An unfortunate picture of a quick, easy and delicious chicken dish. Also, I took it before I put the tarragon in the pan. My apologies as it truly deserves better. My only excuse is that I was hungry and rushing to get it from pan to plate to mouth.
4 chicken breasts (I chose boneless, skinless for expediency's sake but, in general, bone-in tastes better)
1 lemon, zested and then juiced
2 large sprigs tarragon, leaves removed from main stem and finely chopped
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp white wine
1 Tbsp butter
Salt
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. As soon as it sizzles, add the chicken. Sprinkle with 1/2 the lemon zest and 1/2 the tarragon and some salt. After 2 minutes, turn over the chicken (which you want to keep a light golden and very tender), sprinkle with remaining zest and tarragon and salt again.
Reduce heat to very low. Add the white wine to the pan and cover. Let the chicken cook slowly in its own juices and in the wine. Uncover, baste and turn over from time to time. It took me 16 minutes for the breasts to cook through; yours may take more or less, depending on how thick it is. Science says that a meat thermometer should read 165F degrees but I basically check to see if the juices run clear when the breast is poked with a fork and this has worked for me for years.
As soon as the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and set aside to stay warm ( a little foil tent works just fine). Add the lemon juice and the butter to the pan and stir until the butter is melted.
On this occasion, I left all of the juices in the pan and incorporated them into my stir fry. What is really delicious is taking the chicken out of the pan, setting it aside somewhere where it will stay warm, cranking up the heat, boiling the bejeezus out of the pan juices and reducing them by half. This makes a really nice sauce for the chicken. Or you can serve the chicken with couscous and use the unreduced pan juices as part of the rehydrating liquid.