Chicken With Tarragon

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There is one ‘must’ about this chicken dish – you must use fresh tarragon. It’s not going to work with the dried stuff; instead you’ll get a slightly musty flavor which, while not unpleasant, is nothing like the real thing.

Essentially a French recipe, I got it from one of Elizabeth David’s cookbooks over 30 years ago. It gets better with age. Like most good peasant dishes it’s simple, straight forward and very easy to cook. But it does take a little time because it needs to cool down.

You need:

1 top quality chicken
100g of butter
2 egg yolks
300mls of cream
1 bunch of tarragon
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper

Rub the outside of the chicken with the lemon juice. Mash the butter with salt and pepper and 1tbs of chopped tarragon. Put this inside the bird.

Put the chicken in a saucepan large enough to hold it comfortably, add one glass of white wine and enough water to just cover it completely. Poach the chicken in this ‘stock’ until cooked through and leave to cool in the saucepan.

Once it’s cold, take the chicken out of the stock and transfer it to a serving dish that is deep enough to hold the sauce, but shallow enough to let you carve the chicken. Strain the stock and boil it rapidly to reduce it to about 300mls (half a pint). Transfer it to a smaller pan.

Now beat the egg yolks with the cream and another tablespoonful of chopped tarragon. Add one or two tablespoonfuls of the hot stock to this mix, whisking all the while, and then pour the mixture into the stock that remains.

Heat this through while stirring until it thickens to coating consistency. Pour it over the chicken and allow it to get cold, transferring it to the fridge as soon as possible.

Garnish with a few sprigs of tarragon and serve at the table with a green salad and warm new potatoes or a cold rice vinaigrette.

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