The Hirshon Chicken With 40 Cloves Of Garlic

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Ah, Citizens – this is one of my favorite dishes, both because I love garlic and because it perfectly demonstrates the philosophy of TFD: take a classic recipe and tweak it without violating the spirit of the original.

In the 1950s and 60s, it’s no exaggeration to say that James Beard helped to revolutionize American cooking. Beard loved to astound his students with the classic Provençal recipe of Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic.

Given the sad, bland state of American cuisine in the 1950s, calling for forty cloves of garlic in a single recipe was pretty much the revolutionary equivalent to joining the Communist Party. 😉

Of course, people soon realized that roasting the cloves in their skin made them buttery, mild and absolutely delicious. Needless to say, the dish became one of the most beloved French recipes to enter the American recipe canon.

Interestingly, 40 clove chicken also eventually became a popular Passover dish, with Jewish chefs saying the forty cloves represented the forty years of wandering in the desert.

In my version, I use not one, not two, but three different garlic types! Garlic, roasted garlic and the Korean black garlic that is slowly heated over a month to caramelize in the skin. It has a flavor reminiscent of garlicky balsamic vinegar and is utterly addictive!

If you don’t have access to black garlic, just use roasted instead. It will still be delicious! I do provide a source to buy a lot of it in the recipe – it keeps a very long time and once you try it, you’ll use it A LOT, trust me!

The aroma of using all 3 types of garlic is intoxicating and my use of many herbs, lemon and sherry really brings this recipe’s flavor profile to a whole new level! 🙂 You can buy black garlic from Amazon here.

Give this recipe a try, ! 🙂

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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