March 25, 2015

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

The spotlight this week is on my store cupboard hero, garlic. Garlic’s health benefits come in many guises from preventative and treatment of heart disease and the common cold to regulating cholesterol levels while reducing high blood pressure and strengthening the immune system.

Garlic is most beneficial in a crushed, raw state because of the reaction of the enzymes which combine to form a compound – allicin – when broken down. This recipe would of course be unpalatable if it used raw garlic, but research suggests that you can still benefit from some allicin, providing you lightly crush the cloves with the heal of your hand before adding them the pot.

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic sounds wildly overpowering, but what happens during the course of the cooking is that the garlic becomes tender and sweet. The creamy, delicate flesh hiding inside the garlic skin is squeezed with the back of your fork and spread onto slices of toasted baguette. The chicken is part braised, part steamed in the slow cooker, infused with a herbal scent and is perfectly soft and moist to eat. The chicken skin won’t be crisp because of the braise, but it will add flavor and protect the chicken pieces while cooking. I therefore prefer to remove and discard it.

It is incredibly straightforward with few ingredients and makes the cut for easy entertaining. Serve with steamed green beans or asparagus when it’s in season and squeeze the soft garlic onto slices of toasted baguette.

Store fresh garlic bulbs unrefrigerated in a dark place to maintain their freshness.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 8 hours LOW or 4 hours HIGH

Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken pieces, bone in, skin on but trimmed

½ tsp each of salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

40 garlic cloves, unpeeled, lightly crushed

sprig of fresh rosemary

sprig of fresh thyme

sprig of fresh oregano

4 strands of fresh parsley

2 celery stalks

150ml white vermouth

Put the chicken pieces into a large bowl, season with salt and pepper and coat with olive oil.

Heat a large skillet to high and sauté the chicken pieces for 3 minutes to ensure you have some coloring on the skin.

While the chicken is browning, tie the rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley and celery together loosely into a bouquet using one of strands of parsley. Place the bouquet into the bottom of your slow cooker and add half of the garlic cloves.

Place the browned chicken on top of the herb bouquet and the garlic. Tuck the remaining garlic cloves in between the chicken pieces and pour the white vermouth over the top.