Roasted Garlic Clove Chicken

John and I LOVE garlic.  When I say love I mean we are obsessed.  Garlic is by far our all time favorite seasoning.  Whenever we cook anything (aside from dessert type things that is) we always add garlic.  It is just SO FREAKIN Tasty!  Any recipe that calls for an overload of garlic is sure to be a winner in our book.

 One night after watching some Ghost Hunters I decided to watch an episode of Ten Dollar Dinners I had recorded.  (After watching a show like Ghost Hunters I have to watch a less intense show before going to bed or else my imagination will run wild).  John came out in the living room and watched it with me (10 Dollar Dinners, not Ghost Hunters.  He thinks Ghost Hunters is stupid).  In this particular episode of Ten Dollar Dinners Melissa D'Arabian was featuring this Roasted Garlic Clove chicken.  John and I immediately decided that this was a recipe we HAD to try.  Melissa just made it sound so tasty.

In my attempts to be healthier (see previous post) I made a menu this weekend for this upcoming week.  Obviously the Roasted Garlic Clove Chicken recipe had to be one of the first meals we made!  I don't know how healthy this recipe is, but I'm going with it's healthier than heading out to McDonalds for french fries and a burger. 

Here is the recipe as it appears on the Food Network website (serves 4).  I obviously scaled it down a bit to fit my needs.  I've also included some cooking tips brought to you by yours truly.

Ingredients:
8 chicken thighs (I used bone-in.  She doesn't specify but in the recipe she mentions cooking skin side down)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 head garlic, separated into whole cloves and skinned, about 20 cloves (John and I probably used 10 or so for just the 2 of us)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon flour
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 lemon, juiced (I didn't have a lemon so I just used lemon juice)
bread for serving

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Salt and pepper liberally and allow to temper on a cutting board while you prepare the garlic. 

In a large ovenproof saute pan over medium heat, cook the whole garlic cloves in olive oil and butter, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. (Might I recommend waiting until ALL of your garlic is skinned before adding any garlic into the pan.  You would think this would be obvious, but John and I just kinda started cooking and threw garlic in the pan as we got it skinned.  This resulted in some cloves being a bit on the crispy side).

Remove the garlic from the pan and set aside. Increase the heat to medium high and brown the chicken skin-side down until the skin is golden and crispy, about 5 minutes. Turn the chicken over, sprinkle on herbes de Provence. Add the garlic back to the pan and place hot pan in oven. Bake the chicken until cooked through, about 25 minutes. (It took our chicken, just 2 thighs, bone-in, about 20 minutes).

 Once the chicken is done, remove chicken thighs and garlic to a platter. Place the pan over medium-high heat and sprinkle the drippings with flour and stir to incorporate. Deglaze the pan with the stock and lemon juice. Pour the sauce over the chicken on the platter and serve with bread for sauce-mopping and garlic-spreading.

sorry for the less than pretty picture.  I was so excited to eat this I forgot to take a picture until halfway through the meal

John is not a big fan of sauces so he didn't use any of this sauce other than what was already on the chicken.  I thought the sauce was DELICIOUS!  I poured some over the top of my bread, the chicken, and the mashed potatoes we had.  Because John and I love garlic so much we were eating the cloves with the bread.  The cloves sort of spread into a delicious garlicky paste with a butter knife but I will admit to just sitting them on top of the bread and eating them that way. Seriously we love garlic!

As you can tell from the picture, I was so excited to get this deliciousness into my belly!  I forgot to take a picture until half way through my meal.  This chicken (which we served with spinach and mashed potatoes) is definitely a recipe for us to hold on to and make time and time again!

Stay tuned for more tasty recipes.  But have no fear, I will not be strictly posting about food from now on.  I have a Halloween party to document, my first (almost) completed Pinterest craft, and a bunch of other things coming up to blog about. 

Until next time!

~Tara