40 Cloves Garlic Chicken

Don't you just love the glow from the Christmas tree? We do. It just creates this feeling of warmth and comfort all about the house.

And to go with that feeling some food that is warm and comforting always sounds good. 

We had a lot of garlic to use before it went bad. We just love how convenient buying garlic already peeled and ready to go is from the Asian market. But it's a lot of garlic to be used by just 2 people. And most often it just gets thrown out before it all gets used but this time we decided to make sure to put it all to good use in a 40 clove garlic chicken recipe.

Sautéing this garlic after browning the chicken in the dutch oven smelled and looked fabulous.

And the chicken was deliciously flavorful and warming. Don't let the 40 cloves of garlic fool you. The garlic becomes soft, sweet and mild. Just perfect. Not at all overpowering.

We served our delicious chicken with Parmesan polenta and wilted spinach. A great Monday night meal.

Recipe

40 Cloves Garlic Chicken ( adapted from Ina's Garten's recipe linked here)

40 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 lbs. chicken thighs

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons Brandy divided

1 1/2 cups white wine

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 tablespoons flour

tablespoons heavy cream

Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. In batches, sauté the chicken in the fat, skin side down first, until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue to sauté’ all the chicken in batches. Remove the last chicken to the plate and add all of the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and sauté for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Add 2 tablespoons of the Brandy and the wine return to a boil, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce and the flour and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Brandy and the cream, and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste; it should be very flavorful because chicken tends to be bland. Pour the sauce and the garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

French Onion Soup

Sunday we tromped out to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our holiday throne for 2012. It's one of our many loved holiday family traditions that we both enjoy and look forward to each year. As much as each year I think, "Man, having a tree with lights already attached sure would be nice" we would never trade this tradition for the ease of an artificial tree.

I love to decorate for the holidays. 

But it never feels complete until our tree is up and decorated with all of the ornaments from our many travels and family & friends. 

Sally Porkchop Christmas 2012 6 months old

Sally Porkchop decided she wanted to get involved in the festivities this year too. One of our yearly traditions when putting up the tree is to celebrate it's decorated beauty with a warm bowl of French Onion Soup.

Actually we originally made the soup the night before when we had some good friends over for dinner. Since I've been sick for what seems like a week soup is sounding good all of the time. But I intentionally made a double batch knowing we'd be getting our tree the next day and that it would be fantastic for our tradition.

We've made a variety of recipe versions of French Onion Soup. This one is a good one not our very favorite but I can't seem to locate the recipe that we love the most. So the past 2 years we've been making this one which is a tweaked version of Ina Garten's from the Food Network.

On top of the wonderful caramelized onion soup we placed some crusty toasted bread rubbed with garlic cloves.

On top of the bread we grated a combination of gruyere, 

entemaler and Parmesan-reggiano to be broiled to a melty goodness.

The house had the aroma of many, many onions and almost overpowered the smell of our freshly cut Christmas tree but the smell itself brought back the memory of tradition and comfort. 

We enjoyed our delicious soup with a bottle of Fidelitas Cabernet Franc. Which was fantastic paired with this rich soup.

RECIPE:

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

2 pounds onions, halved, and sliced 1/4-inch thick (we used white onions this time but prefer yellow usually)

1/4 pound unsalted butter

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup sherry

1/2 cup brandy

1 1/2 cups dry red wine

6 cups beef broth

1 tablespoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Toasted sliced bread, rubbed with garlic cloves

Freshly grated combination of gruyere, emmenthaler & Parmesan-reggiano to top the bread

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions

In a large stockpot on medium-high heat, saute the onions with the butter and bay leaf for 20 minutes, until the onions turn a rich golden brown color. Deglaze the pan with the sherry and brandy and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the wine and simmer uncovered for 15 more minutes.

Add the beef and veal stocks plus salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Toast the bread and rub with garlic cloves. Remove the bay leaf, taste for salt and pepper, and serve hot with grated cheeses. Broil until cheese is melted and slightly browned.