Chef notes
With all of the roast chicken recipes out there in the world, this dish lives up to its name. There are no specialty ingredients or fancy tricks involved here — what makes this recipe truly epic is a handful of flavorful ingredients, a good-quality bird and some time. And it all starts with spatchcocking the chicken.
Spatchcocking is the process of removing the bird’s backbone and flattening it before you start cooking. It sounds much more complicated than it actually is. Your butcher can do this for you, but all you need to do it yourself is a pair of kitchen shears and a cutting board. Use the scissors to cut along each side of the backbone to separate it (save it later — it adds an incredible depth of flavor to homemade chicken stock). With the backbone removed, all the chicken needs is a press against the breastbone to flatten. The result is a chicken that cooks much more evenly and quickly than a whole bird.
The key to a shatteringly crisp outer skin is to start the bird at a high heat so that the skin can get a head start on browning. While that happens, mix together the outrageously creamy sauce that sets this chicken apart from the rest — it’s made with a combination of heavy cream, Dijon mustard and lots of fresh tarragon. The sauce combines several different flavor and textural elements — the smooth and fatty cream mingles with the sharp, acidic mustard and the anise-like flavor of the tarragon. As the sauce bubbles and melds with the flavor of the chicken, the garlic cloves infuse everything with their flavor. Give the roast chicken a few minutes to rest, then serve it alongside a simple green side salad.
Technique Tip: There are a few tricks for not overcooking chicken: One is taking it out of the oven early and leaving it to rest to come up to temperature, using a temperature probe; another is seasoning an hour before cooking (the salt within holds onto the moisture and you get much juicier chicken); and spatchcocking is also a great technique to help cook the chicken more quickly and evenly.
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