I assume you’ve not been satisfied with making your own? And/but i’ve been happy with the product from Bellwether Farms.
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I haven’t tried. Raw cream is hard to find and awfully expensive to experiment with.
I’ve tried all the brands I’ve found in Berkeley and none of them tastes much like the French stuff to me. Same story for quark. Also for mascarpone, except we can still get the real stuff from Italy.
That’s what I get too, their basket sheep’s milk ricotta is the best as well
Edit to say that in a recipe like this i don’t think it makes much difference of the creme fraiche is fancy or not between the herbs and roast chicken might as well get alta dena creme fraiche 
imo
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Bellwether’s ricotta is excellent. I buy that all the time.
I totally agree. And we need to remember that recipes are written in terms of ingredients that are readily available. In France, that would be creme fraiche. Here, either sour cream or I find Mexican or Salvadorean sour cream a good or better sutstitute, but be aware that that latter two often include salt.
It’s true but I’d be careful on the substitutions. I’m pretty sure sour cream will split on you if used like that. It also has a more assertive tang that might be distracting. It’s easy enough to get alta dena creme fraiche at Ralph’s
@aaqjr You are absolutely correct. So I should admit/confess that I use recipes as suggestions rather than commandments.
i’ve made this recipe several times, can’t precisely remember which cream I’ve used, probably Salvadorean sour cream since it’s a favorite, but can attest that the results have been show-stoppers every time. With the amount of herbs and garlic and shallot and chicken renderings, the recipe is quite forgiving.
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Thorisson’s recommended substitution is a cup of heavy cream with a couple of tablespoons of buttermilk or sour cream.
Does she let this sour overnight, aka become creme fraiche? I can’t picture heavy cream adhering to the bird as does a thick cultured product.
Do you cook more than you bake? My partner does, and he treats recipes the exact same way (even when he bakes, though!). I don’t do either much, but I bake more than cook, and I’m super anal about following recipes. 
At any rate, the chicken recipe looks great. Thanks for posting.
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It’s said that “Cooking is art; baking is science.” That advice plus a scale → successful baking.
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No.
I almost never bake AND I’m a recipe follower… I figure that’s why they get paid the big bucks. I sometimes see a recipe and think ‘wow, how did they think of those ingredients?’
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I don’t bake but use the scale (grams and ounces) for a number of things.
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seems to me that if you pay top dollar for a premium fowl, you should let it do the heavy lifting when it comes to flavor. but then most people don’t appreciate basic chicken flavor - because they’ve only eaten supermarket fowl.
with a quality bird instead of roasting, i’d go with a simple white wine daube, but making sure i use a quality dry white wine.
Since I ‘discovered’ the Zuni chicken I’ve only done that and it’s nothing but s&p. I think it was I who started a CH thread asking if you’ve made the Zuni bird and any other was any better than the Zuni. The unanimous answer was “no.”
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I do Zuni 99% of the time. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
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A restaurant I used to work at would marinate our roast chicken in koji. Just slather it on and let sit overnight in the walk in. Really tasty birds!
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