Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

A classic French dish of garlic-flavoured chicken in garlic sauce. Surprisingly gentle and mellow despite its fearsome name.

Tags
Source
Source
Recipe Info
Servings: 4
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 1 hr
Total: 1 hr 30 min
Ingredients
  • 4 large heads of garlic (wet or standard)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 chicken (about 1½kg)
  • Salt and pepper (or grated nutmeg)
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 250ml dry vermouth (or white wine)
  • 250ml chicken stock (or water)
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan)/390°F/gas 6. Separate the garlic into individual cloves, discarding the papery outer layer, but otherwise leaving them unpeeled.
  2. Pierce any very small cloves with a sharp knife, then set the lot aside.
  3. Grease a casserole dish that’s a little bigger than the chicken itself with olive oil, then put on a high heat.
  4. Season the chicken, then brown it on all sides as best as you can (tongs are useful here), lift it out and set aside, and turn down the heat to medium.
  5. Add the garlic and half the thyme to the pot, toss to coat in the fat, and season. Pour in the vermouth (or wine) and stock (or water), then put the chicken on top; put any small garlic cloves, plus the remaining thyme, into the bird’s cavity first.
  6. Bring the liquid to a simmer, cover the pot and put in the oven for about 45 minutes.
  7. Take off the lid and roast the chicken uncovered for another 15 minutes, to help brown the skin slightly, then check to see if it’s cooked through - the juices should run clear from the thickest part of the thigh. If not, return to the oven for a few minutes more.
  8. Once the chicken is ready, lift it out of the pot and put it in a warm place to rest.
  9. Meanwhile, scoop out the garlic cloves from the sauce with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool slightly. Return the pot to the hob, bring up to a simmer, then bubble until the liquid has reduced by about a third.
  10. Carefully squeeze out the garlic cloves from their skins and set about half of the plumpest, most handsome ones aside. Mash the rest of the garlic into the sauce, taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary.
  11. Transfer the chicken to a platter, surround it with the reserved whole cloves of garlic and serve with the sauce on the side.

Notes

This recipe comes from Guardian food writer Felicity Cloake’s “How to Cook the Perfect…” series. The key to this dish is using large heads of fresh garlic – ideally wet garlic from early summer, which becomes sweet and mellow when roasted. If unavailable, look for large heads with generously proportioned cloves rather than small, tightly packed ones.

Serve with something to soak up the delicious juices – good bread, new potatoes or rice all work well, with an undressed green salad on the side.

Back to Recipes