The first time someone made forty clove chicken for me I was unimpressed. It was a valiant effort by a friend who didn't - and still doesn't - cook much, but I appreciated the effort. His recipe was true to the classic... "take and chicken and forty cloves of unpeeled garlic, put them in a roasting pan and seal it up. Roast it till done, remove, carve and serve with garlic cloves as garnish" I tried it a couple of times over the years as it seemed to have potential, but it never moved me and it never seemed that the garlic ever really penetrated the chicken. A recent trip to Costco to get veal stew resulted in my buying two organic chickens and a two pound bag of garlic instead as there was no veal stew meat to be had - no, not even for ready money.
I got out a couple of books and looked over recipes for the dish and decided that I didn't love any of them and thought to do the following. I roasted forty or so cloves of garlic and THEN stuffed the chicken with them and scattered the ones that couldn't fit in the cavity around the bird. I used a heavy enameled, cast iron pot. Seasoning was mostly the garlic, a little teeny bit of salt and a sprinkle of herbs d'provence. Half way through the roasting I added a half cup of Vermouth and a big handful of cut up carrots. After about an hour and a half total cooking time, I removed the pot top and hit the broiler for a moment to brown the chicken, took it out and let it rest on a platter, degreased the pan drippings and mashed the garlic cloves and carrots together. (I squeezed the garlic out of the skins and discarded them) This produced a reddish paste to which I added a little salt and pepper and some chicken stock. When the stock reduced I allowed the pan to cool and added a bit of butter to the paste to thicken it up and served it on the chicken pieces.
Mighty good. It's worth doing and gets added to the list of recipes to hold onto when one has lots 'o garlic. It makes a pretty sauce and the carrots and garlic compliment each other with the garlic being sweeter than the carrots. Other herbs could be used and I am sure they would be good. The vermouth is important. It's a great flavor enhancer for chicken.
New Twist on Forty Garlic-Clove Chicken. |
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A home cook who appreciates the pros but doesn't want to be one and an eager eater who loves to eat what others make.
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Charlotte: What a banter! Especially liked the food French love wine Dutch Russian vodka family part. And I have tasted this amazing dish ala Pinkney. oh my oh my oh my good. comment left Feb 03 |
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Pinckney: Ah, Seamus ... Garlic and pork. Hard to beat. Garlic, salt and pork.... pork is my favorite meat. The shoulder is the best. Give the vessel the tiniest bit of bourbon - or Irish, just for moisture, you know. comment left Jan 19 |
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SeamusMuldoon: If you do need shoulder work, come to Houston and I'll introduce you to Bill Bryan, my shoulder fixer par excellence. Never get shoulder work done anywhere else. I am happy that I could provide you with the history of this dish. I came home with a pork shoulder a while ago, and I am going to adapt this recipe to the pork shoulder - in your honor. comment left Jan 19 |
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Pinckney: Thanks for sending me out of the trail with this. Okay. I found the recipe and printed it. Mine differed in the use of carrots and I had to use dried herbs as the garden is quite quiet right now. I like putting pre-roasted garlic inside the chicken. That pumped it up nicely. I didn't use the celery and I didn't peel the garlic before cooking, just broke the heads up and removed the loose paper. The carrots do something to this. I don't know what it is, but the change was pronounced and quite good. I didn't use as much oil either and, of course, I used some vermouth which has a real affinity for roasted chicken. Hope your shoulder is doing well. I bought a tractor and what with turning around to my right all the time to see what is stuck in the harrow, I have blown mine out and hope to avoid surgery. I've just been as cut up as I want to be for a little while comment left Jan 19 |
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SeamusMuldoon: I just found it on Google and the restaurant was Le Prieure. You will love this chicken. You can thank me later. comment left Jan 19 |
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SeamusMuldoon: Gourmet Magazine, in the Spring of 1976 ran a story on a restaurant in Villeneuve les Avignon that specialized in this dish. It was called Poulet Mistral and I am reasonable certain you can pull it up under that name. I was in Avignon that summer and went to the restaurant, Gourmet issue in hand (like a bloody tourist), thinking they would love to see the article and perhaps had not seen it. The restaurant turned out to be owned by a man from Chicago who took the magazine and went back into his office to Xerox the article. He had hired a Frog chef, but Poulet Mistral was not on the menu as it was not a Sunday. So I had to content myself with making it from the recipe in Gourmet. He invited me to forego trying to practice my French and just ask for what I wanted in English. I was crushed, as I had spent the last three weeks in France and was really up to speed in my French (so I thought). The food was mediocre and the wine choice was limited - not by the cellar, but by the terrible company I was with - my then Dutch inlaws who were tighter than a Frog's arse, which we all know is watertight. They were willing to split the bill, but carped about the wine prices. I stupidly listened to my then wife and drank some plonk villages, which was only a hair above piguette superieur and not that far from tordre boyeaux. I got even later in the week at Roquefort by buying a piece of cheese and concealing it under some things on the shelf behind the back seat of their car (it was August). I think they had to sell the car and were unable to eat smelly cheese thereafter. They, in turn, made us move out of their Paris apartment into a hotel. From that point on the trip became much more enjoyable. There was a Russian restaurant in Paris then that my inlaws loved. We went there and I enjoyed smoked sturgeon and blini with caviar with a bottle of Corton Charlemagne. The Dutch wanted to drink Vodka all night, which they brought in half bottles frozen into blocks of ice. Since I was picking up the tab, they drank a lot and became extremely ill, throwing up in the new car on the way back to their apartment. I have never been out with anyone Dutch since then unless it was a paying client and I had no choice. Anyway, try the recipe for Poulet Mistral if you can find it. It is delicious - at least the way I cook it. comment left Jan 19 |
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