Posted on 05/18/2016 4:20:24 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
We had a lot of peeled garlic left over from another project this week, and decided to try '40 Clove Chicken'. There are lots of ways to do this, but we chose a very simple recipe that was easy for a weeknight. It was even easier because we already had the peeled garlic - the most time-consuming part of the recipe - and you can buy containers of peeled garlic in the grocery now.
This recipe is low-carb, a benefit we immediately discarded because it would be tragic to have all of that wonderful roasted garlic without good, crusty bread to smear it on ;-)
The '40 Cloves' part is really an approximation; for the average chicken, you'll want:
Three or four heads of Garlic (or equivalent pre-peeled cloves), separated and peeled
A Chicken, 3 to 5 lbs.
Branches of fresh thyme and Rosemary (we used about 20 stems of thyme, and just a few Rosemary stems)
A large Lemon (or two small ones) sliced thinly
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Spatchcock your chicken - if you haven't done this before, here's Chef John of Food Wishes, showing how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppa1bxB89vg
3. Oil a baking pan large enough to hold the chicken with Olive Oil, and place the garlic cloves in the center of the pan. Layer the lemon slices over the garlic, and place the thyme and rosemary branches on top of that.
4. Rub Olive Oil all over your chicken, and season with Salt and Pepper. Place the chicken on top of the garlic/lemon/herbs.
5. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 to finish baking (40 or 50 minutes, and until skin runs clear and temp is up to 165 degrees).
This does not come out tasting sharply garlicky: the garlic will roast, and become very mild, perfect for spreading on good Italian or French bread.
Some recipes for this use a whole chicken, and some use chicken parts; and many recipes include Vermouth - or white wine, if you don't like the flavor that Vermouth gives to food (I don't).
Here is a version from Nigella (be sure to read her directions - Nigella writes beautifully about food):
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chicken-with-40-cloves-of-garlic-recipe.html
And one that Julia Child appears to have considered top-notch:
-JT
This is what I do when I make burgers now. We only use the grass fed ground beef, which is getting soooooo pricy. So I discovered a packet of turkey bacon added to one pack of grassfed makes enough burgers for us for dinner, and saves money. And is very good!!!!!
The guy on the cooking show on the radio was talking about this. Best $100 ever spent, he said. On the wish list!
SIL’s specialty is Momo’s an Indian dumpling.
They are Yuuuuge! LOL
Of course. And half the fun is a high carb, crispy baguette.
But that brings up another subject. Since I can eat some whole wheat bread, I threw away the nasty supermarket stuff and grabbed my Kitchen Aid and have made some wonderful loaves in the last month. That dough hook turns yeasty, beery dough into high-gluten wheat products in a snap. I can’t believe I’ve been turning out these bakery quality loaves of bread! Just some flour, water, salt, yeast and molasses.
You could save what you didn’t eat outright (eat some outright with that bird!!) and mix it into cooked vegetables every night that week. Or mash it into your burgers. Mix it up into a salad dressing. Don’t waste that garlic! Lol.
Prudhommes spicing is better than Tony Cachere’s for my tastes
It does have a peppery taste, a bit more bitter than watercress’ peppery, almost horseradishy taste. I love arugula and could eat a bowl of it with or without dressing all by itself. It must have some vitamin in it that we need because sometimes I crave it. I hated when Obama was giving it a bad name.
It is easy to grow (outside of hot summer). Just eat it enough to keep it from bolting into tall flowering plant because then it is too bitter. Keep trimming it down at the rounded leafy stage.
Yes to that arugula fresh from the garden!
Is there a shady side to the balcony? Could you make some shade? Lettuce hates too much hot sun.
Nice, its hard to do good bread in a conventional oven
Thanks. I’m saving your advice for when I have room to really grow stuff.
-JT
There’s a corner where it could get ‘bounced’ light. I’ll try at least one lettuce this year.
-JT
They are bringing back wood fired community ovens where i am from in Ohio.
You make the dough, proof it at they fire it.
I inherited a Kitchen Aid from my MIL; I had always wanted one, but have been too busy to experiment with it!
One thing I wanted it for was whole wheat bread; but I’ve been afraid of ‘breaking’ it. Is it really up to 100% WW bread, or do you mix in white flour? (Ours is probably decades old, but hardly ever used by anyone; I think that’s why I got it - it had just taken up space and was never used.)
-JT
you cannot use 100% WW unless you want a brick, same with Rye
My Son gave me one of the meat fork digital thermometers and I use it all the time. It sure helps knowing internal temps.
Even with pastry flour? I used to get the best bread from the local ‘hippie co-op’ that declared itself 100% WW; but they had industrial-type mixers...
And I’ve made 100% by hand, which turned out really well, and like the hippie-store stuff - definitely not like ‘regular’ bread, a lot more ‘cake-y’- but very good; but that’s an amazing lot of elbow grease.
-JT
Yesterday I came across a recipe for pot roast tacos. Now I’ve sure cooked a lot of pot roasts, but I’d never thought of spicing one up for tacos.
I’m going to thaw out some venison and give it a try. Today I ground up a bunch of Ancho chilies for chili powder. That’ll go good with it.
On another note, does anyone have a good recipe for Mexican Chorizo? I haven’t been successful yet in nailing down the spices to suit me.
OK, I’ll get to it, but Dear Heart has cornered me to setup her new DVD/VCR first. Probably another hour, or so.
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