Chicken Fricassee, Peasant Style

A variation on chicken fricassee that includes olives, tomatoes and tarragon.

Cut into slices or small pieces a few onions, carrots and celery roots and put them into a saucepan with a little olive oil and a bunch of sweet herbs, being careful that the vegetables are fresh and tender. Cut up two fowls into five pieces each, put the legs in the saucepan over the vegetables, sprinkle over cayenne to taste, add a little sauce and set the pan over a good fire for five minutes or so to cook; then take the pan off the fire, cover and put it in a hot oven so that the legs will be slowly and thoroughly done. Turn them often and then add the fillets and pieces of breast and a couple of large tomatoes with the seeds taken out and each one cut into six pieces: cover the pan over again, return to the oven and let it remain for fifteen minutes longer; take it out and place the pieces of chicken-meat in a pile on a dish. Remove the fat from the liquor, take out the bunch of sweet herbs and put in a few blanched olives; thicken with a little melted glaze, boil up once, add a small quantity of finely-minced tarragon leaves, pour all over the chicken in the dish, and serve.