  They will both work here.  Simply cut them into chunks, or strips.  Salt them and pepper them, as you gather your other ingredients, which are a half pound of any kind of mushroom you like, which you need to slice thin.

Now, if you don't care for mushrooms, this is NOT the dish for you. Annalena sees it working with other herbs, but not without the mushrooms.    Chop  up a shallot, and then have ready about 3/4 cup of white wine, as long as it's not sweet, a cup and a half of chicken stock, half a cup of heavy cream, and 2 nice big tablespoons of grain mustard.  No hot dog mustard here, please.  And a half bunch of tarragon, chopped.

Most of us will have to shop for at least some of these ingredients, but it shouldn't be too hard to find them.  And now, we go on.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a big pan, wide enough to hold all the chicken in a single layer.   When it begins to ripple, add the chicken, and cook it at high heat.  Leave it alone for 3 minutes, then turn it and cook for another 2.  If you don't get it all turned evenly, don't worry. You're going to cook it again.

After five minutes, take out the chicken and dump out the liquid.  Now add an additional tablespoon of olive oil, the mushroms, and salt and pepper.  The mushrooms will need to heat up, and they will start cooking.  Don't stir them too much: you want a little color.  After about five minutes, they will have given up their water, browned, and will smell good.  Now add that chopped shallot, and stir for 2 minutes.    After that, move your face back from the pan, and add the wine.  Let it cook, over high heat, until it's reduced to just about two tablespoons.  Don't be surgical here, not necessary.  But when it cooks down, add the stock, the cream and the mustard (you can stir these together in a big cup if you like , beforehand),  and let this come to a boil.  Keep the heat high, for six minutes.

Now add the chicken, and the juice that may have settled around it.  Lower the heat, and cook for 3-5 minutes.   And stir in  your herbs.

Now, how hard was that?  Not too bad, huh?  While you're doing this, maybe you want to boil some noodles, or some rice, and put the chicken over it.

You can do this!  Yes, you can.  And you will, because you must. This is going to be  your "go to" company dish if you don't have one already, and if you do, now you have another one.

You probably could serve four with this, but Annalena would say three. So, one each for you, and one for Brangane  (Annalena's opera loving friends will understand).