Roast Tarragon-Cognac Chicken
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
- Total Time
- 2½ hours
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 2 hours 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 1(4-pound) whole chicken
- 2teaspoons coarse gray sea salt or 2½ teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 6tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1bunch fresh tarragon, leaves and tender stems coarsely chopped (about ¾ cup)
- 2tablespoons Cognac
- 1teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
856 calories; 64 grams fat; 24 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 24 grams monounsaturated fat; 11 grams polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 59 grams protein; 1139 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Pat the chicken dry and salt the bird inside and out. Transfer to a plate or baking dish, preferably on a rack, and refrigerate uncovered for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Step 2
When ready to cook the chicken, heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Step 3
In a small bowl, combine butter, tarragon, 1 tablespoon Cognac and the pepper. Rub mixture inside the chicken cavity and over and under the chicken skin.
- Step 4
Place chicken on a rimmed sheet pan or in a large, ovenproof skillet. Roast, breast side up, until the skin is golden and crisp, and the juices run clear when you insert a fork in the thickest part of the thigh (165 degrees), about 1 hour.
- Step 5
Turn off the oven — don’t skip this step, or the Cognac may overheat and catch fire — and transfer the pan with the chicken to the stovetop. Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon Cognac over the bird and baste with some of the buttery pan juices. Immediately return the chicken to the turned-off oven and let rest there for 10 minutes before carving and serving.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Douglas Williams
Few recipes for roast chicken prescribe what I've come to regard as essential: Julia Child instructs us to roast the chicken breast-down, turning it breast-up only for the last 20 minutes to crisp the skin. The inevitable descent/draining of the meat's juices are retained in the breast, rendering the meat succulent unlike any other method.
Boxplayer
About being careful with the cognac in a hot oven . . . I once decided to pour some Calvados over a roasting chicken. Moments after I closed the oven door, it was blown open by a fireball that crossed the kitchen before it went out. Fortunately, nothing was damaged, including the chicken.
T S. Foxe
This is how I roast chicken and it is superb. One warning: Oven off before cognac. Saved time once and poured cognac on chicken while still roasting. The result was the oven door got blown off with a very loud boom. It was still delicious and we called the recipe 'Blast Door Chicken'.
Steve in Chinon
Because the wholesale use of antibiotics and growth hormones is prohibited here, chickens go to market at between 80 and 110 days, compared to about 45 days in the US (except for free-range, organic). That makes an enormous difference in flavor.
KL
All I can say is I never ate so well as the year I lived in Bruxelles, and visited France as much as possible. And lost weight as we walked everywhere. The best chicken, in Bresse. Now in NC, I rely on local farmers for my chickens. Have a pot of French Tarragon growing on my porch. Just be careful and don’t use Mexican Tarragon by mistake.
Golem
Bourbon, preferably one with a higher corn mash bill as opposed to rye for the sweetness. Makers Mark is one and, given that it would be used for cooking one would not need to spend a great deal of money on the so-called high-end bourbons. Of course, substituting bourbon for cognac would undercut it's francophile roots. But this is food, not a culture war. Worth a try. What could go wrong?
Ted
I made this tonight per the recipe. Fabulous! I used an organic, air-chilled chicken. Wow. It was amazingly flavorful, and the tarragon was quite subtle. Chicken was very juicy. Served with baked potatoes and romaine salad. Really excellent.
J in SF
I dislike licorice a lot too, and find it overpowering. Tarragon I still find delicious and not licorice-y as described.
Brett Massony
Made this last night. Really superb. This one is going into my repertoire permanently. This is a roasted chicken dinner to surprise and wow your friends. Don't be worried about creating a bomb in your oven either, I just kept the oven door open for a minute to take down the heat after I shut it off. Also, find a liquor store or a grocery store that sells cognac in little airplane bottles, only six bucks for more than two tablespoons of decent cognac.
JohnO
I think M. Clark's characterization of tarragon as licoricey is highly subjective. I quite dislike licorice and wouldn't hesitate to make this recipe exactly as written.
Boxplayer
I'd go with rosemary, perhaps combined with thyme.
Cecily Brunelle
One Paris (France!) experience that I will never forget happened when a friend's grandmother served a delicious roast chicken once, long ago, with buttered elbow macaroni as the accompanying starch. Why not try that with some of the tarragon, buttery, cooking juices poured over all?
Courtenay
Maybe put a little fennel inside, new potatoes in the pan while roasting?
Mike in Maine
Thanks very much for ruining the day for all the rest of us, as we seethe in jealousy... :~) But yes, there are some premium chicken sources in the US, one just has to look a bit more carefully. I have a friend who keeps chickens for egg production, and boy, the difference between store-bought (and that's the local feed store, which gets very fresh, quite-local, eggs) and these is astonishing. Being able to wander around and peck at whatever is in the pen certainly makes an enormous difference!
JP
I made this last night, following the recipe exactly. It was good, but not better than most other roast chicken recipes that I've used over the years. I found the use of 6 TBSP of butter to be excessive -- almost all of it runs off into the roasting vessel (I used a cast iron pan) adding a thick layer of clear fat over an otherwise rich sauce. Good, but not worth expending so much butter.
Echo21
This is a fantastic recipe. We make it as written, salt over night, tarragon from our garden, and use high quality cognac.
KateMuse
Sorry but I found this to be a bit underwhelming and in need of a sauce or jus. Putting chicken back in a switched-off oven pouring over cognac and ‘resting’ it there just made for a rather dry bird. Why not take the bull by the horns and flambé in a large pan on the hob? Gently heat cognac in a small pan first, use a long taper or match (no singed eyebrows!), pour over chicken, light, then stand back for spectacular effect and good flavour.
Becky
Gag us with the salt already! It masks the flavor of a really good chicken. The recipe tastes so much better without it. Made it once with the salt and once without.
Tom Boyer
Wonderful recipe but I don't believe there's any reason to use real Cognac for braising or deglazing. The chicken doesn't care what region of France the brandy came from. For cooking purposes, a $12 bottle of Paul Masson amber brandy would be indistinguishable from a $45 Cognac -- and in fact is surprisingly tasty on its own.
Sumati
We had this for the second time yesterday, and it was delicious. I get the chicken from a local farm, so, very tender and juicy, even roasted breast side up the whole time. We've put post-it notes on our printed out recipe - " half the butter" and "use parchment paper". Too much fat at the bottom of the pan. We'll see next time if we really need all that butter. A side benefit of this recipe is that the cognac makes the kitchen smell heavenly as it cooks.
MC
Delicious and easy! The only thing I do different is to add a chopped shallot to the cavity before roasting,
AE
The fresh tarragon burned at this temp like any fresh herb would. Instead, I recommend making two batches of the butter mixture, one with and one without the tarragon. Start with the one without the tarragon, and then apply the one with the tarragon halfway through.
Peter Larson
In 2023, I discovered this and did the recipe as stated four times. Marvelous! Best roast chicken! Tonight, I sliced onions and fennel and carrots and roasted them with oil and rosemary for ten minutes and then placed the chicken on top. In an hour, per the recipe, turned off the oven and added the extra cognac, back in the oven for ten. Marvelous!
Corinne
This recipe is fantastic ! Sophisticated, subtle flavors of tarragon and cognac accompany a chicken cooked to absolute perfection! I recommend using a MEATER and, in addition to the 10 minutes of resting in the turned off oven, rest an additional 15-30 minutes out of the oven, uncovered. Serve with wild rice and a spinach salad with goat cheese, walnuts and an apple cider vinaigrette- it pairs perfectly with the nutty flavor of the cognac. Lastly, enjoy with a buttery/oaky Pouilly Fuisse. VOILA!
Grant
I've made many, many roasted birds and this is one of my favorites. The only thing I add is 1 tbsp of MSG to the dry brine and 3 tbsp of cognac, 2 for the butter mixture and 1 for finishing because I think these modifications truly add to the dish. Modifications or not, truly a perfect recipe.
kat
Cooked exactly as written to rave reviews.
Jean-Claude
WD19 asked, "Is it the heat of the oven or the constant on/off ignition of a turned on oven that violently combusts the cognac near the end?" Ethanol vapor has an autoignition temperature that is neary 800F, much higher than the baking temperature of a typical home oven, but well within the range of the gas flame or electric heating element itself. Thus, I think the danger is leaving the oven turned on, not the residual heat.
Jim
This was good. I like to turn my chicken at 20 min and 40 min, which gets it crispy all over. With all the butter there was a lot of liquid in my cast iron pan, so each time I flipped the chicken I basted with a spoon. The tarragon, cognac, and butter added a nice flavor and richness to the chicken, but you have to dip each bite in the sauce before you put it in your mouth.
Megan M
Sadly fresh tarragon season is over where I live, so I made this with thyme and sage. Also, didn’t feel like running out to get cognac (although the mini bottle tip is genius) so I used Knob Creek bourbon. Followed the recipe exactly otherwise and it was incredible.
Kate
I've been making this recipe with ramp butter that I made last spring. (as in, I'm not quite making the actual recipe, since I am using ramps instead of tarragon). It's excellent, but I do also miss the tarragon version, so I'm planning to put up some tarragon butter next summer and see if it holds up. If that idea is useful for you, run with it! :D. Because yeah, a season without this chicken is a very, very sad thing.
Jeanine
So here's a question: I have a double oven. Should I make sure that the upper oven is turned off (in addition to the larger lower oven where I've been cooking the chicken) when I add the cognac after the chicken has cooked? Was going to roast vegetables there today while the chicken rested, but then got nervous....
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