WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: The iconic James Beard revolutionized the American kitchen in so many ways, and here’s just one of them. When he first published his recipe for chicken with 40 cloves of garlic in the 1970s, he reassured home cooks about the “wonderful, buttery paste perfumed with garlic” that would result from this recipe. Luckily for us today, they believed him. This rustic but fancy-sounding dish is very easy to make and yields huge flavor dividends. We gave the garlic a head start on cooking in the microwave to soften and start to mellow it. The small amount of sugar added also helped it brown more quickly when it went into the skillet. Chicken broth, heavy cream, dry sherry, and fresh thyme combined to make the luscious sauce, and mashing half of the garlic cloves into the sauce ensured sweet garlic flavor in every bite. You will need three or four heads of garlic to yield 40 cloves. You can substitute four bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (halved crosswise) for the thighs, but reduce the cooking time in step 3 to 15 to 20 minutes. Serve this with plenty of crusty bread to scoop up the rich, garlicky sauce.
Serves: 4
Total time: 50 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
- 40 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 8 (5-to 7-ounce) bone-in chicken thighs, trimmed
- Salt and pepper
- ½ cup dry sherry
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Toss garlic in bowl with 1 teaspoon oil and sugar. Microwave garlic until slightly softened, with light brown spotting, about 4 minutes, stirring halfway through microwaving.
- Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in 12-inch oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Place chicken skin side down in skillet and cook until skin is well browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to plate, skin side up. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet. Reduce heat to medium-low, add garlic, and cook until evenly browned, about 1 minute.
- Off heat, add sherry to skillet. Return skillet to medium heat and bring sherry to simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Cook until sherry coats garlic and pan is nearly dry, about 4 minutes. Stir in broth, cream,
cornstarch mixture, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf and simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Return chicken skin side up to skillet along with any accumulated juices. Transfer skillet to oven and roast until chicken registers 175 degrees, 18 to 22 minutes. - Using potholder (skillet handle will be hot), remove skillet from oven. Transfer chicken and half of garlic to serving platter. Discard thyme sprig and bay leaf. Using potato masher, mash remaining garlic into sauce, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour half of sauce around chicken. Serve, passing remaining sauce separately.
