Chicken with Tarragon Salsa Verde

I will do anything, including roasting chicken breasts in my oven on a sweltering hot day, to eat this salsa verde.


Chicken with Tarragon Salsa Verde
from Nigella Lawson's Nigellissima
Serves 4

For the Chicken:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken breasts (skin on)
A few sprigs of tarragon
Freshly ground black pepper

For the Salsa Verde:
3 tablespoons roughly chopped tarragon
1 large handful parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1 spring onion including green part, roughly chopped
Zest of half a lemon and the juice of half of it
80ml extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

Roast the Chicken:
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.
Pour 1 tablespoon of the oil into a roasting pan. Add chicken, skin side up, and pour over the remaining tablespoon of oil. Rub the chicken skin with the oil and pop the tarragon sprigs in and around the chicken. Grind over the pepper and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the skins are golden and the chicken is cooked through.

Once cooked, take them out of the oven and leave them to rest in the pan for about 5-10 minutes while you make the salsa verde.

Make the Salsa Verde:
Blitz all the ingredients in a blender. Add the pan juices from the roasting pan to thin the salsa and blitz again.

To Serve:
Cut the chicken into 1cm thick slices and arrange on a platter. Drizzle over the salsa verde.