Chicken with Tarragon—Braised

Choose a good three-pound, very white chicken; singe and draw it well; clean and free it from pin feathers; slip between the skin and breast meat a six ounce piece of butter mingling it with a heavy pinch of tarragon leaves; truss for an entree (No. 178), and cover with bards of fat pork; place it in a saucepan, also the neck, gizzard, and a few veal parings; moisten just sufficiently to cover the chicken having three-quarters of unskimmed broth (No. 194a), and one-quarter of white wine. Boil up this liquid, then remove the saucepan to a more moderate fire to allow the chicken to cook for forty-five to sixty minutes; when properly done, strain the liquid, free it of fat, and put this latter in with the chicken to keep it warm. Throw a few tarragon leaves into a little boiling water; take the saucepan from the fire at the first boil, and drain these leaves on a sieve. Clarify the chicken stock, reduce, and afterward add to it a piece of chicken glaze (No. 398), and the juice of one lemon; untruss the chicken, dress and decorate the breast with the blanched tarragon leaves; pour a part of the gravy around, serving the remainder in a sauce-boat.