Chicken Breasts with White Wine Pan Sauce with Crème Fraîche and Spring Herbs

 This simple white wine pan sauce enriched with créme fraîche and a generous handful of tender fresh herbs like tarragon, dill, and chives makes smart use of the pan drippings from pan-roasted chicken breasts. Simply pan-roast airline chicken breasts, set them aside to rest, and then, while the chicken is resting, use the drippings to build the flavor-packed white wine pan sauce, which comes together in about 10 minutes and delivers an elegant, silky texture. The delicate flavors of the white wine pan sauce are also a good pair for thick fillets of trout, salmon, or halibut, which may be substituted for the chicken breasts. To make this pan sauce from other proteins, start from step 2, working with 1 tablespoon of reserved drippings, and proceed as written. 

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Recipe Summary

Total:

45 mins

Servings:

4

Ingredients

Ingredient Checklist

• 4 (10-ounce)s skin-on airline chicken breasts
• 1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• ½ teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil (such as grapeseed)
• ¼ cup sliced spring onion bulb (from 1 large spring onion), sliced green garlic bulbs, or sliced ramp bulb and greens
• ⅓ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock or lower-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
• 3 tablespoons chopped mixed tender fresh herbs (such as tarragon, dill, chives, and parsley)
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1

  Preheat oven to 425°F. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium. Cook chicken, skin side down, until skin is golden brown and crispy, 15 to 18 minutes. Flip the chicken breasts and cook skin side up, until a thermometer inserted in thickest portion of chicken registers 160°F, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Reserve 1 Tablespoons of drippings in skillet.

• Step 2

  Heat reserved drippings in skillet over medium-high. Add spring onion; cook, stirring often, until softened, about 1 minute. Add wine (mixture will immediately come to a simmer). Simmer over medium-high, stirring occasionally to loosen browned bits on bottom of skillet, until reduced by about half, 1 to 2 minutes. Add stock; cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture has reduced to about 2/3 cup and just barely coats back of a spoon, 4 to 6 minutes. Reduce heat to low; stir in crème fraîche until just melted, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat; stir in herbs and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve alongside cooked chicken.