Based on a recipe from The Best of France by Evie Righter.
Serves 4 to 6.
This memorable dish is appropriate for special occasions. This dish proves the saying that there is no such thing as too much garlic!
This dish is fried and then steamed, so it must be cooked in something with a large flat bottom and a tight fitting lid. The recipe calls for a large deep skillet. We use 2 woks, since they have small frying surfaces. I suspect a large cast iron frying pan with a suitable lid would work well, but it must be big enough to brown the skin of an entire chicken.
Ingredients:
In a medium pot, boil some water, add garlic, and boil for 10 minutes, then drain, and set aside.
Over medium-high heat, warm 1 tbsp of the butter and all the oil until hot. Add the chicken. Season with salt & pepper. Brown on all sides.
Distribute the garlic cloves around the chicken and season with the thyme and bay leaf. Cover and cook over low heat for 30-35 minutes, or until the juices run clear when the chicken is pierced with a fork. Avoid overcooking, or the chicken will dry out.
Transfer the chicken and garlic to a platter and keep warm. Discard the bay leaf. Skim and discard the fat from the pan. Add the wine, and reduce the liquid by half over high heat. Add the stock and reduce to ¾ cup. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the remaining 2 tbsp butter. Put the sauce in a gravy boat.
Serve with a sweet french batard. The cloves can be squeezed to extract the soft, sweet garlic. Spread it on bread, pour on the sauce, and enjoy!
This is really quite the dish. The garlic comes out soft and sweet.