I’ve wanted to try this recipe for ages!
With the arrival of Ian and Diana’s new season garlic, I was keen to use up the last of my previous year’s frozen supplies…
Forty frozen cloves of garlic, looking most fine after a year in the deep freeze!
I followed Nigella Lawson’s recipe, substituting chicken drumsticks for the thigh pieces she’d stipulated, and our perennial leeks for the spring onions.
The chicken was browned in a little oil first, then laid over the chopped leeks, half of the unpeeled garlic cloves and a scattering of thyme leaves. The remaining cloves were scattered on top with a few sprigs of thyme, a couple of tablespoons of white wine and a light seasoning of salt and pepper. The pot was then covered with a tight fitting lid and baked in a 160C (with fan) oven for 1½ hours.
The finished dish was surprisingly mellow, yet still distinctly garlicky. The frozen garlic worked perfectly, although there were still quite a few cloves left in the pot at the end of the meal (Small Man made short work of most of the drumsticks)…
Loathe to waste the cooked garlic, and inspired by Joanna’s recent post, I squeezed the soft pulp out of the leftover cloves and mixed it into a batch of our sourdough ciabattas. The finished loaves were served with antipasto the following evening!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I can taste the garlic seeing those photos and I too have been eying off the recipe for a while. I might just have to order some garlic and make it!
The bread must have been heavenly.
Claire, the bread really was divine. I saved one loaf to the freezer for future garlic bread, but the rest was wolfed at breakneck speed! :)
I’ve also eyed this recipe for a very long time but always hesitated. I think you’ve convinced me otherwise now. :)
Misk, as I said it was surprisingly mellow, although we couldn’t have eaten all the cloves at dinner if we’d tried!
Celia, I made this recipe many years ago – make it decades – I was married to my first husband!
Unfortunately, Phil cannot eat garlic, it upsets his stomach, so I will look at your photo and drool… ;-)
beautiful photos, and the bread… ah, the bread! Awesome use for the garlic!
Thanks Sally! I’m sorry Phil can’t eat garlic!
I eventually plucked up the courage to try a slightly tamer version of this a while back – I think I chickened out (!!) at 20 large cloves of garlic. But I was surprised at how mellow the garlic flavour was when cooked that way.
Suelle, it’s one of those recipes that everyone talks about – it was nice to finally give it a go! :)
Thanks for the reminder… and another view… of this wonderful dish.
Glad you enjoyed it, Patricia! I think the original French version involves a whole lot more oil, actually.. :) I nearly tried this version…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2003/oct/04/weekend.richardehrlich
I love chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. Not tried Nigella’s recipe specifically but have made my own. Not for years though, may revisit ASAP!
Kavey, I was surprised how simple it was to make!
What a beautiful dish!
Thanks Greg! I love recipes that go into the oven and cook without my messing with them.. :)
Never tried it, and I’ve never made it.
Unless the deliciously garlicky chicken I had at a local mama’s house in Malago in Spain was the 40 cloves affair.
I’ll have to imagine it was indeed,
and shall reminisce fondly as I look at your excellent cookery fottos, and slurp at them (in the best possible taste).
Thanks Grilly! And next time we make it, I’ll imagine we’re eating it at a little diner in Malago, Spain.. :)
No flu for you guys anytime soon! Fantastic recipe, and I bet that garlic bread was incredible too. Yumm!
Becca, we all ate it, so no-one seemed to stink the following day! Hopefully it will ward away the lurgies! (And the vampires!). :)
Too delicious for words!!!
Thanks Deb! It was very yummy indeed!
I also love this Nigella’s recipe a lot! A great & tasty recipe!
MMMM,…! Yum & to make those garlic sourdough ciabatta’s,…waw!
Good to know someone else makes it, Sophie! Thank you! :)
Goodness gracious me, I too have been wanting to try that recipe for yonks but have never been game. Thanks to you I have the resources … maybe I will.
Ooh, loved the photo of all your new garlic, Rose! Hope you have fun with it all! http://greeningtherose.blogspot.com/2012/01/anarel-garlic.html
Similarly, I would like to try this recipe but have yet to do so. Thanks for the comprehensive instructions and your adaptation, which sounds divine! Might be one for the holidays, when we don’t have to go anywhere near our work colleagues!
Lizzy, we didn’t seem to get too stinky the following day, although as I said, we didn’t actually eat most of the cloves at dinner. It was surprisingly easy to make and eat!
gorgeous celia and look at your ciabatta, i need to zoom over to joannas and check that out. AND thank you very much, i had no idea you could freeze garlic. Ours started to shoot in that warm early winter so we are hoping it still does something in the summer! Fingers crossed! c
Celi, we always freeze the bulk of ours – Sydney is so humid and warm that it often shoots on us really quickly! I don’t think you can freeze it if you’re planning to grow it, though!
My mom made that dish when we were little kid. We thought that was ridiculous but it actually tasted amazingly good! the sweet roasted garlic was really good with plain rice.
Thanks for stopping by, Maguro! We served our dish with rice as well…
I can’t watch Nigella…She’s too sexy for my shirt.
Bless You
paul
Fair enough, Paul! She is very sultry indeed… ;-)
Life (for a dead chook) begins at 40, eh?
Went right off Nigella when she was a really unpleasant subject in one of Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope interviews. No smiles. Monosyllable answers. Gave nothing to Andrew or the viewer. Really really disappointing. She may be pretty but she is also ugly.
Ahhh…so she was like Meg Ryan during her infamous Parkinson interview? :) I guess we have no idea what she’s really like…
This is a good dish isnt it? , and yours look too delicious!
Thanks Tania! It was great, will definitely be making it again!
A fine looking dish Celia, but I think it’s the ciabattas that appeal the most :-)
Brydie, it was amazing how much the roasted garlic permeated the loaves – the dough had the most amazing aroma before baking!
What’s not to love here? Chicken, garlic, bread= total yum!
I’ve made this in the past- loved it- rest of family were very ho hum.
Frank wants red meat – my son enjoyed it- but not in raptures- I licked my fingers and moaned with pleasure and they thought I was very strange.
BUT- I decided to cut the garlic in half, make lots of rice and veggies with it and enjoy it more often without the fanfare that 40 cloves makes.
Truly- there is no accounting for individual taste.
The bread looks particularly fine.
Thanks for sharing, Celia. I always salivate when I come to your blog. :)
Heidi, thank you! My boys didn’t eat all the garlic, but they loved how the chicken tasted. I’m sure it would be just as good with half as much garlic! I loved how easy it was to assemble…
Nigella always cracks me up. She talks about food like it’s naughty sex but she doesn’t care because that’s the kind of tart she’s into. And she eats asparagus like she’s licking Brad Pitt’s earlobe.
The garlic chicken looks darn tasty! I’ll have to try it.
Maz.
She IS very naughty, isn’t she? That’s her selling point! I don’t make a lot of her recipes, to be honest, but this one was very appealing!
Sounds like a great way to use up bulk garlic!! I’ll bet the kitchen & house still have an aroma of garlic. I’ve shied away from recipes w/ so much garlic, in the past, but maybe I should give it a go. Can I have one of those ciabatta, pretty please?
Melanie, not at all, the kitchen had a wonderful aroma as it was cooking, but nothing lingering. It really was surprising how gentle the garlic kick was!
I’ve seen this recipe before but wasn’t sure if I should try it. But your chicken came out delicious looking.. so i think I will try it. And I love Nigella
Thanks for stopping by, Kay! Hope you enjoy the dish!
This looks amazing Celia. I am going to try this tonight. I hope I’m able to count out 40 cloves of garlic.
Don’t laugh, Charlie, but I had to recount twice! ;-)
LOL! I am laughing- because if you used 42 it would be too many?
I would like to rename the recipe Chicken with handfuls of garlic! :)
Heidi, I couldn’t make chicken with 40 cloves of garlic if I didn’t have 40 cloves, right? If the number is in the name of the dish, then I’m counting..twice.. ;-)
That will explain the scarcity of vampire chickens, I guess.
Funny that, if I actually want the chooks to eat garlic, I have to hide it in their food or drinking water. It’s quite good for them, but they’re not particularly keen. If only they knew how good they tasted with garlic.. ;-)
This brings back so many memories of first learning how to cook. I bought a cookery book (which I still have) with this recipe in it. It was the time that chicken bricks were in fashion and I bought one. I hadn’t realised how heavy they were and my arms were aching so much by the time I got it home. The whole house was scented with garlic for days – not sure my parents thought the taste of the chicken was worth the agony…but I was very proud!
Love your comment about the chooks eating garlic!
Oooh, was the chicken brick a clay cooker for the bird to go in? We use our Romertopf now, but wouldn’t it be lovely to have the money and space to indulge ourselves with dish specific cookware? :)
40 cloves has to be a record! Amazing you actually counted! As a garlic lover I’ll have to try this, but I think I’ll use entire bulbs and a whole chicken and leave it overnight in my clay oven. Thanks for sharing :) I think you do a wonderful job with your blog, and it inspired me to finally start mine recently :)
That’s a lovely thing to hear, thank you! All the best with your new blog!
I think this is one of the best chicken dishes out there and you aced it accompanying it with that gorgeous bread….
Thanks Norma! :)
[…] Here’s the link to the recipe and a video that shows Nigella in action with this recipe. […]
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