40 Clove Chicken

If you like garlic, this is the meal for you. Whoo-doggie.


The only hard part of this dish is having enough patience to peel 40 cloves of garlic (that’s about 3 heads worth). Thankfully, the trick of boiling the cloves for 60 seconds and then draining it makes the task a million times easier than trying to smash each clove and pick out all the paper from the mess. I also think there is a lot more visual impact to the dish when presented with whole cloves of garlic; that way there is no question as to what is in the dish.


If you hate garlic, I might steer away from this dish. But if you only think you don’t like it, I’d suggest giving this recipe a try. A lot of times people do not like garlic because they’ve either had it raw or burnt. I love raw garlic, but it is definitely a pungent taste, one which many people don’t enjoy. And burnt garlic, ick. There is no coming back from that one. But cooking the garlic over low heat for a long period of time is a beautiful thing. Roasted cloves will be brown, but not burnt, and the taste will transform from sharp to sweet as the sugars begin to caramelize. They also get soft – soft enough that you can grab a clove, put it on a piece of toast, and spread it with a knife as you would butter.


There are a lot of strong flavors in this dish, inclusive of the garlic, so I wouldn’t recommend eating this before meeting your blind date for the evening. This would be more of a third-date sort of meal.


Definitely serve this with some crusty bread, the sauce and garlic pieces are just too good to abandon on your plate.

40 Clove Chicken

Adapted From Ina Garten via FoodNetwork.com

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 4 ounces chicken, 2 tablespoons sauce, 5 garlic cloves, and 3 bread slices)
Ingredients 1 lb boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts, pounded thin
½ tablespoon butter
½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
½ Tbsp (1/2 teaspoon) salt
½ Tbsp Thyme
½ Tbsp Sage
½ Tbsp Rosemary
1 Bay Leaf
1 Tbsp Flour
1 ½ Tbsp Cognac/Brandy
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
20 garlic cloves, peeled
(1 1/4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth)
¾ cup dry white wine
12 (1/4-inch-thick) slices diagonally cut French bread baguette
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Directions Boil garlic cloves for 60 seconds. Drain and Peel.
Remove and discard giblets and neck from chickens. Rinse chickens with cold water; pat dry. Trim excess fat; remove skin. Cut each chicken into 8 pieces.
Combine butter and oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over chicken. Add half of chicken pieces to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken.
Reduce heat to medium. Add garlic; sautee garlic for 5-10 minutes until evenly browned. (cook 1 minute or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently.) (Arrange chicken on top of garlic.) Add wine and 1 Tbsp cognac/brandy, bring to a simmer and scrape bottom of pan (Add broth and wine;) Return chicken to pan, sprinkle with thyme, sage, rosemary and add 1 bay leaf, cover and simmer (cook) 15 (25) minutes or until chicken is done.
Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour and 1/4 cup sauce from pan then whisk it back into pan. Add remaining cognac. Cook 3 minutes and salt and pepper to taste. (Increase heat to medium-high; cook 10 minutes or until liquid is reduced to about 1 cup.) Serve sauce and garlic with chicken and bread. Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired.

Garlic and Chive Sea Shell Pasta

If you remember, in an earlier post I made a “Fired Up” Lemon Chicken Pasta with a specialty habanero noodles from a pasta retailer called Pappardelle’s. The day I picked up those noodles, I also opted to purchase a Garlic and Chive Shell Pasta. The cashier told me she has used this in cold pasta salads, which I am sure is delicious, but I wanted to do a warm dinner dish with the noodles. Pappardelle’s is great, not only for their pasta, but also because their website has recipes for nearly any type of noodle or product you can purchase from them. It is fantastic when you’re suffering from a “cooking block” and have no idea what to do with what you’ve bought.

When I saw the recipe for these noodles, I had a bit of a ‘duh , why didn’t I think of that?’ moment, but it was the inspiration I needed to make dinner. I quartered the recipe since I was only cooking for two people, but I will include the recipe as written on their website This sauce would be good with a basic shell pasta as well, but I would probably add some garlic and chive to the sauce to embrace the flavors of the pasta.
Garlic Chive Sea Shells with Sauteed Mushrooms
From Pappardelle's

1 lb. Pappardelle's Garlic Chive Sea Shells
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley salt and pepper to taste
1 pound fresh mushrooms sliced evenly
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup butter
grated parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1. Saute mushrooms in melted butter until golden.
2. Stir in wine, parsley, salt and pepper.
3. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat.
4. Add heavy cream and take off heat.
5. Serve over hot pasta with cheese on the side.
Serves 4 - 6

http://www.pappardellespasta.com
Copyright © 2010 by Pappardelle's Pasta Co.

Chicken Thighs with a Balsamic and Garlic Sauce

Ok, I really need to work on my photography skills. Only I could manage to make something that tastes delicious look so unappetizing.

But don’t let my bad photography skills deter you from trying this dish. It was very good. I have a new-found love for all things balsamic, especially when it’s cooked down to a nearly syrupy consistency. It loses much of its acidic bite, but keeps its unique flavor while also getting sweeter. I find it amazing that if you reduce plain balsamic vinegar down enough, it provides a perfect balance to fresh strawberries.

When you are reducing anything, quality is key. I live by the mantra “garbage in, garbage out” – both in engineering, and cooking. That’s why you always hear cooks and recipes beg and plead for you to cook only with wine you’d drink. If you cannot palate it in a glass, reducing it only concentrates the flavors you do not like in the first place. While I wouldn’t recommend drinking balsamic straight from the bottle, the same rule applies. Get a good brand, you’ll be rewarded.




Chicken Thighs with a Balsamic and Garlic Sauce
Adapted From: For the Love of Cooking

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of any fat
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter, softened
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 cup of chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large oven proof skillet over medium high heat. Season the chicken thighs with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Lay the chicken thighs smooth side down in the pan and cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Turn the chicken over and place in the oven. Cook for 8 minutes or until cooked through.

Remove chicken from oven and set aside on a platter to rest with a tinfoil tent to keep warm. Return the skillet to the stove over medium high heat (add more olive oil if needed) and add minced garlic. Cook, stirring constantly for 60 seconds then add the balsamic vinegar. Stir, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan for about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Mix the butter and flour together making a paste. Whisk in the flour and butter mixture and let the sauce return to a boil. Simmer until the sauce gets thick - about 1-2 minutes. Pour the sauce over chicken and serve. Enjoy.