French · Main
Roast Chicken
The perfect roast chicken, basted with tarragon butter, its pan jus mounted at the last second — simplicity that guests remember over the fireworks
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 80 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- Whole free-range chicken — 1 (1.6–1.8 kg)
- Unsalted butter, soft — 80 g
- Tarragon — 20 g (12 g chopped, 8 g sprigs)
- Garlic head, halved — 1
- Lemon, halved — 1
- Fine salt — 14 g
- Black pepper — 2 g
- Dry white wine — 100 ml
- Chicken stock — 250 ml
- Shallot, minced — 40 g
Method
- Salt the bird all over, including the cavity, 2–24 h ahead; keep uncovered in the fridge.
- Work chopped tarragon into 60 g butter; push most under the breast skin, rub the rest outside. Cavity: lemon, garlic, tarragon sprigs. Truss loosely.
- Roast at 200 °C, one leg down, 20 min; other leg down, 20 min; breast up 20–30 min, basting, until leg core is 80 °C and juices run clear.
- Rest breast-down on a warm plate 15 min.
- Jus: pour off fat, sweat shallot in the pan 2 min; add wine, scraping, reduce by half; add stock and resting juices, reduce to 150 ml.
- Off heat, swirl in remaining 20 g butter; season and strain.
- Carve; spritz with the roasted lemon.