Chicken and Garlic

This is my most requested recipe by people who I have cooked it for and it is an easy meal. I recommend you get a large loaf of bread to go with it because this dish has what my husband refers to as “the gathering effect”. Once you eat all the chicken and garlic everyone ends up in the kitchen around the pan dipping bread into the juices and making yummy noises. I used a Dutch oven on a sheet pan to cook mine but any heavy roaster with a tight fitting lid will do. My chicken was a little over 4 pounds so if your chicken is bigger or smaller adjust the cook times. You can use just breasts but I do recommend using bone in and skin on. Oh, and a word about the sherry. Buy yourself a bottle of dry sherry and keep it on hand you will use it again and again. Do not buy that stuff in the grocery store that is labeled “cooking sherry” if you would not drink it don’t put it in your food! Now you will need:

One roasting chicken

6-8 heads of garlic

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Paprika

1 cup of dry sherry

2 tablespoons butter

Few sprigs of fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons of dried

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. First take the garlic and break the heads up into individual cloves and set them aside. No need to take the skin off for this. Spread the butter under the skin of the breast and legs of the chicken. I mixed my salt pepper and paprika together in a bowl before I started so that I would not contaminate anything. Season the outside, inside and under the skin of the chicken well. Now place some olive oil into the bottom of your pan and place the chicken on top then dump in your garlic. Put some of the thyme inside the chicken and some on top. Spread some more olive oil over the chicken and a little bit on the garlic. You don’t need a lot here just enough so that when we take the lid off later it will brown nicely.

Pour in your sherry and put the lid on.

Cook for 2 hours and during the last 30 minutes take the lid off. When done the garlic should be served with the chicken because you can squeeze the roasted garlic out onto bread or the chicken and it is delicious.