Healthy Poached Chicken Recipe With Tarragon Yogurt Sauce
Poached Chicken with Tarragon Yogurt Sauce
A fun evening in the kitchen, (or as I sometimes call it: "Dr. Frazier-stein's Kitchen Laboratory"), yielded a poached chicken recipe that's worth keeping. I have no idea if this recipe has been done before...there's a good chance it has, but rest assured that all I did was look in the refrigerator and see what ingredients were available to use. I fed the information into the Cooking Monster's brain and just let intuition take it from there.
There is cream in this recipe, but it's optional. Truth be told, if there hadn't been any cream in the refrigerator I wouldn't have used it at all. I wanted to use what was there so it wouldn't go to waste. All that was left was about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup, so I added it to the sauce. It did improve the body of the sauce but a good alternative would be a simple white sauce made with stock or low fat milk. But...it's not a life or death situation. You don't really need to add anything else to the sauce, I tasted it before I added the cream and it was good. I knew that the yogurt would curdle a bit when heated and of course it did. But if you can live with a little curdle, then all is well.
The sauce itself is only supposed to coat the chicken breast, or "nap" them, (if you prefer the proper culinary term). They are so wonderfully moist from poaching, they don't need a lot of sauce. I checked with the calorie wizard and if you do elect to use cream, add about 102 calories per ounce of cream.
I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it. I had a lot of fun creating it.
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2-3 cups chicken stock, as needed
- 1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, optional
- 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Cooking oil spray, as needed
- Use a saute pan that's 10-12" in diameter and at least 2-3" deep that has a lid. Spray pan with cooking oil spray. Sprinkle minced garlic on the bottom.
- Trim chicken breasts of any fat. Season breasts with salt & pepper & place on top of garlic. Add chicken stock about halfway up the breasts. Cover & bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until chicken is done (when internal temperature reaches 165 degrees).
- While chicken is poaching, prepare sauce. In a small saucepan, add yogurt, tarragon & parsley. Keep the temperature on low. The purpose of warming the yogurt is to allow the herbs to release their flavors.
- Add a little bit of chicken stock to thin the yogurt if necessary. Season to your taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat & add heavy cream. (The heavy cream is optional but it does help the sauce have a smoother body. Alternatively, you can make a light white sauce using low fat milk or stock.)
- When the chicken is done, whisk the lemon juice into the yogurt sauce and then dip each breast into the sauce before placing them on a plate or serving platter. Serve the breasts with about 1/8 cup of the sauce.
- Enjoy your Poached Chicken with Tarragon Yogurt Sauce!
