Happy chicken with loads of cloves of garlic

Courtesy, Garlic Farm Cookbook, Garlic Farm, Isle of Wight

The classic chicken with 40 cloves of garlic never fails to please.  This is a slight variation which makes an entire meal in one pot.  Of course, you can use as many cloves as you want so don’t hold back.  Do make sure you get a good quality free range chicken.

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours

What you need:

1 large casserole dish
400g brown Basmati rice
1 glass Hix & Buck Chardonnay
A good handful of chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
5 sprigs of thyme
In case you have any sage or marjoram in the garden please feel free to add to the casserole
2 carrots chopped
2 slices pancetta chopped (if you can’t find pancetta, you can use any bacon)
2 white onions, chopped
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
Peeled cloves from 3-4 bulbs of garlic or more if you like
Maldon sea salt and black pepper

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 180 °C.
• Pour rice into the casserole dish and stir in the parsley, onions, carrots, bacon and lemon zest.
• Season a few pinches of sea salt and a few good twists of freshly ground black pepper.
• Season the chicken leaving it whole.
• Place the chicken on top and tip over the garlic, thyme and bay leaves.
• Squeeze the lemons on top and pop the skins into the cavity of the chicken.
• Pour the wine into the rice and add water to cover it by 2 cm.
• Cover with the lid and place low in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
• Remove the lid for the last half hour to brown the chicken and garlic. 

Serve with Hix & Buck’s delicious Merlot 2007

Bon appetit!

With thanks to the Garlic Farm Cookbook
Editor: Natasha Edwards

The Garlic Farm
Mersley Lane, Newchurch, Isle of Wight, PO36 0NR

Farm:  +44 (0) 1983 865 378
Garlic Farm Café: +44 (0)1983 867 333
www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk