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Milk-Poached Chicken with Tarragon Salsa Verde
We love the Italian trick of gently simmering pork and chicken breasts in milk, not water, to produce meat that is tender and succulent. Before poaching, we pounded the breasts until they were ½ inch thick, which keeps the cooking quick and even. If your chicken breasts have tenderloins attached, remove them before pounding; they can be reserved for another use, such as stir-frying. While the chicken rests, make a simple tarragon sauce in the food processor to add both flavor and color. Serve with buttered egg noodles, boiled potatoes or toasted pearl couscous tossed with fruity extra-virgin olive oil and lemon.
4
Servings
Tip
Don’t use low-fat or nonfat milk; both will curdle during cooking. And don't allow the poaching liquid to reach a full simmer. Gentle cooking is needed for the chicken to remain tender and moist.
40 minutes
Ingredients
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4
8- to 10-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded ½ inch thick
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Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Directions
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01Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. In a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, combine the milk, tarragon sprigs, garlic, butter, peppercorns and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring, then reduce to low and add the chicken in an even layer, submerging them. Cover and cook, adjusting the heat to maintain a gentle simmer (only a few bubbles), until the breasts are opaque throughout, 18 to 24 minutes, flipping them halfway through.
Reviews
August 21, 2026
loved it
I loved this although the anti-tarragon people in my family did not love it, but hey, I'm the chef, that's their problem. My other thoughts are 1) please post more boneless skinless chicken breast recipes because they are the cheapest cut nowadays, and I think there is a lack of good recipes for them in which the chicken ends up moist. 2) I live in a large city and you can't find big bunches of tarragon in any of the stores, you have to buy several little packs of . 5 oz each, which is annoying, but not your fault, but thought I'd vent. 3) I drank a lot of the poaching liquid for this recipe, thought it was an excellent creamy soup, no?
November 17, 2025
Excellent flavor!
The chicken did not turn out as tender as I would have liked but I used frozen thawed chicken and didn’t have a proper mallet for pounding. I also didn’t have a full cup of tarragon leaves for the sauce so I rescued some of the tarragon leaves out of the milk sauce when the chicken was cooked.
Make sure to reheat the chicken before serving with the warm sauce. It is very tasty and I will make this again!
March 20, 2023
Nutritional info
Could you list the nutritional info when offering a recipe. would love to make the recipes that you offer but cannot. For medical reasons many times it is needed. thank you
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