Ad Hoc at Home: Chicken in Tarragon Sauce

Of the three books that I'm cooking my way through, I think I'm enjoying Ad Hoc the most.  Obviously Alinea is fun because of all the cutting edge techniques, but being a self-trained home cook some of those present problems.  In the French Laundry the techniques are simpler but the flavors of some of the dishes hasn't been there for me.  The dishes in Ad Hoc are simple family style dishes and that means I can use these dishes to actually have a family meal with my wife and serve to friends when they come over.

Naturally I started with the chicken breasts.  Boneless, skinless in this case.  From there, I portioned them down a little bit to make sure I had enough for everyone and pounded them thin enough to cook quickly in the pan.

Once the chicken was ready I got the ingredients for the sauce ready which was butter, chicken broth, shallots, tarragon and sauvignon blanc.

I seasoned up the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and put them in a hot sautee pan with oil until gold brown on both sides.

Once the chicken was done I put some of the butter in a dry pan and fried up the shallots.  From there I layered the flavors of the wine, chicken broth and tarragon and reduced the sauce slightly before plating.

So the sauce never got to the thickness I wanted to, but overall it turned out well.  It's always an honor and a privilege to cook for my family and my friends.  Especially those that don't care to spend a ton of time on cooking meals like this on a regular basis.  This one was a hit with everyone in the room.

French Laundry at Home: Linguine with Clam Sauce

Well hello again, I'll save you the standard spiel on why I haven't posted.  This is a classic pasta preparation that I'll admit that I've never had, mostly because clams generally scare me.  Overall, I've had pretty good experiences with them when I have had them in restaurants.  I think it's generally been my failures at home with other bivalves that has kept me from trying to make them at home.

The first step in this dish was to make the pasta.  Classic pasta preparation on olive oil, flour and eggs, and a little milk just in case I needed the extra moisture (I didn't).

I used the traditional well method to bring the pasta together and once it all came together I wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge until everything else was ready.

The stuff for the clams/clam broth.  Littleneck clams which I happened to get from my preferred seafood purveyor in central Illinois who happened to open their store here in Normal the week I was making this.  In addition to the clams, I had sauvignon blanc, thyme, garlic, shallots and bay leaves.

I put all those ingredients into a sauce pan and cooked covered just until the clams opened.

The clams that opened I pulled out of the pan and set aside and then shucked.  The remaining liquid I let simmer and reduce for a few minutes.

Prior to everything you see here I had roasted a head of garlic and that came into play here for the actual sauce.  This got combined with the broth from the clams and butter for the clam sauce.

So I missed a few pictures, but once the sauce was completed I tossed some with the pasta which had been freshly rolled, cut and cooked while I put the clams in the rest to reserve keep them warm.  THe picture above is the dressed pasta with some additional parsley.

To plate, I had reserved some of the clam shells and then filled them with pasta then topped with the reserved clams.  This was served over a bed of rock salt.  To drink, I actually thought outside of the box and served this with a Vinho Verde or green wine from Portugal.  This is an unaged, low acidity, low alcohol wine, which paired perfectly with this dish.  My one complaint would be that I oversalted the water that the pasta was cooked in which caused the pasta to not be as good as I might have liked.