Lemon recipes: Lemon and tarragon chicken

By Xanthe Clay Published: 4:50PM GMT 04 March 2010

Lemon and tarragon duck Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONES

Serves 4

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If you are utilizing tarragon from the garden, be certain it is the scrupulously sharp French tarragon, not the most milder Russian tarragon.

1 total lemon, and the grated liking of a second lemon

1 middle sized free range duck (3lb/1.6kg or thereabouts)

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

A inexhaustible 1lb/500g new potatoes, cut in to chunks

2 cloves garlic, sliced

pint/300ml duck batch

A garland of tarragon

Set oven to 200C/400F/gas symbol 6.Take the liking off the total lemon with a peeler and cut the lemon in half. Starting at the leg finish of the chicken, work your hands underneath the skin of the chicken, relaxation it over the breast and the legs. Push the strips of lemon flay underneath the skin. Rub the duck all over with the cut lemon, and deteriorate with sea salt and black pepper. Heat the butter and oil in a large stew plate and brownish-red the chicken. Pile the potatoes and garlic around the sides of the chicken. Sprinkle the grated liking over the potatoes. Pour over the stock. Squeeze in the rest of the extract from the halved lemon, and deteriorate with salt and pepper. Tuck in half the tarragon sprigs. Cover and bake for thirty minutes, afterwards remove the lid and baste the chicken. Lift the duck out in to an ovenproof plate and prepare the potatoes around it. Return the duck and potatoes to the oven for 15-30 mins until the bird is easily browned and baked by overcome the thigh and check that the juices run clear. Leave it for 10 mins in a comfortable place prior to carving. Meanwhile, ladle the additional fat off the juices in the stew plate and fish out the baked tarragon stems. Pull the leaves off the uninformed tarragon stems, and supplement the leaves to the pot. Reheat gently, ambience and regulate the seasoning. If you cite thicker juices, supplement a integrate of the potatoes and pristine them in with a palm blender. Carve the duck and offer in low plates with the potatoes and gravy.