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Tom Hu
I've made this dish a few times now. First time I made it with fresh tomatoes and left out the tomato paste because I didn't have any, it was fantastic. Last time I added the tomato paste and didn't like it as much, the sauce was too acidic with an almost metallic taste.
Fresh or canned tomatoes will create a lot of juice, so, I took the chicken breasts out of the pan after browning, made the sauce, simmered until thickened, then added the chicken breasts back to pan to finish.
Tom Who
I love that NYT Cooking is resurrecting old classic recipes. 60 Minute Gourmet was one of my first cookbooks when I moved to NYC. Made this after having forgotten about it for years.
Some changes I made while making this dish: After browning the chicken breasts I removed them from the pan and set aside, made the sauce and cooked down for a bit to thicken, then added the chicken breasts back to sauce to finish. Chicken stayed juicy. Also added some black olives. Just delicious!
Ed Hawco
I'm puzzled too. You can tell from the ingredients that this isn't a standard "red sauce." Capers, a lot of vinegar, wine, etc. It's intended to be sour! I simmered it longer to let the sauce thicken up a bit. It's a braise, so the chicken didn't dry out. I had planned to serve it with pasta, but after I tasted it I ruled that out (sour thin sauces aren't the best for pasta). So I quickly boiled some mini potatoes (potatoes love vinegar!) and they went really well together.
Peter
It's summer and this is a great use for fresh tomatoes and herbs.
Two suggestions: First, use a meat thermometer. Chicken breasts may have gotten larger since Pierre wrote this, but the internal temperature of our chicken was just above 100F after nine minutes of cooking. I kept them in for another 10 minutes. Second, the dish needed a bit more salt and a dash of pepper flakes.
Debbie
So...I asked my husband to take the chicken breasts out of the freezer so I could make this. When I got home I found pork chops defrosting in the sink. No worries I thought. This recipe should work for pork too. It did! served it with a side of petite green beans sautéed with onion and corn with a little butter.
Barbara
Made provencale by using herbs de Provence and olives. Served with brown rice
Sue Llewellyn
I raise my glass again to M. Franey.
But reading some of the notes, I'm puzzled--not for the first time--by comments, e.g., on capers being too strong, and the vinegar itself making the dish too acidic, etc. Surely many readers are presumably beyond the rank-beginners' slavish level! Hey guys, you can rinse drained capers in the same small sieve you drained 'em in--just turn on the cold water! And if you're not wild about a strong vinegar flavor in any dish, just cut it with up to 1/2 water.
Bicka
Made this the other night with chicken thighs. Used fresh roma tomatoes. Used less vinegar, more capers and anchovy paste as well. I omitted the wine based on other comments about runny sauce and ended up with a wonderfully rich thick sauce that I served over spaghetti squash.
Ellen
You do not need to get the chicken breasts to 170 degrees and will overcook and dry them out if you try. The USDA says 165 degrees is safe. That is conservative. I take them off the heat at 160, and they continue to cook with residual heat to 165 and are juicy and perfect.
Laura G.
Next time I will take the chicken out of the pan and boil down the sauce before serving. We loved this one as printed and will make it again soon. Full of complex flavor without the need to add a hot red pepper ingredient as so many of my chicken sauté recipes do. Rather low-fat, too. Thanks for this one!
Matthew
Using fresh local tomatoes, this was easy to make and delicious. I liked that it wasn't sweet and never add sugar to any kind of tomato sauce. The next time I'm going to cut the chicken into strips so diners can make their own portions and more of the chicken is exposed to the sauce.
Rosemarie
I'm not fond of capers,so I leave them out but add sauteed mushrooms, kalamata olives and marinated artichokes. Delish!
Kayla
Saw this this morning. Made it tonight. It was, as always a wonderful dish. Used shallots in butter, fresh Campari tomatoes and a squirt of Pomi tomato sauce, tarragon vinegar, white wine, chicken broth in a box. lots of tarragon & parsley, capers. Add sautéed chick back in. White rice, green salade, baguette, rose' wine. what's wrong with this? Yum
Zip
Look at the original recipe. It calls for half of almost everything but the chicken.
Wil
This is a technique Pierre uses in other recipes and I find it hard to prevent over-cooking the breasts. It helps to check them frequently in step 4 and remove them when done to your liking, then finish by reducing the sauce to thicken.
Jenny Green
Excellent. I omitted the red Wine vinegar in cooking and sprinkled on a good quality sherry vinegar before serving.
DTM
My wife doesn't like Tarragon, and beauty of this recipe is that it works with almost any kind of herbs. Absolute beauty in its simplicity.
John
I would use an enameled skillet as the iron skillets can react with tomatoes to give off an unsavory irony metallic flavor.
lizhobbins
Delicious and very easy. I followed the advice of others: no tomato paste, and cook the sauce after the chicken is browned and removed from the pan. Very reminiscent of Harlot’s Sauce for pasta, so any sauce from this dish you have left save it for pasta night!
Jan Maugans
This is a keeper. So tasty and not hard in any way. I love the shallots and capers. I was out of Tarragon and used Basil - sure it gave it a different taste, but it was great. When I made it again with the Tarragon it was equally good. You can't miss with this.
dianne
Take chicken out after browning and boil sauce to thicken
Carey Rudell
This was wonderful and easy to make. Given other comments, I left out the tomato paste. I used an onion instead of shallot, since that’s what had. I served it with couscous, which worked very well. The kids seem to like it ok, which is a huge endorsement. I’ll definitely make it again.
Jan Maugans
This is delicious! I had run out of Tarragon and used Basil and it was fine. I also deleted the tomato paste. The flavor was still wonderful and unique. It got rave reviews as well.
Lisa G
Leave it to Pierre Francy to come up with such a simple yet wonderful dish. We ate it with white rice and cauliflower. Wonderful!
MB
This turned out great. To the recommendation of many others I took out the chicken breasts after browning, made the sauce, and then added them back in. I think it was a bit too much wine, next time I’ll use a little less than a cup. The vinegar taste is quite strong, but I balanced this out by adding two sugar cubes. I salted the chicken before cooking as well as the tomatoes, and then a little bit along the way. Used a mix of fresh and canned tomatoes. I also added Kalamata olives! Perfect.
Sarah
Wow, super good, relatively easy. I had a bunch of flavor bomb cherry tomatoes so I used those....do this if you can!!! No chopping either, just rinse, toss in, and it yields such a deep, rich flavor! Served this over pasta with an arugula/watermelon salad.
stacy
I really thought this dish was tasteless. The sauce had no body and it didn’t stick to or enhance the chicken breasts that always need help!
condiment queen
Nice sauce. Would use thighs next time because I found the breasts a little dry. Served with bread but maybe would try this with potatoes next time.
Alex
Not a fan. Too many ingredients for what amounts to a basic tomato sauce with tarragon.
elizabeth
Made last night. Had some fresh tomato sauce in fridge so used that instead of opening a can of tomato paste for just the dogs and me. I used some chicken tenders and served over green peas. Topped with shredded mozzarella. Sooo good.
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