Culinary Disasters

For those of you who don’t think that attitude affect the end result trust me it does.  This entire cook process I felt rushed and in no rythmn.  No matter what CD I put on I could not get into the “groove” (I went from Joe Henry, Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown, Wilco, to L.L. Cool J).  So the end result was not what I wanted the skin did not brown the color I was hoping to and it kept sticking to the pan.  All and all the taste was dead on.

I know this does seem like a lot of garlic but the garlic is not overpowering.  If you want less garlic then instead of not using all the cloves of garlic I would omit making the pan sauce because telling people it has 40 cloves of garlic has that ohh… factor vs. wimping out and using 20. 

To those that are curious the brussel sprouts were blanched, quartered, I cooked a couple pieces of bacon, rolled the brusell sprouts in the bacon grease along with a chopped shallot and clove of garlic, used about 1/2 cup of chicken stock to cook them till they were soft, and then put the crumbled bacon on top. 

For this dish you are going to need:

• 1 cut up chicken
• 40 cloves of garlic unpeeled (about 3-4 heads of garlic)
• 2 stalks of celery finely diced
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 spring of thyme
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 tb of unsalted butter
• 1 tb of cream
• Kosher salt and pepper

Melt the tb of butter a large skillet with a lid over medium heat.  Salt and pepper the chicken all over.  Add in the chicken a couple pieces at a time and brown all over (about 10 minutes).  I normally buy whole chickens and cut them into quarters reserving the back and wings for stock making.  I like to add in the thigh and leg pieces first since they are fattier and then the breasts.

Once all the chicken is browned over remove from pan and set aside.  Add in the celery and the garlic.  Let this cook until the garlic is slightly browned (about 5 minutes).

Add in the cup of white wine, chicken, rosemary, and thyme and bring to a boil.  Once it comes to a boil reduce the heat to a simmer and cover.  Let this cook till the chicken is done (about 25 minutes).

Once the chicken is cooked through remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.  Strain the sauce into a smaller saucepan and discard the solids.

Bring the saucepan to a boil and reduce by 1/3 (about 5 minutes).  Turn off the heat and stir in the tb of cream. 

Serve the chicken with the sauce poured over top of it.

Tags: Quick, chicken, All //