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
Chicken poached in lemon and thyme with white beans
Chicken poached gently, then folded through white beans with lemon and thyme.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 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 150 g breasts poach through in 14 to 16 minutes at a bare simmer
- Photograph the finished pan
- Time
- About 30 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 470 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 51 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
No regulated allergens in the ingredients as listed. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
Cooking steps
Bring the stock and thyme to a bare simmer in a pan just wide enough to hold the chicken in one layer. The surface should barely move.
Lower in the chicken breasts, cover and poach for 14 to 16 minutes, turning once. Never let it boil.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Lift the chicken out onto a board and leave it to rest for 5 minutes.
Add the drained beans and the oil to the poaching stock and warm for 3 minutes, then stir in the spinach until it wilts.
Slice the chicken thickly, stir the lemon juice into the beans and return the chicken with any juices from the board.
The useful detail
A bare simmer, never a boil. Moving water pulls chicken breast tight and squeezes the moisture out of it within a couple of minutes, and no amount of sauce puts it back.
Make it work for you
One serving is 150 g of chicken with half the beans and spinach. 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.
Butter beans instead of white beans
Larger and creamier. The same weight.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Vegetable stock instead of chicken stock
Lighter, and the thyme comes through more.
Per serving: about the same energy, about 1 g less protein, about the same fat.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Leaner and firmer. It needs a couple of minutes longer.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 2 g less fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A dinner where the beans carry the fibre and a second helping of protein, so the portion of chicken does not have to be large to reach a useful number.
| Energy | 470 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 51 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 45 g |
| of which sugars | 2 g |
| Fibre | 11 g |
| Sodium | 1,370 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chicken stock | 315 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 19 kcal | 2.0 g |
| fresh thyme leaves | 1 g | FDC 173470Thyme, freshA teaspoon of thyme leaves weighs 0.8 g, under 1 kcal on FoodData Central 173470. That record has no sugars value, so the leaves are listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| chicken breast | 300 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 360 kcal | 67.5 g |
| white beans | 400 g | FDC 175204Beans, white, mature seeds, canned | 456 kcal | 29.0 g |
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| spinach | 100 g | FDC 168462Spinach, raw | 23 kcal | 2.9 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 942 kcal | 101.5 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. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 1 kcal to the whole recipe. 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. The beans absorb the liquid as they sit, so keep a little stock back to loosen them.
- 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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Tender turkey meatballs in a smooth pepper sauce, served with orzo.
About 40 min · 585 kcal · 42 g protein per serving