I love good food. And by that I don’t necessarily mean fancy or even artfully presented, but good. Food that someone has clearly put time and thought into. When I think about some of my favorite things to eat and favorite places to eat them, a few restaurants immediately spring to mind. There’s a little cafe in Manchester, Vermont that makes a killer Niçoise salad, a Portuguese restaurant in Newark, New Jersey with a flank steak in red wine sauce to die for and a coffee shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that serves an Eggs Benedict with spinach that literally makes my eyes roll. But, if you were to ask about my most favorite home-cooked dinner, my death row meal, it would without hesitation be roasted chicken. Yup, good ol’ soul satisfying roasted chicken.

I have apparently instilled my love of roasted chicken in my children because they actually cheer when I tell them that’s what’s for dinner (I’m a lucky mom!) and so I make it pretty regularly. Ordinarily when I roast a chicken it’s a fairly simple affair; salt and pepper, perhaps some lemon and onion in the cavity and a nice schmear of butter on the breast. If that’s all it takes to garner hoots and hollers from my family then why mess with it, right? But, (I know, there’s always a but) I just recently read a review of the Jane Hornby cookbook Fresh & Easy and in it they mentioned her roasted chicken with tarragon sauce. Hmmmm, we all love my no muss, no fuss chicken but maybe a little cream sauce now and then would turn the everyday and expected into something special. And it did.

Roasted Chicken with Tarragon Cream Sauce
This chicken is equally fantastic without the cream sauce, but the sauce really makes it something special.

1 5 lb. organic whole chicken
1 lemon
1 small onion
1 handful fresh tarragon
2 tbsp. butter, softened
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 lbs. small red potatoes, quartered
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 lb. green beans
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas
3/4 cup brandy
1 cup light cream
1 1/4 cups chicken broth

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Rinse the chicken and liberally salt and pepper it inside and out. Cut the onion and lemon in half, squeeze the juice of half a lemon all over chicken and place the lemon, onion and a handful of the tarragon into the cavity of the chicken.
2. Tie together the legs with kitchen twine and rub the softened butter all over the breast and thighs. Place the chicken in a roasting pan, add 1/2 cup of water to the bottom and roast for 40 minutes.
3. Toss the quartered potatoes with olive oil. After the chicken has roasted for 40 minutes add the potatoes (cut side down) to the pan. Return to the oven and continue roasting for another 30-40 minutes or until the internal temp. reaches 165°F.
4. When the chicken is golden and cooked and the potatoes are tender, transfer everything to a large oven proof platter, turn the oven off and place the platter in the oven to keep warm.
5. Pour off any excess fat from the drippings in the pan. Place the pan on your stove top over low heat, then add the wine and let bubble (scraping up any cooked on bits) for 2 minutes. Add the cream, broth and green beans and let simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Add the frozen peas and mushrooms. Roughly chop the remaining tarragon, stir it into the sauce and return to a simmer. Continue to cook until the veggies are tender, about 8-10 minutes.
7. Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables and drizzled with cream sauce.

*adapted from Jane Hornby: Fresh & Easy