Roast Chicken With Cognac Sauce

At heart this is a back-pocket recipe for foolproof roast chicken, seasoned simply and baked to a golden idyll. It’s the details that matter, like turning the chicken as it roasts for more evenly golden skin. The cognac sauce owes its luxurious texture to beurre manié—a mixture of flour and butter—that thickens like roux but doesn’t need to be cooked before using. At home, Jaques Pépin gilds the lily with an additional sauce made by deglazing the browned bits left in the chicken pan with a healthy splash of homemade or store-bought chicken stock, reducing until syrupy, and pouring it over the finished dish.