‘Blast From the Past Recipe’

Menu Mistress

Chicken with Mushrooms, Chickpeas & Tarragon Oil (Serves 4)

I thought I would share this recipe again from Nina Parker’s cookbook ‘Nina St Tropez’ – I first shared it back in September 2020. It’s a delicious, simple recipe with flavours that are particularly good on a Summer’s evening. The chickpea ‘stew’ is cooked under the chicken thighs so catches all of their beautiful juices. For a vegetarian option, cook the chickpea and mushroom stew without the chicken thighs – it’s delicious drizzled with the Tarragon Oil. In addition, the Tarragon Oil is a wonderful dressing for salads, particularly with chicken and avocado!

3 tablespoons olive oil

8 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in

3 banana shallots, thinly sliced

400g tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

400g chestnut mushrooms, halved or quartered depending on size

2 star anise

3 cloves garlic, sliced

Bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked

Sea salt and black pepper

For the Tarragon Oil

¾ teaspoon chopped garlic

6 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

12 tablespoons olive oil

6 teaspoons cider vinegar

6 teaspoons lemon juice

¾ teaspoon sugar

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or casserole dish (with a lid). Season the chicken thighs and place in the hot pan, skin side down. Cook for about 6 minutes until golden.
  2. Remove from the pan and add the shallots, stir and cook for a minute or two, then add the mushrooms cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  3. Now add the chickpeas and the star anise, stir well before finally adding the garlic and thyme, stir again.
  4. Return the chicken to the pan, skin side up, on top of the chickpea mixture. Cover with a lid, turn down the heat to barely simmering and cook for 15 minutes.
  5. Remove the lid, and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes until any liquid has been absorbed by the chickpeas and mushroom mixture. Check the thighs are cooked (make a cut on the underside of the thigh beside the bone to check).
  6. Meanwhile make the tarragon oil by pounding the garlic with a little salt in a mortar and pestle, then add the remaining ingredients, mixing well.
  7. Remove the star anise from the chicken and chickpeas, and  serve with tarragon oil.

Menu Mistress will be taking a break until September but that doesn’t mean you should stop cooking, why not delve into the recipes which I’ve shared in the past!…

Menu Mistress will be back in September with more delicious recipes!...

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Published by Menu Mistress

Cooking has always been something I've enjoyed, I have an extensive collection of cookbooks, some are well thumbed whilst others collect dust on the shelves; I can’t bear to get rid of any cook book, just in case one day I might use it for that one obscure recipe - light on a rainy day! I enjoy eating out and discovering new flavours, whether it’s just a local haunt or a ‘dress up’ to dinner restaurant - food is my hobby! In my opinion food is the one of the most important pieces of knowledge you need to know about any culture in order to really understand it, so when we go away, it’s not the local sights that I’m googling but the best place to eat! I'm not one of those fortunate cooks who can throw something together by looking at the contents of their fridge, I need a plan to work with, then I organise my fridge around the recipe. I am however a very organised person, you might even call me a control freak! I love the orderly fashion of a recipe, I find it soothing to have a plan in front of me, so the thought of trawling through my recipe books and trying new recipes is my idea of a perfect afternoon. But I realise that this is not everyones idea of fun, hence the birth of this blog. This blog is essentially for people who adore food but don’t have the time, patience or energy to search through cook books to find that winning recipe – that’s the job of Menu Mistress!

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