Arnaud Tauzin Landes Poultry
Corn-fed, free-range French poultry from the southwest · The chicken Hélène Darroze serves at the Connaught
The Sunday Roast at the Connaught
Hélène Darroze roasts Arnaud Tauzin's chicken whole, on Sundays, at the Connaught — three stars, carving trolley, the full performance. Arnaud Tauzin farms in the Landes, raises his birds corn-fed and free-range, slow-grown the way the southwest has always done it. A chicken built for the centrepiece.
The Landes
The Landes is the great pine-forest region of southwest France, stretching from Bordeaux to the Spanish border along the Atlantic coast. It is one of the historic homes of French free-range poultry — golden corn-fed, pasture-raised birds developed over generations on the sandy soils between the dunes and the inland forests. The combination of a mild Atlantic climate, low-density pasture and a corn-led feeding tradition produces poultry with a depth of flavour and a richness of fat that is genuinely distinctive — proper French farmhouse poultry, the way it was meant to be raised.
The region's poultry is protected under Label Rouge and IGP Volailles des Landes — French and European designations that govern minimum age, breed, outdoor stocking density, feed composition and natural growth rates. Birds must be raised for a minimum of 81 days, free in the field, on a diet that is at least 50% maize. It is the corn that produces the characteristic deep yellow-gold fat that defines a Landais bird.
Arnaud Tauzin
Arnaud Tauzin is one of the most respected poultry farmers in the Landes. He raises his birds the traditional way — corn-fed, free-range, slow-grown — with attention to detail at every stage that places his birds in the hands of three-star kitchens across France and beyond. Hélène Darroze's choice of Tauzin's chicken for the Sunday roast service at the Connaught is the most visible endorsement, but he supplies a wider list of serious restaurants in Paris, London and the southwest.
What sets the birds apart is the combination of breed, feed, density and time. The corn diet builds the deep golden fat. The free-range pasture builds the muscle structure and flavour complexity. The slow growth — well past Label Rouge minimums — builds the depth that fast-grown birds cannot develop. The result is a bird with firm but tender flesh, remarkable richness of fat, and the kind of poultry flavour that needs nothing done to it beyond a hot oven and a knob of butter.
The Range
Poulet des Landes
The classic Landes chicken from Tauzin's farm. Firm meat, golden fat, real depth — properly raised corn-fed poultry from the southwest of France. Available whole for centrepiece roasting, as supremes for portion-controlled cooking, or as cuisse (leg and thigh) for braising, confit and slow cooking.
Pintade des Landes
The same farm, the same standards, applied to guinea fowl. Leaner than chicken, faintly gamey, properly fatted from the corn diet. The bird for those who want the depth of feathered game with the convenience and reliability of a farmed bird. Excellent roasted whole, brilliant braised, and the natural choice for a serious French Sunday lunch outside the traditional roast-chicken slot.
Label Rouge & IGP Volailles des Landes
Two designations matter on these birds.
Label Rouge is the French national mark of superior quality in poultry — a state-administered certification with strict rules on minimum age (81 days), outdoor access, restricted slow-growing breeds, controlled diet and natural growth rates. It is a genuine quality mark and a meaningful step above standard free-range.
IGP Volailles des Landes is the European geographical protection that ties Label Rouge production specifically to the Landes region. The combination means: the right breed, raised the right way, in the right place, for long enough. It is the regulatory framework that allows a farmer like Tauzin to do the work properly — and the customer to know what they are buying.
These are the same certifications that govern the better French farmhouse chickens you find on serious restaurant menus across France, and they sit just below AOC in the French agricultural hierarchy. (Poulet de Bresse is the only chicken in the world to carry full AOC.)
Cooking
The Landes bird needs the least done to it. Sea salt, butter, herbs, a hot oven — the recipe stops there.
Roasted whole: Bring to room temperature for at least an hour before cooking. Season inside and out generously, rub with butter, roast at 200°C until the internal temperature at the thickest part of the thigh reaches 74°C. Rest 15–20 minutes loosely covered before carving. The pan juices, sea salt and a green vegetable is the entire dish.
Supremes: Pan-fry skin-side down in a small amount of butter over a medium-high heat to render the fat and crisp the skin — 4–5 minutes — then turn, drop the heat slightly, and finish for a further 3–4 minutes, basting with the foaming butter. Rest 2 minutes before serving.
Cuisse: The leg and thigh is the cut for slow cooking — braised in white wine and cream with mushrooms, confited slowly in duck fat for a southwestern classic, or roasted on a bed of vegetables until the skin is deep mahogany and the meat falls from the bone.
Pintade: Lighter than chicken, with a faint gamey edge. Roast whole at 190°C — slightly lower than chicken because of the leaner breast meat — basting frequently to keep the breast moist. Excellent stuffed with herbs and lemon, or breast-down for the first half of the cooking time. Pair with autumn flavours: mushrooms, chestnuts, root vegetables, lentils, cream sauces.
Save the carcass for stock. Tauzin's birds make exceptional stock — long, deep, gelatinous, the foundation of consommé, risotto, soup and proper pan sauces.
Delivery
Insulated packaging, next-working-day UK courier. Orders before 2pm dispatch same day. Free weekday delivery over £225.
