Let me start by saying I am a huge fan of Alton Brown’s Good Eats. I don’t think I can name a bigger influence or driving force in my cooking journey than Alton Brown. Of the hundreds of techniques and recipes I have learned from Good Eats over the years, my take on his 40 Cloves and a Chicken from In the Bulb of the Night (S4:EP11) is the one I have made the most.
To lean it up a bit I have dropped the oil significantly and added chicken stock and wine. Let me tell you, when you are assembling this meal, you will think it’s too much garlic. You will think it’s too much liquid. If you cut back on either you will realize in a hurry that you are mistaken. The garlic mellows out and the sauce thickens up just beautifully in the oven.
For your cooking vessel, you can use a Dutch oven or a high sided 12” pan with a lid. You can substitute thighs for the breasts as well. You can play with the seasonings but I have found the mix of ingredients is my absolute favorite for this dish as well as my basic roast chicken and chicken soup. There aren’t any measurements for them because I basically just dust the chicken with each ingredient, pat, flip, repeat.
Let’s talk about the garlic real quick.. You can grab a bunch of heads of garlic and disassemble them. One quick way to do that is to break up the head of garlic and put the cloves in a refrigerator dish and shake ‘em up, shake ‘em up, shake ‘em up, shake ‘em… (apologies to Ice Cube). To be honest, I buy a bag of pre-peeled whole cloves of garlic. DO NOT use minced garlic, lightly broken up whole cloves of garlic are the only way to go.
Give it a go and enjoy!!!
Chicken and 40 Cloves
Equipment
- Dutch oven or high sided 12 inch "chicken fryer" pan
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 40 Cloves Garlic Whole cloves. Can be pre-peeled but definitely not minced.
- 6-8 sprigs Fresh Thyme
- 1 Cup White Wine
- 1 Cup Chicken Stock
- 1 Cup AP Flour for dredging
- 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Seasonings:
- Dried Thyme
- Dried Rosemary
- Salt
- Pepper
- Hungarian Paprika
Instructions
- Cut the chicken breasts in half
- Dust with the seasonings and let sit for 10-15 minutes
- Lightly dredge the chicken breasts in flour
- Pour 1/4 cup of the oil in your pan and preheat on medium heat. You want this hot enough to brown the chicken but not enough to burn the oil
- Brown the chicken for 4 minutes per side. This will not cook the chicken all the way through, just give it a nice GB&D crust
- While the chicken cooks, set your oven for 250 degrees
- Put your garlic cloves in a plastic bag and lightly crush them. You want them broken up but not mashed.
- Pour in the remainder of the oil, the wine and the stock. Let the liquid boil for a minute or so to boil off the alcohol in the wine.
- Turn off the heat and add 6-8 sprigs of the fresh thyme and all the garlic. Be sure the garlic is in the liquid.
- Cover the pan and place in the oven for 1 hour.
- After an hour, check the chicken. It should be very tender. Also check the garlic. It should be soft and mild to the taste.
