Spice Chicken Breasts With Sweet Taste Of Tarragon

Some people claim to be able to grow herbs indoors all year round - not just the sturdy stuff like rosemary, but delicate basil and tarragon as well.

I can’t. One week in confinement and my herbs have to be put out of their misery.

Fortunately greener thumbs than mine are busy each winter cultivating a variety of basils, mints and thymes, to name a few.

Basil tops my herb shopping list. It adds a taste of summer to everything from garlic bread to tomatoes. Tarragon is another favorite; warm weather means lots of chicken dishes in our household, and tarragon’s sweet anise flavor can make a summer’s worth of chicken breasts taste good.

Recently I created an herb dinner for two. First, there’s a classic potato salad with pistachios for texture and a traditional basil pesto for color and rich flavor. (A blend of equal parts pesto and sour cream is a delicious dressing for other dishes, such as egg or tuna salad or salad Nicoise.)

Second, there’s a skillet chicken cooked in tarragon-perfumed olive oil. I picked up the trick of scenting oil with herbs in “Jimmy Schmidt’s Cooking Class” (Ten Speed Press, 1996). Instead of tarragon, Schmidt uses rosemary. Thyme would also work well.

Potato-Pistachio Salad

8 ounces (2 medium) yellow-fleshed potatoes, cooked, diced and peeled if desired

1 celery stalk, trimmed and diced

1/4 cup chopped shallot or red onion

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped pistachios

2 tablespoons sour cream (nonfat if desired)

2 tablespoons homemade or prepared pesto

Salt, freshly ground white pepper

Combine potatoes, celery, shallot and pistachios in serving bowl.

Combine sour cream, pesto and salt and pepper to taste in cup and stir well. Stir sour cream mixture into potato mixture. Set aside 10 minutes for flavors to blend.

Yield: 2 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 124 calories, 9 grams fat (65 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein, 7 grams carbohydrate, 7 milligrams cholesterol, 139 milligrams sodium.

Chicken With Tarragon

1/4 cup olive oil

4 tarragon sprigs, plus extra for garnish

2 chicken breast halves

1 garlic clove, smashed

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt, freshly ground pepper

Heat oil in medium skillet. Add 4 tarragon sprigs and cook over medium heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove tarragon. Add chicken breasts and brown over high heat 5 minutes each side. Reduce heat to medium.

Stir in garlic, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, frequently basting chicken with skillet juices, until completely cooked, about 20 minutes.

To serve, arrange 1 chicken breast half on each of 2 plates. Drizzle some skillet juices over chicken. Garnish with fresh tarragon sprigs.

Yield: 2 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 407 calories, 29 grams fat (64 percent fat calories), 28 grams protein, 11 grams carbohydrate, 65 milligrams cholesterol, 80 milligrams sodium.