Tarragon Chicken Wraps

Chicken and Tarragon Wraps
Home Cooking


One of the 'must-do's for Summer is having a barbeque. Like going to the beach or eating at least 1 mango, having a barbeque is something you do to take advantage of the sunny weather and fresh food, lest you feel that your Brisbane-style Summer is going to waste.

It was very much on our list of activities to go through before university resumed. What I had in mind was a picnic and simple grill somewhere that, whilst not being exotic, was at least a nice change of scenery. Perhaps South Bank? Or Roma St Parklands? Not what you'd call original by a far cry but nice all the same.

What we ended up doing on the other hand was not even get into our backyard. Charlie was adamant on using our old coal barbeque but unfortunately, he's about as competent with starting fires as a wet haystack. After what seemed like 2 hours (during which time, he had twice forgotten about the barbeque entirely. I would ask him how the fire was going and he would look at me stumped for a few seconds before gasping an 'Oh!' of realization and rushing out the door to check). I put my foot down and decided to grill my chicken patties in a frying pan.



Frying pans aren't chic or stylesque or quirky. But... it gets the job done. When you're hungry, that's all that really matters.

The recipe below is from "The Big Grill" by Paul Kirk. In the book, they're called Chicken and Tarragon burgers but since I had some tortilla wraps spare, I decided to use them instead of bread buns. You can of course feel free to use whatever you like to sandwich these babies.

I adapted the recipe by dividing by 2. I ended up with 2 full patties + a blob extra that I used for a taste test. You can get around this by shaping your patties bigger so that you don't have any excess. I made mine small and neat so they'd fit inside the tortilla wraps.

Chicken and Tarragon Wraps
Makes 2

Ingredients:

For the patties

• 220g chicken mince
• 1-2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped (amount depends on your personal taste and how big the bunches of spring onion are - you want enough to have a presence in your patties but not too much so that it takes over)
• 10g pine nut kernels
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tbsp grated lemon zest
• Seasoning to taste (sea salt and ground black pepper)
• 2 slices of proscuitto (or 1 slice to wrap around each patty you plan to make)
• Olive oil

For the wraps

• 2 med-sized tortilla wraps (or burger buns, or pita bread etc etc)
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• Fresh rocket leaves

Procedure:

1. Mix together the chicken mince, spring onion, pine nuts, tarragon, paprika, lemon zest and seasoning. You can do this by hand in a large bowl or use a food processor. It is ready when the mixture is uniform and forms a ball.2. Which dampened hands, shape the patties. For my wraps, I made flat, elongated patties. If you're sandwiching between burger buns, you would opt for a rounder shape. There is no rule to this! Don't make them too thick though, so that they are easier to cook.3. Lightly cover the patties with cling wrap and pop in the fridge for at least 20min.
4. When you're ready to cook, wrap patties with a slice of prosciutto each and brush lightly with olive oil. Grill over medium heat for 5-6min on either side until done. Make sure it's cooked all the way through (no sloppy pink bits in the center!)The prosciutto not only adds flavor but also keeps the patties nice and moist.5. When the patties are done, serve them as you like alongside the rocket and red onion. I also supplied some spicy tomato relish which complimented the patties like a treat.

 
These wraps are a wonderfully light and tasty meal and screams something of Summer. We don't NEED a barbeque to get the vibe. (Or at least I like to think...)