Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic is a classic French country dish that’s perfect for a weeknight dinner or your most elegant dinner party. Paired with budget-friendly chicken thighs, all that garlic mellows into buttery goodness for a dish you’ll fall in love with!
Friends and garlic lovers, if you’ve never made Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic before, this is a recipe you’ll want to add to your repertoire!
Whenever I mention this dish to anyone and when they hear the amount of garlic in it, their eyes tend to get big and a look of incredulity comes over their faces. I understand their reaction because I did the same thing the first time I heard the name of the dish.
I had to give it a try myself and I’ve been smitten with this dish ever since! Dark meat chicken, soft, mellow garlic, wine, herbs, a buttery finish and a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes for a touch of heat combine for an easy, yet elegant dish!
How to make Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic:
- Start with three to four large heads of fresh garlic. Make sure the garlic feels firm and solid with dry skins. There shouldn’t be any green sprouts coming from the top.
- Remove as much of the papery skin as possible from 40 cloves. And if you use more than 40 cloves of garlic, I won’t tell anyone!
- Coat chicken thighs with seasoned all-purpose flour.
- Heat olive oil in a heavy pan and brown the chicken thighs well on both sides.
- Add white wine to deglaze the pan, toss in the garlic cloves along with fresh rosemary, thyme and bay leaves.
- Add chicken broth and simmer covered until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the garlic cloves are meltingly tender on the inside.
- Swirl in a little butter and crushed red pepper flakes for a touch of heat…
- And you have Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, one of the most lovely French-inspired chicken dishes of all time!
- Serve with crusty bread for soaking up the amazing juices and for spreading the mellow, melty garlic onto.
In addition to bread, a crisp green salad or creamy potato gratin would also be great alongside! Coming soon, I’ll share a French-inspired side dish that’s perfect with this dish, too!
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Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic is a classic French country dish that's perfect for a weeknight dinner or your most elegant dinner party. Paired with budget-friendly chicken thighs, all that garlic mellows into buttery goodness for a dish you'll fall in love with!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 4 chicken thighs, on the bone with the skin
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 40 large cloves unpeeled garlic
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only, finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
- Crusty French bread
Instructions
- Generously season the flour with salt and black pepper.
- Dredge both sides of the chicken thighs in the flour.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, skin side down first and brown well. Turn the chicken over and brown on the other side.
- Turn the chicken back to skin side up. Remove from heat.
- Add the wine then return to the heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the wine is reduced by half.
- Add the chicken broth and garlic and bring the liquid back to a boil. Add the thyme, rosemary and bay leaves.
- Reduce heat to a simmer, cover the skillet and cook for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked through to 165 degrees in the center and the garlic is tender.
- Stir in the butter and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Remove the bay leaf and sprinkle chicken with parsley.
- Squeeze the garlic out of the cloves to enjoy, preferably onto crusty French bread.
Nutrition Information
Yield
2Serving Size
2 thighsAmount Per Serving Calories 1146 Total Fat 68g Saturated Fat 22g Trans Fat 1g Unsaturated Fat 42g Cholesterol 366mg Sodium 1470mg Carbohydrates 61g Net Carbohydrates 0g Fiber 16g Sugar 4g Sugar Alcohols 0g Protein 70g
Annette McKenna says
Sounds absolutely delicious. My husband adores garlic and would probably eat the four thighs himself. For my family of 5 I would need to make at least 10 pieces of chicken. How do I adjust the garlic? Would I double, triple the ingredients?
Carol says
Hi, Annette, Thanks so much for your question! As you saw, this is a smaller scale recipe (serves 2-3). Generally, the 40 cloves of garlic are for 6-8 servings but we absolutely love garlic, too.
Sometimes one thigh is enough per person, others two. I would suggest doubling everything: Wine, broth, etc. Add as much garlic as you like. To make it easier on yourself, perhaps roast some whole heads of garlic on the side. Here’s a link on how to do that: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-roast-garlic-in-the-oven-5341 Thanks again, hope everyone enjoys and boy, your house is going to smell amazing!!!!
Cindy says
What a stunning chicken dish. You had me at garlic! I can’t wait to make this!
Carol says
Hi, Cindy, Thanks so very much and hope you enjoy!