Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce (Delia Smith)

It was a nice and mild weekend evening when I was serving this beautiful chicken dish with a nice and easy potato salad.

The wonderful combination of chicken cooked with sherry, sherry vinegar and tarragon is simply superb creating very nice flavours. With no doubt, we finished all of this dish with great satisfaction. The potato salad with this vinaigrette dressing is fantastic as well and complement well with these chicken. I would assume that everything seems nice and ok for this dinner but unfortunately, not so as we can't think unanimously well of this potato salad... Apparently, the subtle fume from the shallots in salad has made my son a winch at the begining of the dinner. After his first taste of the potato salad, my son just refused to have another bite subsequently... *sign*

Boy: Mum, I don't like potato anymore...
 
Mum: Ok! For you, I will remember not to add shallots into our potato salad anymore...

Boy: I will not eat any potato salad anymore...

Dad: Chips are made of potato and maybe you should not eat chips anymore...

Boy: D'Oh

Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce

The beautiful ingredients for this dish

Cooking the chicken dish...

We are getting there. Giving this dish a final touch...

Ready! Now I need a good potato salad to compliment this.

Making the vinaigrette for the potato salad

Only for adults - Nice potato salad served with shallots and vinaigrette

Here are the recipes from Delia Smith
(with my modification in blue)

Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce

1.75 kg chicken, jointed into 8 pieces, or 4 bone-in chicken breast portions
(I have used 4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, about 1.3 kg in total)
5 fl oz (150 ml) sherry vinegar
2 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
12 shallots, peeled and left whole
4 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
15 fl oz (425 ml) medium-dry Amontillado sherry
(I used a medium range Australian mild sherry - cooking sherry doesn't have to be expensive)
1 heaped tbsp crème fraîche
salt and freshly milled black pepper
To garnish: 8 small sprigs of fresh tarragon

Method
First of all, heat the oil in the frying pan and season the chicken with salt and pepper. Then, when the oil begins to shimmer, fry the chicken (in two batches) to brown well: remove the first batch to a plate while you tackle the second. Each piece needs to be a lovely golden-brown colour. When the second batch is ready, remove it to the plate to join the rest. Then add the shallots to the pan, brown these a little, and finally add the garlic cloves to colour slightly.

Now turn the heat down, return the chicken pieces to the pan, scatter the tarragon leaves all over, then pour in the vinegar and sherry. Let it all simmer for a bit, then turn the heat to a very low setting, so that the whole thing barely bubbles, for 45 min (I did mine for 50 min). Halfway through, turn the chicken pieces over to allow the other sides to sit in the sauce.

When they're ready, remove them to a warm serving dish (right side up) along with the shallots and garlic. The sauce will by now have reduced and concentrated, so all you do is whisk the crème fraîche into it, taste it and season as required, then pour the sauce all over the chicken and scatter with the sprigs of tarragon.

This is lovely served with tiny new potatoes tossed in herbs and some fresh shelled peas.

Potato Salad with Shallots and Vinaigrette
 
2 lb (900 g) Anya or other new potatoes, washed
(I used 1 kg baby cream delight potatoes)
6 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
4 tbsp freshly snipped chives
salt

For the vinaigrette
1 rounded dessertspoon sea salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 rounded dessertspoon mustard powder
(I used 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
5 fl oz (150 ml) extra virgin olive oil
freshly milled black pepper

Method
Steam the potatoes over a pan of boiling, salted water, covered with a lid, for about 20 min until they are tender.

Instead of steaming, I boiled my potatoes. Place potatoes in medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Cover and bring to boil at high heat. Reduce to medium and simmer uncovered for 15-20 min or until tender. Remove from heat, drain off the water and set aside for 10 min.

Meanwhile, make up the dressing. Begin by crushing the salt quite coarsely with a pestle and mortar, and then add the garlic. As you crush it and it comes into contact with the salt, it will quickly break down into a puree.

Next, add the mustard and really work it in, giving it about 20 sec of circular movements to get it well blended. After that, add some freshly milled black pepper.

Now add the vinegars and work these in in the same way. Then add the oil, switch to a small whisk and give everything a really good whisking. (I whisked mine briefly with a fork)

As soon as the potatoes are cooked, cool them in a mixing bowl for 10 min, then stir in the vinaigrette and shallots while the potatoes are still just warm. Now add the chives and give everything a good toss to distribute any dressing collected in the base of the bowl and transfer the salad to a serving bowl.

Note: The amount of the above two recipes are very generous portions for 3-4 adults. Knowing this, I have saved an extra portion for my husband's next day lunch. 

Happy Cooking
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