Day 91: fit for the gods
Since its recent feature as Nigella’s #RecipeOfTheDay, it’s been trending all over social media (certainly in the circles I follow), where everybody’s pictures - including a cookalong/tweetalong by Jay Rayner - have been driving me green with envy. There were only two options here: get over it or do something about it. So, always in fear of missing out, I opted for the second choice and added Nigella’s Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic to this week’s lineup.
Nigella’s Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
It really isn’t any more complicated than that: chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. And if you can count to 40 you’re halfway there. You don’t even need to peel them. A little frying, a pouring of vermouth, a scattering of woodsy thyme, and the tumbling in of 40 unpeeled cloves of garlic and you’re done.
As it’s just the two of us I did consider halving the quantities, but then it wouldn’t be Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, would it? Although to be fair, four chicken thighs would be perfectly capable of carrying 40, very mellow, cloves of sweet roasted garlic, as I think so much of this dish is about the juices.
I served it, in all its glory, with a tomato and horseradish salad, mixed ‘designer’ leaves and toasted (also Nigella’s) no-knead bread. The toast served several functions: as the carb; the vessel for spreading that sweet, brown garlic; and as a croûte for placing in the pan to soak up the juices while I ate the chicken and salads.
Flavour musings
If I’m honest, I can’t say that I joined the wagon of the worried as they reacted in perplexed horror at the notion of 40 cloves of garlic: if it was that indelible it wouldn’t be the iconic dish that it is today. However, I *can* say that I would have never in a million years considered using *that* many cloves in a meal for 4-6 people; so I’m not trying to be cocky in claiming this hasn’t taught me anything new. On the contrary, I often place a couple of unpeeled cloves under a chicken when roasting it, which doesn’t offer much to either the taste of the chicken or its juices. Indeed, now I know why: I need to use 38 more! Or at least a whole bulb!
Every bit the divinity promised: tender-sweet chicken, soft-caramelly garlic, and heavenly juices fit for even Hestia and Demeter to dunk their bread in, Nigella’s Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic is the meal you cook, eat and then tell all your friends about in frenzied gossip. And then tell them that when they’re allowed to come over you’ll make it for them because they couldn’t possibly understand (without trying) just how good it is.
Leftovers went far! First up: used stripped chicken and roasted garlic flesh to make a creamy sauce with lashings of fresh tarragon, and applied it to spaghetti. There was then leftover creamy tarragon spaghetti, so for lunch the next day: fried a packet of button mushrooms (halved) and some very smoky ham in garlic infused oil and butter, added a generous splosh of vermouth, tumbled in the leftover creamy tarragon spaghetti and heated through in the vermouthy, mushroom sauce. Added fresh parsley and a little showering of smoked paprika. Now even more glad I didn’t do Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic.
