I would definitely recommend Red Stars(a.k.a Red Sex-Links), because they match everything on your criteria. They are GREAT egg layers(they lay large brown eggs and, from my experience, start laying a little earlier than some other breeds). They are beautiful and have a pretty nice feather pattern. They rarely go broody. They are around medium-sized(not very small but not huge). And they are fairly quiet, they are very friendly, and they are gentle. But this also depends on how they are raised; for example, my Red Star hen, Cinnamon, is outrageously friendly and comes when I call her name(usually), while 2 other Red Stars that we bought from someone are more skittish and they can be a little mean to each other and other chickens. But that's because they were raised in a dirty place, with little to no handling by their owner, and were obviously not taken care of very well. They had scaly leg mites, feather mites, scabs and sores, etc. Now they are more tamed and more feathered out, but are bossy to other hens sometimes.
Other than that, I strongly recommend Red Stars...also, you may like Black Stars(Black Sex-Links).
