Tuna Tarragon Mac Salad

Today is classic May Gray, with wind warnings and red flag starting at 3PM.  What's that got to do with food?  Plenty.  The latter means its going to be extremely hot and dry for the next several days as it harkins the return of the Santa Ana winds.  Nothing is more refreshing than a cold salad on a hot miserable day and this fits the bill.

I use good canned in water tuna.  Simple honest tuna flavor with no added fat calories...the dressing will add plenty of that.

I use frozen peas as they are already blanched and are ready to go.  By all means since this is fresh pea season use them, just blanch in salted water and shock in ice water to keep them brilliant green.

I sprinkle the herbs onto the hot drained pasta as the residual heat and moisture will cause them to release their flavor oils and deep flavor the pasta.

Tuna Tarragon Mac Salad

• 12 oz Shell shaped Pasta 
• 1 T minced tarragon
• 1 T minced parsley
• 1 half small onion minced
• 1 c sliced celery
• 1/4 diced dill pickle
• 2 cans tuna, drained.
• 1 c frozen peas
• 1 c Miracle Whip
• 3 T dijon mustard
• 2 T dill pickle juice
• 1 t salt
• 1 t fresh ground pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions in well salted water.  Drain.  Pour pasta into mixing bowl and sprinkle with herbs.  Toss lightly.  Set aside while prepping veggies and pickles.

Put minced onion, sliced celery and dill pickle into bowl.  Flake tuna and sprinkle over the veggies.

Prepare dressing by whisking together Miracle Whip, mustard, pickle juice, salt and pepper.  Pour over the pasta and toss lightly until all are well distributed and coated with dressing.  Chill at least 3 hours in fridge before serving.

Poached Chicken and Tarragon

I'm reading the most interesting cook book right now and it was the inspiration for this recipe.  Inspiration in that I took the basics and changed it up to make it my own.  (When done with it will do a quick review here and scan the cover etc., so you can track it down for your own use).

For starters, and I've said it before, I'm not the biggest fan of this domesticated bird, mostly because it lacks any real flavor of its own and bad experiences with it while at KFC back in High School.   The fam however loves the stuff.  I've figured how how to keep the breasts moist while cooking it up, I've even figured out that it really is just a flavor delivery device that loves to be sauced.

A couple of things with this recipe.  At the end its really important that you cook the residual poaching liquid down to a few tablespoons before adding the heavy cream.  Not doing so will leave you with a runny sauce.  And yes, this is calling for heavy cream to finish up the sauce as this is a French inspired recipe.  Sometimes its fun to be indulgent and sauce up with the heavy cream.  Not something one should do every day, but once a month or so its good for the soul to do it with little harm to ones overall diet.

For the wine in the poaching liquid I used a dry white we had left over from the night before.  It was a Chardonnay.  I've heard and learned over the years one should use a wine you'd drink instead of the "cooking" wines you buy at the grocery stores.  The flavor really is so much better and its not sullied with extra salt etc.,.

Poached Chicken and Tarragon

• 4 large chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 C dry white wine
• 1 T dried tarragon
• 2 t onion salt
• 1 t fresh ground pepper
• 1 c heavy cream

In large covered skillet add the chicken breasts.   Sprinkle on onion salt, pepper and tarragon.  Pour in wine.  Add cover.  Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.  Turn chicken once during the poaching. Don't worry that the poaching liquid doesn't completely immerse the chicken.


Remove chicken from pan and set aside.  Increase heat and boil down the poaching liquid until reduced to a few tablespoons.  Add heavy cream and whisk in.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes uncovered to thicken.  Return breasts to the sauce and heat through.  


Serve over rice with some sauce spooned over the chicken.