Tarragon Uses: Béarnaise, Chicken, Eggs, Vinegar and More

Tarragon is the herb that makes béarnaise taste like béarnaise: Britannica calls it an essential ingredient in the sauce.¹ PROSEA describes the leaves as having a sweet, anise-like scent and a bittersweet taste, and says they suit chicken, egg and lobster dishes especially well.² That short list covers most of what tarragon is used for. This page goes through those uses with named recipes, then the less familiar ones, from Georgian lamb stew to a green soft drink. For buying, storing and the French versus Russian question in depth, see the tarragon profile.

Before you start: French tarragon, used fresh

Recipes mean French tarragon. Illinois Extension notes that tarragon seed sold on seed racks is Russian tarragon, which lacks French tarragon’s smell and flavor,³ and Gernot Katzer describes Russian tarragon as not at all fragrant and slightly bitter.⁴

Most uses below call for the fresh herb. Katzer says the aroma of dried tarragon is usually very weak,⁴ and Illinois Extension says its flavor is quickly lost when the leaves are dried.³ America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) groups tarragon with basil, chives, dill and parsley as delicate herbs whose flavor compounds are more volatile,⁵ which is why tarragon usually goes in at or near the end. See dried vs. fresh tarragon.

Tarragon uses at a glance

Béarnaise

Katzer calls tarragon the characteristic flavoring of sauce béarnaise.⁴ Saveur’s recipe shows how it gets there twice. Vinegar, white wine, a chopped shallot, 1 teaspoon of dried tarragon, the chopped stems of 3 tarragon sprigs and peppercorns are reduced first; the reduction is whisked with 8 egg yolks and 1 cup of melted butter; then the chopped fresh leaves go in with lemon juice at the end.⁶ Adding fresh leaves at the end fits ATK’s grouping of tarragon among the delicate, volatile herbs.⁵ Katzer says the sauce is mostly suggested for fried, roasted or broiled meat.⁴

Fines herbes and eggs

Britannica says the French herb mixture fines herbes commonly includes parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, though the mix varies.¹² Jacques Pépin’s fines herbes omelet uses 1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon of a mixture of chervil, tarragon and chives.⁷ Eggs are one of the three uses PROSEA singles out.² See fines herbes.

Chicken

PROSEA names chicken first among tarragon’s best matches,² and Katzer calls it a great addition to delicate European poultry dishes.⁴ The classic is poulet à l’estragon. In Pépin’s version, the cream-sauced chicken of his poulet à la crème becomes poulet à l’estragon with 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh tarragon.⁸ See good spices for chicken.

Lobster and seafood

Chef Jean-Pierre’s lobster thermidor uses 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh tarragon or thyme.⁹ Andrew Zimmern’s Maine lobster roll keeps tarragon optional, suggesting some lemon or tarragon if you like.¹⁰ See lobster spices.

Salads, vinegar and mustard

Katzer says tarragon is most popular for salads and is frequently used to flavor vinegar, sometimes with capers.⁴ PROSEA says tarragon vinegar is made by adding the herb to wine vinegar,² and Colorado State University Extension lists tarragon among the fresh herbs suitable for flavored vinegar.¹³ Step-by-step method and keeping times are on how to store tarragon. Illinois Extension also suggests tarragon in oils, marinades and salads.³ For oil, Oregon State University Extension says homemade herb-and-oil mixtures must be refrigerated and used within 4 days, or frozen.¹⁴

Katzer notes that in some kitchens tarragon turns up almost only as tarragon-flavored mustard,⁴ and that it suits herb sauces based on sour cream, mayonnaise or mushrooms.⁴

Green goddess dressing. A widely repeated claim says green goddess takes its color from tarragon. Katie Workman’s history for the Associated Press credits the dressing to the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in 1923 and says the original reportedly contained mayonnaise, sour cream, parsley, chives, anchovies, lemon juice and vinegar, with no tarragon named.¹⁵ Her modern recipe does use 2 tablespoons of fresh tarragon leaves.¹⁵ So tarragon is a common addition, not a documented part of the original.

Georgian lamb and tarragon soda

Katzer finds tarragon surprisingly little used in contemporary European cooking and calls Georgia the exception, with the herb often used as a garnish and sometimes as the main flavoring. His example is chakapuli, a fairly liquid stew of lamb chops with white wine and water, flavored with plenty of chopped fresh tarragon.⁴ Georgia also has a carbonated tarragon soft drink, artificially colored green, Katzer notes.⁴ A 2011 review says a sweet nonalcoholic tarragon drink is popular in countries including Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.¹¹ Using tarragon syrup in cocktails follows the same idea, but we found no named recipe to cite.

Uses we could not confirm

• Bouquet garni. Britannica’s classic bundle is parsley, thyme and bay leaf,¹⁶ and we found no source that makes tarragon a usual addition. See bouquet garni.
• Salade lyonnaise with tarragon, duck dishes, and poulet au vinaigre as tarragon dishes: no source found.

How much to use

The University of Delaware puts French tarragon in its medium-strength group,¹⁷ for which it suggests 1 to 2 teaspoons for 6 servings (Attributed). The named recipes above run from 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh leaves for a whole chicken dish to Pépin’s tablespoon of mixed herbs for an omelet. If a dish has gone too far, see too much tarragon.

Related

• Tarragon
• Tarragon substitutes
• How to dry tarragon
• Can you freeze tarragon?
• Tarragon vs. thyme
• Tarragon vs. dill
• Chervil