Golden chicken with shallots and tarragon, topped with fresh tomatoes is a family favorite. The chicken thighs are simmered in a wine-tarragon sauce that tastes amazing with crusty sourdough bread.
Mustard-Free Chicken Tarragon
I love chicken tarragon, the classic French dish made with white wine, Dijon mustard, lemon, and fresh tarragon. That’s the dish that inspired this recipe. But our son has unfortunately developed a mustard allergy – so I’ve been working on no-mustard alternatives to our favorite meat dishes. That said, I don’t think anyone would guess that this dish was created as an “alternative.”
(For those in a similar boats, here are a few other “no-mustard” versions of classic recipes.)
For this recipe, I use a mixture of Greek yogurt and paprika to mimic the flavor profile of mustard. The sauce develops a beautiful golden hue due to the paprika. Thus the name, “Golden Chicken.”
This recipe is a family favorite even without the mustard, especially with warm, crusty bread.
Advance Prep
This recipe does take a bit of time to prepare, but the active time is all up front. Then you have about 40 minutes of set and forget. Works really nicely if you are able to plan ahead a bit, but need free hands right before dinner.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the tomatoes make this dish really pretty. Which means this is a great time to consider getting tomatoes in different colors to make the dish pop.
Also, the tomatoes complement the dish – but they aren’t essential to it. That means kids who have issues with tomatoes will still enjoy the dish and can easily eat around the tomatoes. Should they foolishly choose to do so.
Keys to the Golden Chicken Kingdom
The key to this recipe is to give the shallots plenty of time to caramelize in the chicken fat before adding in the wine, herbs, and the browned chicken.
Don’t rush the shallots. The one time this dish did not turn out amazing for me was when we had loads of family over and I was rushing to get everything on the table. I lightly browned the shallots – maybe gave them half the time they deserved. Make sure they get at least 10 minutes and look thoroughly browned. If in doubt, give them a couple more minutes.
Don’t rush it. Make people wait! The shallots are the key to this recipe.
What to Eat Alongside?
This is a very saucy, almost sweet, rich dish. We like to eat it with crusty bread and a light salad. For more vegetables, because this dish does have so much sauce, it goes nicely with asparagus or green beans, because you can sort of get the sauce everywhere.
Now, on to the recipe!
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Golden Chicken with Shallots and Tarragon (mustard-free)
Golden chicken with shallots, tarragon, and fresh tomatoes is a family favorite. The chicken thighs are simmered in a wine-tarragon sauce that tastes amazing with crusty sourdough bread.
- Total Time: 70 min
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
8–10 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on)
10–15 shallots, halved
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
2–3 sprigs of tarragon
Instructions
1. Prep the chicken.
Mix the following in a small bowl:
- 1 tablespoon salt;
- 1 tablespoon pepper;
- 1 teaspoon paprika; and
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour.
Preheat a large sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. The one I use is 11 inches across. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
While the pan preheats, you’re going to get this flour mixture all over the outside of your 8-10 chicken thighs. A couple of ways to do this. You could take each thigh and roll it around in the flour mixture. But that’s messy and leaves you with a raw chicken bowl to clean. My preferred method is to sprinkle half of the mixture over the tops (skin-side up) of the chicken thighs while they sit in the container I bought them in. Then I use tongs to move the thighs directly from the store container into the hot pan to brown, skin-side down. While the skin side is browning, I sprinkle the remaining flour mixture over the bottoms of the thighs. Makes the process a bit easier with less cleanup.
To brown the thighs, don’t overcrowd them in the pan. I can usually squeeze in up to 10 with my 11-inch pan, but for a smaller pan you will likely need to work in batches. Give the thighs a solid 5-8 minutes for the skin to turn a nice golden brown. Then turn the thighs over and let them brown on the other side. Once finished browning, remove them from the pan and set them aside . See below for how the browned chicken thighs should look.
2. While the chicken thighs brown, prep the shallots.
The chicken will take a bit of time to brown. Use this time to peel and halve the 10-15 shallots lengthwise (i.e., hot dog, not hamburger, style). Prepping the shallots is honestly the most labor intensive part about this dish. This part takes forever. Apparently you can buy pre-peeled shallots – but I have not yet indulged in this luxury. See my note below about using onions if you don’t have enough shallots.
Once the chicken finishes browning, and you’ve removed it from the pan, turn down the heat a bit and throw in the shallots. Pay attention to them and stir every minute or so to make sure they don’t burn. Don’t use super high heat – you want them caramelized, not browned. In the picture below, these shallots still had a good 3-5 minutes left of browning.
While the shallots take forever to caramelize, wash and half the cherry tomatoes. Set them aside for the end.
3. Add the wine, mustard, tarragon, and chicken.
Once the shallots look good and caramelized (err on the side of more caramelized than less), add to the pan:
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
- 2-3 sprigs of tarragon
Bring to a simmer. Picture below. You can see that when I was working on this particular iteration, I was running low on shallots. I replaced 4 shallots with 1 quartered red onion.
Add back in the browned chicken, skin-side up. Lower the heat and cover.
4. Cook for 30 minutes over low heat.
After 30 minutes, the chicken should be cooked through. Remove the top and plop in the tomatoes. Allow the dish to cook for another 10-15 minutes at a simmer. This will encourage the wine sauce to reduce a bit.
5. Enjoy!
Notes
Missing an ingredient? Check out my substitutions guide.
For this recipe, one easy swap I use all the time is a red (or even yellow) onion for about 4 shallots. Just quarter the onion and otherwise follow the recipe.
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 40 min
