Chicken With Thyme

Tarragon is the classic herb for chicken, as most cookbooks will tell you, but thyme works just as well, especially when balanced with tomatoes.

The important thing here is to have everything fresh, including the thyme itself, which should be the whole leaves stripped from the woody stalks. You can leave the soft bits of stalk but cut any long pieces into halves or quarters.

You need the following:

4 chicken breasts, lightly flattened
2tbs olive oil
80ml good white wine, not too dry
1 crushed clove of garlic
1 onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, skinned and deseeded
1tbs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and make three diagonal slashes on the ‘smooth’ side of each breast. Heat the oil in a skillet to smoke point. Add the chicken breasts and brown them on each side, then reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes per side, turning only once.

Check that they are cooked by making a small incision with the point of a sharp knife. The flesh should be uniformly white. If it’s a little shiny don’t worry too much, it will continue to cook off the heat while you make the sauce. If it’s pink, give it a minute or two longer.

Transfer the breasts to a warm plate and cover them with kitchen foil, shiny side down.

Add the onion to the pan and cook until soft. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute and then add the chopped tomatoes and thyme. Heat through, then add the white wine and bring to the boil while stirring.

Keep stirring as you reduce the liquid by at least half. You are looking for a sauce consistency with not too much moisture.

Serve by spooning the sauce onto warmed serving plates and placing the chicken breasts on top of it, at a slight angle to the rim of the plate.

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