Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce
This recipe for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce is probably the first tarragon chicken recipe I ever tried! And now I think the combination of chicken + tarragon is such a good reason to grow French Tarragon in your garden, and everyone who likes Tarragon will love this low-carb chicken dish.
PIN the tarragon chicken recipe to try it later!
I still remember when I first planted French Tarragon in my herb garden, and how it was the beginning of a huge love affair with the flavor of tarragon. Through the years I’ve tried lots of different recipes using fresh tarragon, and these Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce are one of the fresh tarragon recipes I’ve ended up making over and over.
Now it’s herb-planting time again at a new house, and this year I’ll be planting some French Tarragon among my flowers and praying that the deer don’t like Tarragon! And I’m looking forward to trying more tarragon chicken recipes and some other ideas with tarragon.
What ingredients do you need?
- boneless-skinless chicken breasts
- Olive Oil (affiliate link)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Szeged Chicken Rub (affiliate link), optional
- homemade chicken stock or canned chicken broth (affiliate link)
- half and half (or heavy cream
- Dijon Mustard (affiliate link)
- finely chopped French tarragon
What is French Tarragon?
Of the various types of tarragon, French Tarragon is the most prized for cooking, and it’s the distinctive flavor in Béarnaise sauce. And among fans of French food, this type of tarragon is sometimes called the King of Herbs. It has a strong flavor and should be used sparingly. French Tarragon can be hard to find because it can’t be grown from seed, but the plant is a perennial and gets quite large once it’s established.
Other types of tarragon include Russian Tarragon (which is easier to grow but much milder and slightly bitter in flavor) and Texas Tarragon (also called Mexican Mint Marigold; a perennial herb with a similar flavor.)
What does French Tarragon taste like?
To me, the flavor of tarragon is somewhat like a combination of basil and fennel, slightly sweeter than basil to my taste buds, but with a similar anise flavor and I think it’s adds a lovely flavor to this tarragon chicken recipe. Like basil, tarragon should be added towards the end of the cooking time.
More Recipes with Tarragon to Wake Up Your Mouth:
- Tarragon Chicken Salad
- Grilled Chicken with Tarragon-Mustard Marinade
- Broccoli Cauliflower Salad with Feta
Want more ideas for using Fresh Tarragon?
If you’re a fan of the flavor of French Tarragon like I am, check out Cooking with Fresh Tarragon for even more ideas.
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce would taste great with Pureed Cauliflower with Garlic, Parmesan, and Goat Cheese and a perfect green salad for a low-carb meal.
Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce
Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce are a good reason to grow French Tarragon in your garden!
Ingredients
- 4 boneless-skinless chicken breasts
- 1 T olive oil (use more or less, depending on your pan)
- salt and pepper, plus other seasonings of your choice to season chicken (see notes)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock (see notes)
- 1/3 cup half and half
- 1 T Dijon mustard
- 3 tsp. finely chopped fresh tarragon (preferably French tarragon)
Instructions
- Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken breasts. (I save these scraps in the freezer until I get enough to make chicken stock.)
- If chicken breasts are quite thick, pound them with a meat mallet or other heavy object until they are about 3/4 inch thick.
- Wash tarragon leaves and finely chop with chef’s knife.
- Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a heavy frying pan just big enough to hold all the chicken without crowding.
- While oil heats, season chicken with seasonings of your choice I used Szeged Chicken Rub (affiliate link) and pepper, but no salt).
- Add the chicken and saute until chicken is cooked through and well-browned, about 10 minutes. (Actual cooking time will depend on your pan and how high you have the heat.)
- Remove chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.
- Add chicken stock to pan, scraping off any browned bits, and cook until reduced by half, about 2-3 minutes.
- Whisk in mustard, tarragon, half and half and any juices from the chicken which have accumulated on the plate and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes more.
- Serve immediately, with some of the sauce drizzled over each piece of chicken.
Notes
I used Szeged Chicken Rub (affiliate link) and pepper to season the chicken, but no salt. I used homemade chicken stock, but you could use canned chicken broth, preferably low sodium
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Great Food Fast.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 315Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 130mgSodium: 335mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 44g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce is suitable for low-carb or Keto diet plans. If you made the sauce with milk instead of cream, you could make the sauce with milk to make it work for the original South Beach Diet too.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Chicken Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This delicious tarragon chicken recipe was first posted in 2008! The recipe was last updated with more information in 2023.
42 Comments on “Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon-Mustard Pan Sauce”
I was looking for a recipe I cooked way back in the late 1980’s called Chicken La Folie. It was very similar to your Chicken with Mustard-Tarragon recipe but added Tarragon vinegar and dried morel mushrooms and white wine with the heavy whipping cream. It was truly the best meal I ever made served on top of pasta. Your dish is the closest I have found so far. I need the measurements of ingredients to make it again and that’s what I am looking for.
Glad you enjoyed it! Maybe you can keep tweaking the recipe until you come close to your earlier version.
Just seeing this recipe, looks great! Is it possible to use dried tarragon? I’m not a gardener. 🙂
I’m afraid dried tarragon will be a very poor substitute for fresh tarragon in this recipe. It probably won’t be horrible, but not nearly as flavorful. If you did want to try it, I’d put the dried tarragon into the stock and simmer for a couple of minutes to release more flavor. Love to hear how it works if you try it.
Absolutely agree, Kayln. Even with the half and half if should be fine. But, as someone who loves cream, I'm very happy to find something that a milk sub works fine with! Again, thanks so much for posting it.
Stacy, glad you enjoyed it. I would probably still eat this for South Beach even with the half and half, since you're eating such a small amount of the sauce. But good to know that you liked it with milk too.
This is a wonderful recipe, thank you! I used 2% milk and a bit more mustard and tarragon than called for (I tend to like things strongly flavored).
I love creamy dishes, but think South Beach followers will be satisfied with the milk versus the half and half, as all the other flavors blend so perfectly together.
Thanks again!
I don't know about Utah deer, but Rhode Island deer don't seem to have a taste for tarragon!
I was just thinking about how I need to cook with mustard more! This looks just fabulous!!
Dara, and I'm wondering why I haven't tried it on pork!
I use a similar tarragon mustard sauce for brushing on grilled pork tenderloin. It's fantastic! I don't know why I haven't tried it on chicken before…it would make for a tasty, quick meal.
Thanks Michelle, I did love this too!
This was SO good!! Tarragon was perfect in this! Thanks!!
Candice, thanks! Will check out those other recipes too (two of my favorite sources for recipes!)
I made this one, (as well as the chicken salad) and it was super. Thanks! A couple other wonderful tarragon recipes are Grilled Chicken Salad w/Tarragon Pesto from bon appetit, and Sauteed Tilapia over Swiss Chard with Tarragon Butter from Fine Cooking. Love your Blog.
Polvadis, I’m wondering if you missed this step:
“cook until reduced by half”
When something has too much liquid, just cook it down until enough liquid evaporates and it’s the thickness you want. This concentrates the flavor too. Congratulations on learning to cook though. Hope you’re having fun.
My sauce, although delicious, came out too soupy. I’m wondering if I added too much chicken stock, or if it’s the fact that I’m a single male learning how to cook, haha. But I’ll keep on trying. Thank you for all the great recipes.
Ranee, sorry I missed responding to your comment, but very glad to hear you’re enjoying the recipes.
RachelJo, great idea to use tarragon mustard! So glad you liked it.
I'm on SBD phase 1 and I was browsing for something new. This was truly fantastic. I was lucky to have a bottle of gourmet tarragon mustard someone gave me as a gift, so it was even easier than the recipe. It was so spectacular, it was worth the extra calories from the half & half – I was just careful not to eat too much. Thank you!
Hi Kalyn!
I tried the dish and it was great. Well the chicken part was for sure. I don’t think I let my broth cook down enough cause my sauce wouldn’t thicken. But I drizzeled a bit over the chicken anyhow and my husband loved it. Once I get the sauce down he’ll probably love it even more. I also tried your egg muffins, yum, the greek meatballs, yum, will be doing those again this week with the greek pilafe, amer greek salad and tazikie (sp?) sauce. I cooked the basil vinegar pot roast yesterday, It was yummy! We tried the curry deviled eggs and I’m a curry fan but my sweetie wasn’t it was a little strong for him. Oh and we tried the asian chicken spinach salad. It was very good! I’m sure I am forgetting something. LOL Thanks for the great recipes!!
I have a huge Russian tarragon in my herb garden… for show, I guess. It was an accident. I now don’t hesitate to nip a leaf and taste in the nursery….
The little French tarragon plants surround it.
I love this – and, I’m afraid I never use sparingly ;-))
Hi Kalyn,
I have tarragon in my garden too, but seldom use it. Now I’ve got a good excuse, thanks much! I’m looking forward to it.
I’m betting that most people who have tarragon in their garden have French Tarragon, but don’t know for sure. Everyone try growing it if you haven’t tried it because as Lisa says, you will love it even if you don’t get that much tarragon.
Survival gourmet, the sauce recipe is part of the recipe, maybe you didn’t click through?
That really looks tasty. Can you give us a few details on how the sauce was made?
Hey Kalyn! I love your blog! I have tagged you via my blog!!
Chicken and tarragon is like tomatoes and basil…perfection!
Ronell
I was just making my list of herbs to get at the market tomorrow, and I’d forgotten to add tarragon. Thanks for the reminder! I didn’t have much luck with it last year, but savored what I was able to harvest.
wow I love this recipe and I love chicken and tarragon so this is perfect.
need to go and buy some chicken… ;o)
uhm,… now I am hungry *sigh*
That chicken sounds really tasty. I don’t think that I have ever seen and tarragon labeled as anything other than plain old tarragon. I will have to keep an eye out for some French tarragon.
tht is a tempting chicken dish.nice.
I made this same recipe and loved it also! It makes me wonder what kind of tarragon I have growing in my herb bed!
This looks great! I planted tarragon last week and I am really excited for exactly this sauce. We made a very similar one in a French sauces class I took a few years ago.
I absolutely loved this simple recipe, so I’m glad other people also think it looks good. Some of the other options people are thinking of sound good too.
Burcu, I took this photo with some new lights I got which I’m going to write about soon. I still have a lot to learn about food photography, but my main goal is to make the food look appetizing and I thought this looked good.
Tanna, so glad you like it that much! In my family everyone LOVES this recipe and we all make it over and over too.
For some reason I couldn’t find any this yearl
The chicken looks so good. But I’ve already put chicken with the mustard marinade to marinade. We liked it so much we’re already having it again. Maybe this for the weekend. Seems your on my table every night.
Great pictures, Kalyn. I loved the idea of half&half and tarragon, already bookemarked the recipe.
Yumm, I want to try this dish for sure. I love terragon also.
Ranee in OK
Kalyn, the combo of tarragon and moutarde is tres francais and Oooh la la! lol
As for the herb, my tarragon grows back each year like a perennial, leave the plant be this fall and see if it grows back.
This sauce would be delicious on salmon, too. I have a huge tarragon plant in my garden. It gets leggy and woody later in the season, so be sure to cut it back and let the new growth come in.
I absolutely LOVE tarragon Kalyn. Tarragon and chicken is such a classic combination. I have often wanted to grow it too but I have found it hard to find until recently. Now I have tracked some down!
mwit, I’d love to hear how it works with Tilapia, sounds like it could be good to me.
Erin, I have no idea how the plant propogates itself in the wild, but I kept reading how you must buy plants or grow it from cuttings because the plant doesn’t make seeds. Isn’t that odd? In Utah I haven’t had trouble finding plants labeled French tarragon.
Mouthwatering. I have seen you blog on tarragon several times, and each time it inspires me to really want to tackle tarragon. the only dish I really make with tarragon (although I love the dish) is chicken la folie.
I did not know it couldnt be grown from seed. what an interesting fact. how did the plant survive all this time? seems disadvantageous. if i were thinking like a plant that is…
Wow, this sounds fantastic! I think I’ll try this sauce with talapia – it sounds like it would be good anyway…time will tell. 🙂