The verdict: Chicken with White Wine, Tarragon, and Cream (originally posted April 28, 2014)

I finally had the chance to make The Slow Cooker Revolution’s Chicken with White Wine, Tarragon, and Cream. I was excited to make this, as I imagined anything with white wine, cream, and fresh herbs HAD to be good. Well, this recipe was pretty good, but it took, in my opinion, far too much extra prep time for a slow cooker recipe. Yes, I know this book advertizes itself as revolutionary BECAUSE of the extra, prep steps, which are supposed to help preserve texture and deepen flavor, but I just didn’t think the end result for this recipe had enough of a wow factor to make the extra steps worth it, and I’m not convinced making this without the extra steps really would have made that much of a difference anyway. When I use a slow cooker, it’s because of the convenience, and this recipe is far from convenient. I’d be willing to overloook that if the final product of all my work knocked my socks off, but, sadly, this just didn’t.

For those who are interested in trying the recipe themselves, here you go:

Chicken with White Wine, Tarragon, and Cream

Serves: 6

Cooking time: 4-6 hours on low

Ingredients:
6 (12 oz) bone in, skin on, split chicken breasts, trimmed
1/4 C vegetable oil
1 1/4 pounds cremini mushrooms, trimmed and halved if small, or quartered, if large
2 onions, minced
2 t minced fresh thyme or 1/2 t dried
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C dry white wine
1 C low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound carrots (about 6), peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 T soy sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 C heavy cream
1/4 C minced fresh tarragon

Directions:
1. Dry chicken with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 T oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of the chicken, skin side down, and brown lightly, about 5 minutes; transfer to a plate. Repeat with 1 T more oil and remaining chicken; transfer to a plate. Let chicken cool slightly and discard skin.
2. Add remaining 2 T oil, mushrooms, onions, thyme, and 1/4 t salt to pan. Cover and cook over medium heat until mushrooms are softened, 5 to 10 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook until mushrooms are dry and browned, 5 to 10 minutes (this step took me FAR longer, for some reason I couldn’t figure out…).
3. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in wine, scraping up any browned bits and smoothing out any lumps; transfer to slow cooker.
4. Stir in broth, carrots, soy sauce, and bay leaves into slow cooker. Nestle browned chicken with any accumulated juice into slow cooker. Cover and cook until chicken is tender, 4 to 6 hours on low.
5. Transfer chicken and vegetables to serving platter and tent loosely with aluminum foil. Let braising liquids settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using a large spoon (I have yet to figure out how to do this well…). Discard bay leaves. Stir in cream and tarragon and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon 1 C sauce over chicken and serve with remaining sauce.