chicken with fennel and and tarragon

A comforting chicken recipe with sweet and anise-y touches from the tarragon and fennel. Good all year round, better in the spring when running the oven for over half an hour or more isn’t going to make your kitchen too warm.

portion size - 4 servings

preparation time - 10 mins

cooking time - 45 mins

difficulty - easy

ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 chicken thighs (skin on or off, up to you)
• 1 white onion (yellow works too) diced thinly
• 1 fennel bulb sliced thinly
• juice of ½ lemon (~2 tbsp if using juice from a bottle)
• 200ml of chicken stock, hot
• 200g of crème fraîche
• 1 branch of tarragon roughly chopped or 2 tsp dried tarragon

method

1. preheat oven to 180°C conventional/200°C fan/Gas 6
2. heat the olive oil in a flameproof braiser or ovenproof faitout and add chicken thighs skin side down – if you’ve kept the skin – to brown and seal it, it should take 6-8 minutes then set it aside to keep it warm
3. lower the heat and add the onion the onion to the pan and fry for 5 minutes until translucent, then add the fennel and fry for 5-10 minutes until softened and translucent as well
4. squeeze or pour the lemon juice in the pan to deglaze, then add the stock, bring to a simmer and allow to reduce until the sauce is reduced by half
5. stir in the crème fraîche and return the chicken to the sauce, stir once to baste the chicken, cover and cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
6. if using dried tarragon, take the dish out of the oven 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the dried tarragon to the sauce and stir it in gently, and return to the oven for the remaining 5 minutes; otherwise, stir the fresh tarragon into the sauce at the end of cooking
7. serve with buttery mash or oven roasted potatoes