Chicken à la Reine and Spring Chickens

Poulet à la Reine et Poussins Rôtis (roasted small chicken and spring chickens) teaches one true thing before you touch the pan: changing the size of the bird changes the cooking time, not the roasting method. Butter it, turn it, baste it, and read the juices at the thigh. C'est la même grammaire.

The book's entry is a cross-reference, not a new garnish or sauce. It assumes the pullet method is already known, with a turning spit and a cook free to baste while the bird revolves. Your honest equivalent is a shallow roasting pan, three deliberate turns, and an oven hot enough to bronze the skin. Formal trussing and separate hot holding are brigade scaffolding, so they go; turning, basting, resting, and judging doneness stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

What comes to the table is beautifully plain: taut bronze skin, juicy meat, and a jus de rôti, the natural roasting jus, made from the brown film in the pan. A pullet feeds four when carved; two poussins are halved so each guest receives a generous piece. The decisive step is the last turn: pierce the deepest part of the thigh and look for clear to pale-white juice with no rose, then confirm the centre is safely cooked. Judge the thigh, not the clock.