Tarragon chicken with creamy white beans
Tender chicken in a creamy white bean sauce with fresh tarragon.
About 30 min · 375 kcal · 43 g protein per serving
One pan
Apricot chicken with couscous
Chicken and couscous with soft apricot and parsley.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 12 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the chicken cooks through in 10 to 12 minutes
- Photograph the finished plate
- Time
- About 35 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 455 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 40 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten, sulphites. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- dried apricots. Most dried apricots are treated with sulphites, which are a declared allergen. Unsulphured apricots are darker.
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
Cooking steps
Warm the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook for 6 minutes, until softening.
Add the chicken, apricots and cinnamon and cook for 2 minutes, turning.
Pour in 150 ml of the stock, cover and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Meanwhile, bring the rest of the stock to the boil, pour it over the couscous in a heatproof bowl, cover with a plate and leave for 5 minutes. Fork it through.
Divide the couscous between two plates and spoon the chicken and its sauce over.
The useful detail
Chop dried apricots finely so their sweetness is distributed. In large pieces they stay as sweet pockets; chopped small they dissolve into the sauce and season the whole pan.
Make it work for you
One serving is Half the pan with half the couscous. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Prunes instead of apricots
Darker and less sharp.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Allergens: Removes sulphites, which most dried apricots carry.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Leaner, with the same safe endpoint.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 2 g less fat.
Rice instead of couscous
Cook it in the stock for the time on the packet.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about 3 g less protein, about the same fat.
Allergens: Removes gluten.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A sweet-savoury braise. Sugars are not calculated, because the dry couscous record does not include them; the apricots are the sweetness you can see.
| Energy | 455 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 40 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| of which saturates | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| of which sugars | not calculated |
| Fibre | 6 g |
| Sodium | 690 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| olive oil | 4.5 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 40 kcal | 0.0 g |
| onion | 60 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 24 kcal | 0.7 g |
| carrot | 100 g | FDC 170393Carrots, raw | 41 kcal | 0.9 g |
| chicken breast | 280 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 336 kcal | 63.0 g |
| dried apricots | 30 g | FDC 173941Apricots, dried, sulfured, uncooked | 72 kcal | 1.0 g |
| ground cinnamon | 0.5 g | FDC 171320Spices, cinnamon, ground | 2 kcal | 0.0 g |
| chicken stock | 315 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 19 kcal | 2.0 g |
| couscous | 100 g | FDC 169699Couscous, dryFoodData Central's record for dry couscous has no sugars value, so sugars are left uncalculated for this recipe rather than guessed. | 376 kcal | 12.8 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 910 kcal | 80.4 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. of which sugars could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Keep the couscous separate; it dries out less that way.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
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About 40 min · 585 kcal · 42 g protein per serving