Poularde à l’Estragon

Poularde à l’Estragon (young hen poached with tarragon) teaches pocher, gentle cooking in liquid, and the one true thing is simple: poaching is not boiling. The bird must sit in liquor that barely trembles. Get that right and the breast stays succulent while five or six tarragon sprigs perfume the liquor from within; let it gallop and the meat tightens before the sauce has learned anything.

The original assumes a plump poularde, a stockpot never off the fire, a saucier to reduce the cooking liquor, and other hands to dish the bird and ready its tarragon leaves. At home, a 4-pound bird fits a snug stockpot and feeds four, unsalted stock from your freezer or a good carton replaces the perpetual stockpot, and a wide saucepan speeds the reduction so the poularde stays warm. The separate stations were brigade scaffolding and can go. The barely trembling poach, the bunch of tarragon in the liquor, the blanched spray across the breast, and the reduced liquor served separately are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

At the table, the skin is pale and supple, the breast wears its green tarragon spray, and the clear sauce tastes concentrated without heaviness. Watch the liquid, not the clock. Holding it just below a simmer is the step that decides the whole dish.