A first-rate chicken, prepared with care, is fit for company

By David Hagedorn

Washington Post

The sky would fall before many people would serve chicken to guests. It's not fancy enough, and why make something for company that they can easily eat at home?

Now more than ever, I disagree. I say chicken is the new rib roast.

Few dishes are as noble, satisfying or just plain beautiful as a lovingly prepared chicken in a pot, an incredibly versatile dish that can straddle the seasons. The process involves little more than browning a chicken in a casserole, adding aromatic vegetables, covering the lot with foil and baking the bird slowly, essentially in its own juices. What results is succulent meat and about a cupful of intensely flavored liquid gold.

If you think that's not stylish enough for entertaining, take a cue from the French. Poule au pot is a standard of every French cook's repertoire; just as a Frenchwoman can sport the same skirt and blouse all week but never wear the same outfit twice, she knows how to dress up a chicken in myriad ways.

The key: The core element should be simple, beautifully crafted and inconspicuous, whether an outfit or a chicken. Classic is always in good taste; adding accessories is the way to change things up.

What is essential here is that you start with a good bird, and I don't mean the bleached-out, tasteless mass-market type responsible for chicken's dull reputation.

The French swear by their Bresse blue-foot chickens, for good reason. Everything about the birds, including where they're raised, what they eat, how long they roam free and how long they remain in cages, is strictly regulated by the government. They can cost more than $10 a pound, but the French consider the benefit worth the price.

I had my own revelation last summer at the Locke Country Store in Millwood, Va., where I splurged on a bird from the justifiably famous Polyface Farm in Swoope, Va. After brining the chicken, I smeared it with spice rub and smoked it, but then regretted covering up its natural attributes, even though they still managed to shine. Lesson learned? Keep it simple.

I applied that lesson to a recent dinner menu. I settled on poule au pot, and added a first course of blanched green beans served in a vinaigrette. For dessert, I went American: a warm cobbler made with peaches from an orchard near Carlisle, Pa., frozen in August at the pinnacle of goodness, a welcome reminder that the winter doldrums are ending and summer's delights are within reach.