April 30, 2007 1449

Garlic Chicken
By Peter Anargirou

Everyone should know how to create at least one delicious dinner, but in all honesty, many of us don't. Luckily, you're about to learn how to create a delicious roasted chicken with garlic sauce dinner. It looks great, tastes wonderful, and best of all, it's easy.

Ingredients:

• 3 or 4 whole chicken legs
  
• 3 bulbs of garlic
  
• ¾ can chicken broth
  
• ¾ cups of heavy whipping cream or milk
  
• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
  

First, take off all the extra skin from the garlic bulbs. It should come off simply by rubbing it with your fingers. Next, cut a square of aluminum foil large enough to wrap a single bulb of garlic (roughly five inches by five inches). Put a bulb of garlic in the center and drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil on top. Wrap the bulb in the aluminum foil. Repeat this for each bulb of garlic. Put the wrapped garlic bulbs on a baking sheet. Next, place the legs in a single layer on a baking tray. Place the garlic and the chicken in the oven at 375 degrees. While following all the steps described here, you should also remove the chicken every fifteen minutes or so to baste it. Simply use a spoon to get juice from the tray and pour it back on top of the chicken. If you're feeling rushed, this step can be skipped.

After forty minutes, remove the garlic. After allowing the foil to cool, unwrap the bulb and squeeze the cloves out. Simply squeeze each clove (or section of the garlic) and the clove should slide gently out of the skin. Don't worry if it gets smashed a little. After squeezing out all of the garlic, place it all in a blender with the chicken broth and the cream (or milk). Blend this until smooth to create the sauce. Pour this mixture into a pot and simmer for about twenty minutes until it's thick.

When this is done, or at a little over an hour after putting the food in the oven originally, take out the chicken. Be careful because the tray will probably be a bit heavy, hot, and now full of juice. Cut into the largest piece of chicken to check if it's done. If it's pink at all, put it back in and check again in ten minutes. When there's no more pink, the chicken's ready! Serve the chicken with the garlic sauce drizzled on top. Enjoy!

To recap:

• Remove garlic skin
  
• Place garlic on aluminum foil square
  
• Drizzle two tablespoons of oil on top
  
• Wrap garlic
  
• Repeat for each bulb
  
• Put chicken in single layer on baking sheet
  
• Put garlic and chicken in oven at 375 degrees
  
• Baste chicken every 15 minutes
  
• After 40 minutes remove garlic
  
• Squeeze garlic bulbs out
  
• Blend garlic, broth, and cream until smooth
  
• Put sauce into pot and simmer for 20 minutes
  
• After an hour from the beginning, check the chicken
  
• If the chicken is still pink, keep checking every 10 minutes until it's done
  
• Serve chicken with garlic sauce drizzled on top
  

Mashed potatoes make a great side with the garlic chicken. You can prepare your own by placing potatoes in a pot of water and boiling them until they're soft. Then simply mash them with a fork. You can add pesto if you'd like for a delicious side. Two tablespoons should be enough for four red potatoes. If you'd rather, you could just use the garlic sauce from the chicken for the potatoes. Now easily enough with just over an hour's worth of work you have a wonderful dinner!