This is one of my favourite recipes. Very tasty with a lovely crisp skin.
"Tarragon Chicken
(From Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking)
Tarragon is a herb which has a quite remarkable affinity with chicken and poulet à l’estragon, made with fresh tarragon, is one of the great treats of the summer. There are any amount of different ways of cooking a tarragon-flavoured chicken dish: here is a particularly successful one.
For a plump roasting chicken weighing about 2 lb (900 g) when plucked and drawn, knead a good 1 oz (30 g) butter with a tablespoon of tarragon leaves, half a clove of garlic, salt and pepper. Put this inside the bird, which should be well coated with olive oil. Roast the bird lying on its side on a grid in a baking dish. Turn it over at half-time (45 minutes altogether in a pretty hot oven (200 C / 400 F / Gas Mark 6) or an hour in a moderate oven (180 C / 350 F / Gass Mark 4) should be sufficient; those who have a roomy grill might try grilling, which takes about 20 minutes, and gives much more the impression of a spit-roasted bird, but it must be constantly watched and turned over very carefully, so that the legs are as well done as the breast).
When the bird is cooked, heat a small glass of brandy in a soup ladle, set light to it, pour it flaming over the chicken, and rotate the dish so that the flames spread and continue to burn as long as possible. Return the bird to a low oven for 5 minutes, during which time the brandy sauce will mature and lose its raw flavour. At this moment you can, if you like, enrich the sauce with a few spoonfuls of thick cream and, at la Mère Michel’s Paris restaurant, from where the recipe originally came, they add Madeira to the sauce. Good though this is, it seems to me a needless complication. Serves 3 to 4."
6 comments:
That brandy finish sounds really good. The french and french influenced have all those incredible touches.
I agree, this sounds delicious. I love tarragon with chicken...will have to try this one. Thanks BP!
The brandy does give it a lovely succulent depth.
My favourite Elizabeth David book is “I’ll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon”.
Elizabeth David’s ultimate spag bol:
225g lean minced beef
115g chicken livers
85g uncooked ham (both fat and lean)
1 carrot
1 onion
1 small piece of celery
3 tsp concentrated tomato puree
1 glass white wine
2 wine glasses stock or water
Butter
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg
Cut the bacon or ham into very small pieces and brown them gently in a small saucepan in about 15g of butter. Add the onion, the carrot, and the celery, all finely chopped. When they have browned, put in the raw minced beef, and then turn it over and over so that it all browns evenly. Add the chopped chicken livers, and after two or three minutes the tomato puree, and then the white wine. Season with salt (taking into account the relative saltiness of the ham or bacon), pepper, and a scraping of nutmeg, and add the meat stock or water.
Cover the pan and simmer the sauce very gently for 30-40 minutes. Some cooks in Bologna add a cupful of cream or milk to the sauce, which makes it smoother. Another traditional variation is the addition of the ovarine or unlaid eggs which are found inside the hen, especially in the spring when the hens are laying. They are added at the same time as the chicken livers and form small golden globules when the sauce is finished. When the ragu is to be served with spaghetti or tagliatelle, mix it with the hot pasta in a heated dish so that the pasta is thoroughly impregnated with the sauce, and add a generous piece of butter before serving. Hand the grated cheese round separately.
(Taken from Italian Food by Elizabeth David)
R.A.D. - seriously? That's a title? I shall have to look it up.
That sounds like a wonderful spag bog. Being half-Italian, there is a family recipe which is like holy scripture here. But I might try this in secret, to avoid disinheritance.
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