Guest Recipe: Mrs Portly’s Chicken with Tarragon and Vermouth

Food writer and recipe developer Linda Duffin runs a cookery school from her Tudor home in mid-Suffolk, Mrs Portly’s Kitchen Classes. She’s a strong supporter of local producers and a big fan of Sutton Hoo chicken. 

Linda has kindly shared her recipe for Chicken Thighs with Tarragon and Vermouth. This is the perfect recipe for the turn of winter into spring, on those evenings when you don’t want to eat anything too wintry in flavour but it’s still cold enough to need a jumper and have the fire going. It is a great hassle free, delicious dish.

For this recipe you can use white wine, a dry sherry, cider or Madeira here if that’s what you have to hand, but Linda says the vermouth gives the sauce a slight bitter-sweetness and a floral quality that adds a little more complexity and depth.

Image credit to Linda Duffin of Mrs Portly’s Kitchen Classes.

Mrs Portly’s Chicken with Tarragon and Vermouth

Ingredients:

• 1kg Sutton Hoo chicken thighs (or thighs and drumsticks), skin on, bone in

• 2 tbs oil

• 1 onion, peeled and chopped

• 1 tbs plain flour

• Large wine glass of white vermouth

• 250ml chicken stock

• 2 tbs fresh tarragon, chopped, plus a few sprigs to garnish

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• Splash of double cream

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan or casserole and fry the chicken until it is browned all over and the skin is crisp. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the onions to the pan and cook until soft and golden. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two then pour in the vermouth, stir, and let it bubble up and thicken.

3. Gradually add the chicken stock with half the chopped tarragon and cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste, remembering that the sauce will reduce and the saltiness will intensify.

4. Put the chicken back in the pan, skin side up, along with any juices that have run. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

5. Remove the chicken and keep warm. Add the remaining chopped tarragon and a splash of double cream, stir and reduce until the sauce reaches the consistency you like. Check the seasoning, put the chicken back in the pan and gently re-heat.

6. Garnish with the reserved sprigs of tarragon.

7. Serve with baby new potatoes and French beans or at this time of year, purple sprouting broccoli & leeks would be more seasonal.

Find Linda’s Instagram page here, and check out the cookery classes by clicking here.