A Meal for a Snow Day, Valentine's Day, Any Day
"I love you," she says with the breath of 40 garlic cloves.
Making Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic has been on my bucket list for years. I can’t tell you why I’ve delayed trying it, other than I felt like spending two hours cooking chicken seemed like a waste of time and I was intimidated by peeling all of that garlic.
The good news is that you do not have to peel all of that garlic. It goes straight in, unpeeled. And my bias towards braising chicken? I really can’t explain it since some of my favorite dishes are slow chicken braises… (looking at you, coq au vin!)
I also feel like I delayed it because chicken often doesn’t feel big (?) enough for the weekend, but a 90+ minute dish felt ridiculous for a weekday. But I felt like the stars aligned this week with a cozy snow day, Valentine’s day around the corner, and a bucket list to be cooked through.
The sneaky thing about this dish is that it requires practically zero prep. I don’t even know if you can include chopping vegetables, since the garlic is only separated, the carrots (which I subbed for the celery) are left practically whole, and the onion requires a quick slice.
You technically don’t even need to brown the chicken before the braise, but I did anyway. I’m not sure I would again as it didn’t change the flavor, but I do think it makes for a prettier presentation (though a messy, oil covered stove top).
On the snow day, we put the chicken in the oven and went for a sunset walk in the snow. Even just typing that makes me double over with gratitude for our little life!
The origins of this dish are a little unknown, but people suspect it comes from the Provence region of France as the meal features some Provencal heavy hitters (garlic, thyme, and lots of oil). James Beard brought the dish to the US in his 1974 cookbook, and it secured it’s spot in the hall of fame when Julia Child published it as “poulet aux quarante gousses d'ail” in 1989. Americans gobbled it right up in the ‘80s as they shifted into their one-pot-meal era from a mix of packaged, pre-prepped meals and elaborate, formal dining.
When we got home from our walk, my husband lit a fire as I pulled the chicken out of the oven. I fished out one of the buttery cloves to use in salad dressing, sliced up a crusty baguette and dove right in.
Despite my header, the sneaky beauty of this dish is that it turns bitter, spicy, ehm, garlicky garlic into a rich, slightly sweet cream that spreads like butter. Subbing out the celery and replacing it with carrots made the dish feel so Provencal and also snuck in a true vegetable side. I served it along with a peppery arugula salad in a dijon vinaigrette with that added bonus of the braised garlic. And it goes without saying that we finished off an entire baguette.
This makes for a perfect V-day meal; it is extremely simple, doesn’t require a ton of heavy lifting and could make for a fun evening in the kitchen with your Valentine. But this isn’t a meal that should come with delayed gratification. Make it when you want; no occasion is necessary for such decadence.
My only recommendation is to source great quality ingredients, since the meal itself is so simple. And really, what’s better than that?