Roasted Garlic Chicken
One of my favorite food items is garlic. I just can’t get enough. I like it so much in fact, that whenever a recipe calls for a clove or two, I double it. Most recipes call for the garlic to be either minced or chopped, but every so often, there’s a recipe that roasts the cloves whole. Those are the recipes that make my heart sing! So, when I came across this Roasted Garlic Chicken from the Food Network, I knew I had to make it immediately.
If you’ve never had roasted garlic, you should. It’s amazing! You still get that great garlic flavor, but now it’s softer and slightly sweeter. See, roasting takes some of the harshness out of the garlic while softening it up at the same time. So, now you can eat it straight or spread it on toast, which just happens to by my favorite way to eat it.
Usually when you roast garlic, you roast the whole bulb all together with a little olive oil. It cooks better that way because the bulb cooks more evenly. But a whole bulb is a lot of garlic, and while I love garlic, it’s just too much for my little family of four, especially when half of that foursome is two boys under the age of 10. So, I really appreciate when a recipe cuts that bulb in half. I still get plenty of those delicious roasted cloves, but now I don’t have to eat the whole thing myself. This recipe gets me plenty of cloves while permeating the whole dish with that wonderful garlic flavor I love so much.
Although the chicken thighs are delicious all on their own, it’s the sauce that really excites me. Made up of garlic, lemon juice and the chicken’s drippings, it’s delectable drizzled over the roasted thighs. But the best way to enjoy this sauce is sopped up on a piece of French bread. It’s a lemony, garlicky, lip-smacking, savoriness that I would easily lap up by the spoonful. And thanks to Melissa d’Arabian (and me), now you can, too. So, if you just can’t get enough garlic, you need to try this recipe. Not only is it easy enough to whip up any busy weeknight, it’s fancy enough to serve guests over the weekend. It’s that good! As a matter of fact, I’ve already made it several times, and I cannot wait to make it again.
Notes
Adapted from Melissa d'Arabian
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 10 - 20 cloves of garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 teaspoons herbs de Provence
- 1 teaspoon flour
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Pat dry the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside while you prepare the garlic.
- Cook the garlic cloves in the olive oil and butter in a large ovenproof pan over medium heat until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan and set aside.
- Increase the heat to medium and brown the chicken in the same pan, skin-side down, until the skin is golden and crispy, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken and sprinkle with the herbes de Provence. Return the roasted garlic back to the pan and place the pan in oven. Bake for about 25 minutes. Once the chicken is done, transfer the thighs and garlic to a serving platter.
- Place the pan over medium-high heat and stir the flour into the the drippings until incorporated. Whisk in the stock and lemon juice and cook until slightly thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and garlic and serve with a crusty bread.
