Rustic Garlic Chicken

I love garlic. I love spicy food in general, but anything with lots of garlic in it has my vote. So you can imagine my delight when I happened upon a recipe that called for three heads of garlic. Here's the description: "Yes, three heads of garlic. You don't have to peel the cloves first. They soften during cooking and take on a subtle sweetness. Each person squeezes the garlic out of its skin onto the plate to eat with the chicken". Sounds like heaven to me!

This is supposed to be made in a Dutch oven. I don't own a Dutch oven. Truthfully, I have no idea what a Dutch oven is. I used my favorite sauce pan for the stovetop cooking and transferred the chicken and garlic to my favorite baking dish for the oven cooking. The recipe calls for moving the chicken in and out of the Dutch oven so you would end up using two pots anyways.

The only significant change I made was to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of the whole chicken cut into 8 pieces it called for. Chicken breasts were on special today. This recipe was very easy to make. Every step happened exactly as described, but I was disappointed with the taste. I like my garlic to bite back. This was too mellow for me. If you prefer your garlic to be mild, I would definitely recommend this recipe.

Verdict: not bad, but I probably won't be making this again.

Rustic Garlic Chicken

(Source: AOL Living: Food)

2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 chicken (about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
3 heads garlic, cloves separated
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup canned low-sodium chickn broth or homemade stock
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat the oven to 400F. In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Cook the chicken until well browned, turning, about 8 minutes in all, and remove from the pot. Reduce the heat to moderate, add the garlic, and saute until it is starting to brown, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the garlic and stir until combined. Return the chicken to the pot, cover, and bake for 15 minutes.

2. Remove the pot from the oven and put it on a burner. Remove the chicken pieces from the pot. Over moderately high heat, whisk in the wine and simmer for 1 minute. Whisk in the broth and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and simmer until starting to thicken, about 3 minutes. Turn the heat off, whisk in the butter, and pour the sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle with the parsley.

Recycle: wine bottle

Compost: garlic core and excess skin