Aloha!
I hope you all enjoyed the weekend, it was a long weekend here…we celebrate the Queen’s birthday and get a day off in honour of it…the weather was uncharacteristically wet…but it worked out quite well for us…I love walking in the bush after the rain…and we did quite a bit of that…
Ready for some Beach Babe food? …after many requests via my Facebook, where we talk about food far too much lol, here is
Beach Cottage Forty Garlic Chicken…
This is on our menu most weeks and is one of those dishes that is my kinda style…throw it in, hope for the best and at the end get a gold star in the cookery department for good wholesome family fare…non-processed and kinda says home to us…
Plus it ticks all my boxes…easy, everyday ingredients, healthy, my kiddos love it and more I can get it going earlier in the day when I am home and still feeling relatively sane
I first made this in 2004…I know the exact date because I got the recipe from one of those cooking sites and did a review on it…
Here’s what I said back then when I made it in my crock
Wonderful! I got this chicken ready in my crock pot in the morning and left it while out at the beach all day. I served it with lovely French crusty bread smothered in the roasted soft garlic, alongside pieces of the chicken which had fallen off the bone and a green salad. I added my favourite herbs to the recipe – just grabbed handfuls of rosemary and whatever I had from the garden and stuffed them in the cavity along with a cut up lemon. I also added a half glass of white wine in addition to the stock. This is definitely a keeper!
..I remember exactly that morning…it was summer in the UK and we were headed to the beach, which was about a 40 minute drive away…I knew that the BC Crew and I would be nicely exhausted when we came home and I wanted to spend the day down there and then to come home to something that was ready and so I tried this…and it’s been with us ever since…I made quite a few changes to that original recipe, which didn’t call for any herbs, lemon or white wine and I now more often than not cook it in the oven, as well as the crock pot…
but if I am going out for a long day and we want to come home to dinner…not eat out this is what always goes in…throw this in the crock, get a couple of baguettes out of the freezer, pick some herbs from the garden and bob is your uncle…
Beach Cottage Too Easy Forty Garlic Chicken
1 chicken
1 large handful mixed herbs (including pref. rosemary)
3 / 4 heads, c. 40 cloves garlic, papery skin left on
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup white wine
1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1. break the heads of garlic into single cloves leaving papery skin intact
2. cut the lemon in half and stuff into the chicken cavity
3. rub the chicken with the olive oil & liberally season with salt & pepper
4. stuff the herbs in and around the chicken
5. Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish & put on the hob & add the garlic cloves on and around the chicken
6. add stock & wine, bring to boil
7. transfer to oven with lid on for an hour
8. remove lid and roast for 20/30 mins more for a golden skin
9. remove chicken & garlic from dish, put the dish on the hob & gently reduce the sauce
10. serve with green salad, chicken & it’s gravy & push the garlic from the little papery cases and smother on the bread
BC Notes
* I like to use free range or organic chicken, yes I know they are expensive, but it’s worth it plus I use the bones to make stock and the leftovers to make soup…so cost per wear is low ;-)
* to cook in the crockpot…just dump it all in there…it is best to ‘raise’ the chicken up from the crock pot floor…but you don’t’ have to, I have done it without doing that…just roll up a couple of balls of foil or use carrots or sticks of celery and sit your chicken on that..only use half the liquid if you are crockpotting and review the amount of liquid near the end……..leave on high 4/5 hours or all day on low
* if you are garlic-lovers like us then push out some of the garlic cloves into your gravy
* if you are rushed you can omit the hob step & just shove it straight in the oven
* this is also lovely served with a big mound of peas/petits pois (from the freezer this makes for a really easy dinner if you don’t have any fresh salad)
* use any leftover garlic cloves in the leftover chicken soup or throw them in your chicken stock pot with the bones
**edited to add, thanks Fi….a hob is a stovetop :-)**
by the way this goes very very nicely with my Pear & Strawberry Crumble recipe here…
Try it…and don’t be alarmed by the amount of garlic…it wafts a lovely flavour around your cottage and you don’t have to eat all the cloves!
…but here’s a BC Warning: if you make this in your crockpot, there will be an amazing aroma wafting down the street…you may well have to fight off any manner of stray stangers knocking on your door wanting to come in for supper ;-)
and your kiddos, when they realise that this is for dinner, will be so very nice to you and offer to massage your shoulders because you pretended you slaved over the oven all day, when really you threw it all in and lazed in the tub…hahaha
See you around kiddos…BC Good Life Wednesday tomorrow…
p.s. if you are feeling like the BC Witch…you can steal the skin before they come home & tell them this is the skinless version ;-)
Lemon. . . garlic. . . fresh herbs . . . white wine. . .
Yep, sounds perfect to me!!
Sounds so fabulous!!! I love all the ingredients (except the whole chicken)… Whole birds just do something really bad to my appetite when cooking… LOL… but I will absolutely try it with some chicken breasts.. maybe even on the grill in foil ♥
oh Sarah, this would very nearly KILL me!!! I have developed a garlic allergy post babies and really a chive/spring onion is about all I can tolerate these days!! So pathetic BUT I love those photos and did laugh at the skin vs skinless angle – very real life!! Am thrilled with the slowcooker info and will definately try it this way ( sans garlic of course) as the prospect of returning to lovely cooking smells after our own rounds of sport/taxi-ing is very welcome. – Thanks for sharing xx
ps I do think you’ve photographed those garlic cloves beautifully-clever you.
thank you Melinda, very kind…I enjoy the photo taking part
OH MY GOSH, I thought my wine allergy was bad enough…I dunno how I would cope with a garlic allergy…
and yes this is sooooooooo very easy to sling in your crock pot/slow cooker for those sport taxi duties…you won’t be disappointed!
x
Heavenly… I will be trying this. And much like the BC witch, there will be no skin when it is served!! YUM
This is really similar to one that I make, but I have to ask you sweetie…….what is a hob??? Is that your stovetop?
Hugs and God bless!
Fi
ooops yes sorry a hob is a stovetop xx ;-)
YUM!
this looks pretty easy~might have to try it and I might say I am not afraid of garlic!
ooooohhhhh wow!!!! yummo!!!!! i’ll definitely give this one a try!!!!
I’m vegetarian…but boy, if I wasn’t!….
I have been intrigued by this dish everytime I see it on fb and just by looking at the ingredients know it will be a huge winnner here :)
More often than not our chicken ends up on the table skinless too, hehe.
xx
Will so be serving this skinless !!!!! Its my fav part ! Also bought some nice thick bacon for the green bean casserole with butter garlic and lemon….yum
I wish I had smell a screen !!!! Doesn’t Barefoot Contessa do that recipe ? I am trying that for sure :)
Thanks for posting this recipe, Sarah…will definately be trying it out! I do love a good crock pot recipe :)
Cas.
This sounds divine! I will definitely give it a try sometime when my husband is out of town… he loves chicken but developed an adult onset allergy to ALL poultry! So we eat very little chicken… and my children do NOT like the skin. Odd, I know!
Now is you have any good beef or pork or even lamb recipes I’m all ears… especially something which can cook in the crock all day!
Looks wonderful. I would have to make two chickens to feed my crew…you probably will one day too when they are older and eating you out of the house. My oldest, turning 21 this month can eat half a chicken himself…and so can my youngest, 15, a football and tennis player. It won’t be long till your active teens need you to cook two or else you and Mr. BC will be left with a wing each! tee hee
haha Kerrie, I do cook two already! the second one does last us here at the moment..not for long though!
This sounds yummy and I plan to try this recipe soon!
THANK YOU,
Lynne
This sounds lovely……
thats so going into my menu plan.
looks yummy. willhave to try this one out. sorry no caps, have only one hand free, other hand leggo and soccer ball.
x marnie
This is nearly exactly how I make it but there are a couple of interesting differences you might like especially when the lemon caramelise – it’s cooked in a roasting pan not the slow cooker but I’m going to try yours to compare.
10 Chicken pieces – I use thighs
40 Garlic unpeeled
2 unwaxed Lemons, cut into chunky eighths
Thyme, a handful
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
150 mls White Wine
Black Pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 160c. Put the chicken pieces into a roasting pan and add the garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for the strewing over later. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up. Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavor-intensifyingly low heat, for 2 hours. Remove the foil from the roasting pan, and turn up the oven to 200c. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to caramelise at the edges.
I like to serve this as it is, straight from the roasting pan, so just strew your remaining thyme and dole out.
thanks so much Jamie…that sounds very similar!
yep sometimes I just throw in the pan a lemon quartered so that it caramelizes…lovely for the stock later too…
it doesn’t do that as much in the crock…no air..but still lovely!
thanks for taking the time to leave your recipe, I really appreciate that xo
Yum will be trying this as soon as free range chicken is back on the shelves at our usual store. For the last couple of weeks the shelf is always empty!
Mmm…Thank you!
: )
Julie M.
Thanks Sarah
This sounds delish, and looks yum. (We are traveling around in our little Caravan and I only have a Turbo cooker at the minute, But will deff give it a wirl in that).
Except my hubby would no damn well who nicked the chicken skin!! Great recipe…perfect for a cold English summer day!! Robx
yes it’s perfect english summer day food!
especially if you have been on the beach lol
xx
Oooh this would have been perfect for tonight since I had taken chicken out to defrost. Unfortunately I saw it too late and don’t have the cooking time on my side, so I’ve gone for Chicken & Broccoli Bake instead.
Will deffo try this another time though, looks ever so yum! Looking to get out of the rutt I seem to be in at the mo wrt dinner meals.
Ok.. because I am new to the crockpot I need a little more coaching.
how do you get the chook skin that golden brown? If it’s in the crockpot does it go that nice colour?
tell me tell me tell me dooooooo…..
it looks just too divine. I shall be buying a few chickens and making this come the weekend…… oh my. I’ve already eaten dinner & now I’m hungry again! haha xx
no it doesn’t go brown if you do it in the crockpot…that is the downside of the easy cooking…in fact it looks pukey…but it’s worth it…I guess you could shove the bird in the oven to brown it but then that defeats the ease of the crock…you just have to close your eyes for that bit…or roast it..
best tip for crockpot is perseverance…with all your kiddos it will change your life ;-)
x
thankyou Sarah, for me the visual side of food far outweighs ease… I will roast…. mainly because your chicken looks SO spectacular
I’m doing it tonight as I have woken up feeling like a train has hit me and I’m old fashioned in my thinking that when one is ill… one needs good wholesome food….. oh and a good wholesome dessert to go along with it. I’m making the chocolate caramel delight on the front cover of the latest Donna Hay magazine :):) {I will rally for this cause}
xx
haha I like your thinking….chocolate caramel delight is good for your mental health at least!
oh and the Jewish penicillin if you do stock with those bones afterwards…I swear that has got us through some winters without too much illness
x
Sounds super yummy, adding this to my meal plan for next week with the petit pois. I have been saving forever for a cast iron dutch oven. Couldnt stretch to the Le Crueset brand, but bought the Chausser one, a whopping 6.3 l in what they call french white. It arrived today and we have just christened it with a risotto, (had to be Italian to honor the hubbys roots). On the look out for lots more of these one pot wonder meals I can pop together in the daytime, so if you have any more, I would love to see them posted up x
Hope you and your family are well xx
PS have been photographing the new pot (yet to be named) on the stove!
oh I am saving for one too!!!! lol I am so jealous right now :-)
all good thanks Fleur…oh and I have tonne of these recipes up my sleeve haha
xxx
Fleur… I got my Le Crueset through fly buys…… people always say you never get anything good with those reward programmes….. that has been one of my best rewards. I have used it consistently for about five years now….. what risotto did you make?
yeah I would like to hear what risotto you made too…
wow susan, I have like years worth of flybuys on my card…good thinking!!! I am gonna have a look
I just made a risotto with leftovers from the roast dinner,
Diced onion, sweated off sprinkle with sage – dried or a whole bunch of fresh. Add the risottos rice (about 1/2 cup per person) make sure it is nice and coated in the oil. Keep adding hot stock. I use the Massel stock cubes – vege ones with low salt. Stir stir stir. Then when it is nearly ready (about 25 mins) I popped in some cubes of roast chicken and left over roast pumpkin. I served it with fresh Parmesan and some rocket
Have a look at the http://www.everten.com.au website, it gives good discounts on cookware. its where I bought mine.
xx
ok…i am loving this variation to my baked chook!
i think the extra liquid will make it all the more *fall-ey* off the bones…
is it bad that i now have my 6 yr old making the stock from our chooks?
i posted about it this week- she loves it!!
melissa x
PS if this is anything like your chorizo recipe i am gonna have one happy aussie family in ol’blighty- they still keep asking for this again, although i only made it last week!!
And for dessert – a RUFFLE CAKE in pale blue!!! http://pinterest.com/pin/39786619/ Thanks for suggesting Pinterest. I am now truly addicted.
OOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo yum that looks great! Great photos too
SO gorgeous and delicious! Although I’m pretty sure mine would be “nekkid” before it got to the table, too… No worries, I’ll just cut it up before I serve it- they’ll never know I nicked all the skin ;)
This looks so good that I can smell it cooking. I know what is for dinner tomorrow night. Just thinking about some lemon chicken soup with those bones…thanks for sharing!
Oohhh wish this had been posted last week. I just cooked a chicken on Sunday and this would have gone down a treat! Lx
Thanks so much! I tried a different 40 cloves of garlic recipe awhile ago and it was a tad grim. This looks fantastic though.
Bring on the shoulder and hand massages.
I’m writing report cards right now and starting to get “the claw” hand.
I love chicken like this, Gwyneth Paltrow does a lovely one on goop with a fresh salad and raw sweet peas in, its lovely
Hi Sarah, I will defo be trying this out this weekend when we have the ‘rents to stay. Sounds gorgeous. Ps love your blog, and thanks for your blogging for girls, has been a lifesaver. Only just starting out in blog world so found it all really helpful. Erica
thanks for the feedback Erica x
Thank you for sharing.. this sounds amazing.
Looks good to me!! I have a chicken in the freezer just waiting for this!
Thanks for sharing
x
This looks yummy, I love the skin too, I could just eat the skin and forget about the rest!
The Hubs just returned from a week out of town, so I made this chicken for his first night back home. We both think it’s FABULOUS! I will definitely be making this again!
glad you liked it Elizabeth! this is certainly a Welcome Home dinner xx
Hi Sarah,
Looks so yummy. Hope you are having a nice day. I was just curious to join the Saturday club. How do I go abou this.
Amy :)
http://www.miloandmitzy.blogspot.com
This sounds so yummy, pass the chicken, mouth wash and gum… ;)
Heaven! Made this tonight and loved it. The garlic flavour really isn’t that full on by the time it is finished…just perfect in fact. Hopefully it’ll help keep the winter colds at bay in our house for a wee while longer. Young ones home from school grumpy and snotty ain’t much fun. Keep the family-friendly recipes coming!
PS. Have followed your blog for over a year now and it is my fave. I think your attitude is to be admired. And while our weather here in Auckland isn’t quite as warm as that which you enjoy in Sydney, we still love to live as much of our lives as possible outdoors. Here’s to fresh air and enjoying the beauty around us. Cheers!
cheers to you too! so glad you liked it…yep it keeps the colds at bay for sure…especially if you make a stock with the bones…xx
Hi Sarah,
Have just finished posting on my blog about this yummo recipe, thanks for sharing (my kids say thanks too), I have directed people back to your blog for the recipe (hope you don’t mind), I work from home on a Thursday and didn’t read the warning at the bottom of your post re the smalls wafting….it was torture!
Have a great day, Lee x
Hi,
Just wanted to come back and say thank you for the lovely recipe. It is father’s day over here in the UK and I used your recipe for our dinner, and everyone loved it! I have written a little blog post about our day and also directed people back to this page.
Looking forward to having it again!
ruth x
hi’
I did the chicken in the slow cooker and man it looked awful so I just stripped the chicken off the carcass and popped it in the fridge, made the best sandwiches on sourdough bread rolls with aioli, rocked and tomato for lunch on sunday. Will be doing this again for school lunches next week.. I will be trying the recipe in the conventional oven this weekend. I just cant get the slow cooker right.
also going to do the crumble with it yum yum
nicole
hmm, yeah it ain’t too pretty in the crock…but it tastes good lol!! …if you leave the lid ajar on the crock for the last bit of cooking it’s a bit browner and better looking.. I usually strip it before I serve if I do it in the crock…or just tell my kids to get over and start eating…they soon keep quiet xxx
This looks so dang tasty. I’m not even really much of a meat eater and I must make this for my soon to be very happy hubby.
Thanks for your truly good read of a blog.
Bernadette
OH that sounds good! I’m so making this! And to think I nearly missed it if I hadn’t read the comments on your butter cake!!
the second one does last us here at the moment..not for long though! ps I do think you’ve photographed those garlic cloves beautifully-clever you. Mmm…Thank you!