Like little black dresses, you can never have too many roast chicken recipes, especially the French kind.“
„With roast chickens, as with little black dresses, simplicity is sophistication“
Melissa Clark/NYTimes
The famous food journalist Melissa Clark/NYTimes received this recipe via Email by Florence Chapgier, a Paris-born reader living in Los Angeles. A recipe from her French mother, Christiane Baumgartner.
Superb………for me a whole roasted chicken is hard to beat.
Ingredients
1 chicken (1,5-2kg)
Maldon salt (2 tsp coarse gray sea salt or 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt )
100g soft butter (6 tbsp)
1 bunch fresh tarragon
2 tbsp Cognac
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
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Pat the chicken dry and salt the bird inside and out. Transfer to a plate and refrigerate uncovered overnight.
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In a small bowl, combine soft butter, chopped tarragon leaves, 1 tbsp Cognac and the black pepper.
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Rub butter over the chicken and under the chicken skin. Add the tarragon stems inside the chicken cavity
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Put the chicken in the pre-heated oven for 1h by 200 C or 400 F
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After 1h turn off the oven – don’t skip this step, as you don’t want the cognac to overheat and catch fire – and transfer the pan with the chicken to the stovetop. Pour the remaining 1 tbsp Cognac over the bird and baste with some of the buttery pan juices. Immediately return the chicken to the turned-off oven and let rest there for 10 minutes before carving and serving. Let the door of the oven open when the chicken is resting for 10min!!!
