Casserole-roasted chicken with tarragon

Wash and dry the mushrooms, then chop them fine with a few pulses in a food processor.

Chop the chicken liver into small pieces and peel and chop the gizzard; chop the parsley, tarragon and shallot.

Dry the chopped mushrooms in a pan with no butter until the moisture has gone, then transfer them to a pan with half an ounce of butter.

Add a tablespoon of chopped shallot and a little oil and saute six to eight minutes.

In the same skillet over medium heat with half an ounce of butter, cook the gizzard and liver four minutes in total.

Move the mushrooms and giblets to a mixing bowl; reduce the Madeira in the pan to a spoonful, scraping up the fond, and pour it in.

Mix in the breadcrumbs, cream cheese, softened butter, chopped tarragon, chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

Cool the stuffing while preparing the carrots, onions and chicken.

Truss the chicken: needle through the lower carcass, tie around one drumstick, through the tip of the breast, around the other drumstick, back through the carcass at the drumstick joint, then fold the wings back and draw the string tight through them and around the legs.

Mix a quarter teaspoon of salt with a pinch of pepper and shake it into the cavity.

Put half an ounce of butter and three sprigs of tarragon into the cavity, then pack in the cooled mushroom stuffing and close it up.

Dry the chicken and lather the other half ounce of butter over the skin.

Heat another ounce of butter and half a tablespoon of oil in the casserole over moderately high heat and brown the chicken breast side down.

Brown all over, two to three minutes per side, focusing on the thighs and breasts, around 10 to 15 minutes in total, regulating the heat so the butter does not burn.

Pour off the browning fat if it has burned, add more butter and the carrots and onions and saute five minutes without browning them.

Preheat the oven to 325F. Salt the vegetables, add the tarragon sprigs, salt the chicken and set it breast side up on the vegetables.

Cover with foil until the chicken is heard sizzling, put the thermometer into the breast lengthwise, put the lid on and roast in the middle of the oven.

Take the chicken out at 155F internal; the book gives an hour and 10 to an hour and 20 minutes, plus an extra 10 to 15 minutes for the stuffing.

Baste a couple of times in the butter and the juices during the cook.

Take the foil off and brown the skin quickly under the broiler without overcooking the chicken.

Move the chicken and the vegetables to a serving dish and remove the trussing strings.

Put the casserole back on the stove, add a little Madeira, the cornstarch and some tarragon.

Add the beef stock and the roasting juices, bring to a simmer and scrape up the coagulated fond; skim the fat until all but a tablespoon is gone.

Add the slurry, raise to high and boil rapidly, then strain the sauce.

Salt it, finish with enrichment butter and around two tablespoons of chopped tarragon, and spoon over the chicken.

The chicken is done when the drumsticks move in their sockets and the juice runs clear yellow.