Braised chicken w/ tarragon cream sauce

4 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
4½ pounds Fat chicken with giblets
Salt
Black pepper; freshly ground
1 bunch Fresh tarragon
55929 7. Typed by Heiko Ebeling.
1 ounce Butter
5 tablespoons Chicken stock
6 tablespoons Double cream
Tarragon; chopped

Directions

Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper and tuck the bunch of tarragon in the cavity. Melt the butter in a deep, flameproof casserole and brown the chicken gently until it is a light golden colour. Slip the giblets underneath the bird, add the stock and cover the pan. Simmer on slow heat for 40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Because of the gentle heat the cooking juices should be a pale colour, neither brown nor burned. Remove the tarragon from the chicken and discard it. Leave the chicken for another few minutes before cutting it up and placing it on a heated serving dish. Stir the cream into the pan juices, correct the seasoning, and heat the sauce thoroughly. Pour the sauce through a strainer over the chicken. Add a small sprinkling of chopped tarragon and serve very hot.

French name: Poularde braisee a la creme d'estragon. Chicken with tarragon cream sauce is truly a classic of French cooking. There are many versions. This recipe is from the Auberge du Pere Bise, on the shore of Lake Annecy. Because herbs increase in flavour with the sun, northern tarragon may have to be used in greater quantity to achieve the same effect. Fresh, not dried, tarragon must be used.

Source: Jane Grigson (ed.): The World Atlas of Food. A Gourmet's Guide to the Great Regional Dishes of the World. Mitchell Beazley Publishers 1974. This edition: Spring Books, London 1988. ISBN 0 600 Submitted By HEIKO EBELING On 05-08-95

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