Culinary Disasters

Being a Romanian we tend to live in fear of Dracula everyday.  Since this blog acts as my therapy I should share that the idea that some mythical bat or one of his minions could still be haunting me the same way he haunted my great grandparents years ago does keep me up at night.  In order to combat this I tend to surround myself with garlic in every way possible.  From garlic in the garden year round, bulbs of garlic in the kitchen, garlic powder, olive oil infused with garlic in squeeze bottles, and in the bedroom on the nightstand garlic water in a spritzer bottle.  However, every now and then I feel it as my duty to not only protect my house but even my neighbor’s house and no better way to accomplish this than with making the neighborhood smell of roasted garlic.

Before you freak out, run for the hills, unsubscribe from my feed, or whatever crazy insane thing you do when scared let me tell you take a deep breath and relax.  Even though there is the equivalent of two whole bulbs of garlic in this dish the dish does not have a heavy garlic taste (I see the skepticism in your face and quit rolling your eyes at me).  Roasting garlic removes a lot of the bitterness that garlic normally has and makes it very buttery.  In this dish that buttery garlic flavor is carried into the chicken and the best part is you are left with about 40 bulbs of roasted garlic that can be spread on the chicken or some crusty bread that is laying around.

For this dish you will need:

• 1 whole chicken cut up
• 40 cloves of unpeeled garlic (about 2 heads).  Don’t worry if some of the excess garlic paper that surrounds the bulb ends up in the pot.
• 1 onion diced
• 1 stalk of celery diced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• high temperature oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large pot with a good tight fitting lid over medium-high add in the oil. Salt and pepper the chicken and brown all over (about 5 minutes a side).

Remove the chicken and add in the celery and onion with a pinch of salt and cook for a couple minutes. Kill the heat and add in the 1/2 cup of wine along with the the 40 cloves of unpeeled garlic. Scatter the garlic around the bottom in one layer. Add the chicken back on top of the garlic.

Cover and put in the oven for an hour. To tell if the dish is done besides the fact the chicken is cooked through the garlic should squeeze right out and be brown and spreadable aka roasted garlic.

Throw some crusty bread under a broiler with some extra virgin and parmesan grated over till browned. Serve that on the side with some of the roasted garlic. This way your guests can squeeze it out over the chicken and the bread.

Tags: chicken, All //