Emphasis on the vinegar

I love Delia Smith's recipes, so much so that I'm considering subscribing to her site's premium content. I've cooked both sweet and savory dishes with great results.

I was excited to see her recipe for Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce. It looked fantastic as pictured on her site, and I printed out the recipe. I couldn't wait to make it and purchased the ingredients. Saturday was the day!

First I browned the chicken, shallots and garlic as instructed, then sprinkled the tarragon and poured in the sherry and the sherry vinegar. Setting it to a bare simmer, I admired the beauty before me:


I expected that as the chicken cooked, the liquid would reduce to a nice syrup-y sauce with the lovely flavor of sherry and tarragon. Yum.

After the requisite 45 minutes, the chicken was cooked, but tons of thin liquid still remained in the pan. I removed the chicken and veggies and tried to reduce the sauce, but didn't have much luck.


After cooking the dish, I thought to check the forum posts on Delia's site and found that others had the same experience too much liquid, and that they found the taste too "sharp." Well, I do wish I'd seen this info in advance.


The Verdict:

I served up the chicken with some English peas (looking a little wizened). My husband loved it - gave it a full 10 on the scale of 1-to-10! In my opinion, there was too much vinegar flavor. Next time, I'd cut the sherry to 8 fl oz, and the vinegar to 1.5 fl oz.

[update]
Actually, upon further thought, I doubt that I'll make this again - there are just too many wonderful chicken recipes out there.