Roasted Chicken with Tarragon

Ingredients:

  • 3-4-pound Three Sisters Ranch chicken (I have also used a half chicken)

  • Salt and pepper

  • 8 tablespoons REAL butter, maybe more

  • 8 sprigs of fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon of dried tarragon

  • Olive oil

  • Heavy cast iron dutch oven with lid

  • 1/2 cup sliced onions

  • 1 pound of potatoes, cut into large cubes

  • Optional: 1 pound carrots, cut into cubes

Brown Tarragon Sauce

  • 2 cups chicken stock

  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch blended with 2 tablespoons red wine of choice

  • 2 tablespoons fresh minced tarragon or parsley

  • 1 tablespoon softened butter

How to Cook:

Season the cavity of the chicken with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the butter. Insert the tarragon leaves, or sprinkle in 1 teaspoon dried tarragon. Truss the chicken. Dry it thoroughly and rub the skin with about 3 tablespoons butter.

Set the dutch oven over moderately high heat with 2 tablespoons butter and oil. Once hot, lay in the chicken, breast down. Brown for 2 to 3 minutes, regulating heat so butter is always very hot but not burning. Turn the chicken on another side. Be sure not to break the chicken skin. Continue browning and turning the chicken until it is a nice golden color almost all over, particularly on the breast and legs. This will take 10 to 15 minutes. Be patient--the time spent here is important. Add more oil if necessary to keep the bottom of the dutch oven oiled.

Remove the chicken. Pour out the browning fat if it has burned, and add fresh butter.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cook the 1 pound of carrots, or 1 pound of potatoes and 1/2 cup sliced onions slowly in the dutch oven for 5 minutes without browning. Add the salt and tarragon.

Salt the chicken. Set it breast up over the vegetables and baste it with the butter in the dutch oven. Cover the dutch oven, then place on a rack in the middle level of the preheated oven.

Roast for 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes, regulating heat so chicken is always making quiet cooking noises. Baste once or twice with the butter and juices. The chicken is done when its drumsticks move in their sockets, and when the last drops drained from its vent run clear yellow.

Remove the chicken to a serving platter and discard trussing strings.

Add the chicken stock or bouillon and broth to the dutch oven and simmer for 2 minutes, scraping up coagulated roasting juices. Blend in the cornstarch mixture, simmer a minute, then raise heat and boil rapidly until sauce is lightly thickened. Taste carefully for seasoning, adding more tarragon if you feel it necessary. Strain into a warmed sauceboat. Stir in the herbs and the enrichment butter.

To serve

Optional but attractive: 10 to 12 fresh tarragon leaves blanched for 30 seconds in boiling water then rinsed in cold water, and dried on paper towels

Pour a spoonful of sauce over the chicken, and decorate the breast and legs with optional tarragon leaves. Platter may be garnished with sprigs of fresh parsley.

Diane Kahanek