Good morning everyone!
After looking at today’s banner image you probably had a reaction of outright joy, morbid curiosity or intense fear.
I wanted to try this new thing where I fuck around with a famous chef’s signature dish. I’m thinking about making it a recurring feature here.
Today we are paying tribute to James Beard by making his famous dish of “Chicken and 40 Cloves of Garlic.”
Chicken and 40 cloves first appeared in 1974 and it was created by James Beard to convince people to get over their fear of garlic. During the early to mid 1900’s garlic was not exactly popular. Many folks associated it negatively with Italian immigrants and the racist non-Italian goddamn idiots of that era stayed away from fresh garlic. The concept of this dish was to prove that even though the dish is made with just a fucking insane amount of fresh garlic, after slow cooking the garlic for an hour and a half the garlic would not only lose it’s bite or pungency, it would evolve into this glorious, almost butter-like paste that had just “essence” of garlic.
Did it work?
You’ll find out!
James Beard was a big fan of French cuisine after being stationed in Provence during World War II. The idea behind his cooking was to use very fresh ingredients, prepared simply. Similar to modern day French and Italian cooking. Cook what’s in season.
Beard is credited with hosting the very first cooking show on television in 1946, “I Love to Cook.” It was his inspiration, along with Julia Child, that convinced home cooks to experiment and not to be intimidated by advanced cooking techniques. Basically you could say that without them we wouldn’t have two entire networks devoted to food as we do today.
I recently read a book written by Sarah Lohman called “Eight Flavors”.
It detailed the history of American cuisine and how it was influenced by 8 distinct ingredients: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. Sarah did incredible research on each item and there is a chapter devoted to each flavor in the book. It was in the chapter on garlic where Sarah gave credit to James Beard for introducing, or demystifying fresh garlic to mainstream America. It also credits today’s specific recipe.
It’s a really fun and interesting book and I can heartily recommend it if you like reading about food and food history.
You regular readers know of my outright goddamn love affair with garlic so you know I had to give this fucker a go.
I’ll bet some of you have seen “Chicken and 40 Cloves” on some restaurant menus before. It’s a pretty classic recipe. Think of it as a folk song that’s been covered about a million fucking times with chefs putting their own spin on it.
I went to the goddamn source for this one and used the original recipe written by James Beard himself.
What does 40 cloves of garlic actually look like?
Like that. Actually there are 43 cloves of garlic there. That’s from the 3 bulbs of garlic in the banner picture plus some of the leftover garlic I already had.
This recipe is also crazy fucking easy to make.
James Beard’s Chicken and 40 (43) Cloves of Garlic!
8 to 10 chicken legs
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons olive oil
40 cloves garlic, approximately 3 bulbs – separated but left in their skins
1/4 cup of dry white wine – (improv alert! The original recipe called for vermouth here but I swear to god I looked and couldn’t find it at my store! I used wine instead.)
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
4 stalks celery, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
Crusty bread to serve with
Before getting started I have to insist you use chicken legs here. I will even offer scientific proof why later.
Procure yourself some chicken legs!
There we go, I also got that celery all chopped up. You don’t have to use the bougie-ass free range organic chicken, in fact plain-ass chicken would be just fine. This is what my store had.
Pat the chicken dry then season with some salt, pepper and NUTMEG!
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Get out your trusty Dutch oven that has a lid and get that pot over medium heat on your stove top.
Add in the olive oil to the Dutch oven.
When the oil is hot get that chicken in that damn pot!
Work in batches to avoid overcrowding. Cook the chicken for about 5-6 minutes per side. Give it a flip.
Remove the browned chicken to a plate and finish cooking all of the chicken.
Now, about that scientific proof shit I mentioned.
Yep. Those are two boneless/skinless chicken breasts. Eldest brother doesn’t like chicken on the bone and that’s strictly between him and his therapist. I can’t fix his shit. He did request the boneless/skinless breasts so I acquiesced.
Stay tuned to find out the results!
After the chicken has browned, it’s time to get that ass-ton of garlic into the pan.
We’re going to brown the garlic in the oil and the chicken juices for 6-8 minutes until a toasty golden brown.
Let’s discuss the garlic at this point. I researched the shit out of this recipe and while most of the basics were the same, there were 2 schools on the peeled vs unpeeled garlic. Shit man, that recipe link up there from the goddamn JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION says to peel the garlic.
BUT!
One of the original quotes from the man himself said that when eating this dish you should “squeeze the cooked/roasted garlic out of their skins directly onto a piece of crusty bread.” That’s James Beard saying that.
Besides, you think I wanted to peel 43 cloves of motherfucking garlic?
FUCK NO!
We went unpeeled and it was perfect. Besides that linked recipe up there has an “Adapted from” caveat so I’m still thinking the original recipe left the cloves unpeeled.
Remove the browned garlic from the pan and deglaze the pan with the white wine. I used a lovely Italian pinot grigio for this. Simmer for just a minute or two then in go the chicken stock, the garlic, the celery and the tarragon.
Bring this to a boil then add in the browned chicken and any chicken juices to the pan.
Mix well to ensure we have garlic all over the fucking place.
Cover the Dutch oven tightly with the lid and place in the 375 oven for an hour and a half. Just leave that shit alone. Don’t stir, don’t remove the lid, just let it do it’s fucking thing.
Ninety minutes later, remove the pot from the oven.
I let this cool for about 10 minutes because it would be hotter than fuck at this point.
Use this time to chop up your fresh parsley.
When the ten minutes are up remove the lid and add in the chopped parsley.
Holy fucking sweet Sonny Jesus would you look at that? The smell is otherworldly. Just insane.
The original recipe says to serve this with some crusty bread and that’s it. This fucking thing has so much goddamn garlic in it that the garlic is actually YOUR VEGETABLE DISH! Oh baby!
While that is totally fine as fuck with me I decided to make a side dish just to extend the meal.
I often mention “inspiration” for a dish on this here Sunday Gravy thing and my inspiration for the side dish came from here.
Scotchy and I had a fairly amusing tête-à-tête on one of the Saturday morning lesser footy posts about parmesan rind of all goddamn things and one of my own comments stuck in my head.
“/ ties Scotchy’s shoelaces together
“Make a roux of equal parts flour and butter then add in 1 cup of half and half and throw in the rind until melted. Add some black pepper and nutmeg and serve with fresh pasta.”
/ takes pizza cutter from back pocket and cackles maniacally.”
Shit, I guess technically I inspired myself!
My wedge of parmesan wasn’t quite down to only rind so apart from grating the parmesan that was left, that comment is exactly what I made.
Cheesy Parmesan Angel Hair Pasta ala yeah right.
1 pound of cooked angel hair pasta
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of half and half
1/2 to 2/3 cup of grated parmagiano reggiano
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Tablespoon or two of fresh chopped parsley – keep some of the parsley you chopped up for the chicken
Reserved pasta cooking water
Grate up some of that cheese.
Try not to get any on your feet.
Go ahead and cook up your pasta.
Yes, that’s some leftover store bought shit. Don’t worry! Fresh pasta is on the agenda in the very near future.
Leave the pasta al dente. Remove the pasta from the pot but keep the pasta water, we’ll need that to achieve the proper texture on the finished dish.
Now let’s get the butter and flour in the pan and work up a damn roux.
Cook the roux for about 4-5 minutes, brown roux, not dark roux and a little past blonde roux. Then add in the half and half and the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook until bubbly then add in the grated parmesan.
Cook until bubbly again then get those noodles in the pot.
If the noodles tighten up too much, and they probably will, ladle some of the reserved pasta water into the noodles to get to your desired consistency. Quick note: when cooled the noddles will definitely tighten right the fuck up so take that into consideration. Sprinkle the parsley over the top.
Let’s plate this motherfucker shall we?
Get a plate and scoop on some of them noodles first. Now grab some tongs and get yourself a couple of chicken legs. Man, go crazy! Get like three of them. Now the most important part: get about 15 cloves of the slow roasted garlic and scatter them all over the chicken. Get yourself some crusty bread while you’re at it.
There we go.
No man, get a little closer so we can see the garlic in there.
There we go.
The absolute key here is to use the garlic as a condiment. As James Beard originally said, squeeze the garlic out of their skins – get a little bowl or something to thrown the skins into – and just schmear that shit everywhere. Get it on that bread for sure and then all over the chicken. Oh mother of god yes.
Look at this shit.
Having the chicken on the bone is crucial. The chicken is fall apart tender and you get the notes from the nutmeg and tarragon. While we have a metric shit-ton of garlic, this dish is NOT garlic forward! Think of it more as being perfumed by garlic.
This is incredible.
The noodles are creamy cheesy deliciousness with the umami hit of the freshly grated parm. Also be sure to note the flavor profiles here with the nutmeg and parsley being featured in the main and the side dish. That shit worked!
I got downright ugly primal with this shit. I set down my fork and just grabbed hunks of the chicken with my bare hands. I squeezed that garlic on that chicken and devoured this by the fucking mouthful. I was wiping my hands off on the bread. I don’t give a single FUCK how it looked this fucker DEMANDED it!
Absolutely one of the greatest things to come out of the Sunday Gravy test kitchen. Outstanding.
Now. About the boneless/skinless chicken breasts.
Let’s refer back to this photo.
Take note how the chicken did not cook fully submerged. It was more lightly poached. Also remember, 90 fucking minutes to cook. The same 90 minutes that made the chicken legs “fall off the bone” tender made that chicken breast seize up like a 1959 Edsel with a cracked engine block.
I mean, it was a wad of protein but you couldn’t really tell what kind. It was helped immeasurably by adding about 5-6 cloves of that roasted garlic to it but I’m telling you, that chicken leg is where it’s at!
Finally the garlic was exactly how James Beard described. It spread on the crusty bread like a gooey butter. It was also very mellowed from the cooking process and was absolutely fucking dynamite. I would put that shit on my Cheerios.
Turns out there are reasons why classic recipes are still around.
Thanks for following along on this culinary investigation and exercise. I hope you learned something today.
I’ll see if I can come up with another classic recipe we can cook and deconstruct together.
Always a pleasure people.
Thanks for being there.
PEACE!
[…] That’s our James Beard Chicken and 40 clove recipe. […]
[…] season you may remember when we did James Beard’s classic Chicken and 40 Cloves. Which was fucking delicious by the way and one of my favorite efforts from last […]
Just made this. It was fucking divine.
The Rockies did one of my favorite things today…..in New York makes it just that much better.
I am beginning to question my initial glee over getting James Paxton
Are you still talking about baseball?
also ummmm this may be early but……
I there gonna be a DFO fantasy football league this season?
I believe yes. You can have my spot, if you want it.
goooo padres!
gonna get the W today!!!!!
My wife was in Reno this week, (did her flight get rerouted today on the way back, eventually resulting in her having to take a bus from Milwaukee to Chicago? Yes, yes it did. Am I getting laid when she eventually staggers back to CT tonight? No, no I am not), so last night I bought a halibut steak and then looked up recipes.
Found one with a soy/honey/garlic/butter/pepper sauce that took literally 15 minutes from the time I started looking through the cabinets until I put the finished product on the plate. Sauce was really good; probably could have given the fish 1-2 more minutes on the grill. Not quite as flaky as I hoped for.
Oof! You know what they say about Reno.
“Whatever happens in Reno slowly leaks into your social media feed because there is no god.”
She made the mistake of flying United, so now she’s looking at maybe getting back to CT by 9, and maybe being flown into Boston, I guess on the “close enough” theory, starting at 9.
Anyone near O’Hare wanna do me a favor and go talk down an enraged woman?
How do you think this recipe would do with chicken breasts that are still on the bone? I want to make it but that’s all we have in the freezer right now.
[kicks yeah right in the balls]
It should be okay but decrease the cooking time.
/ pulls Scotchy’s earlobes over his head
I think you should be fine if the breasts have the skin on.
[kicks yeah right in his bad knee]
Have you thought about su vide? I have-unlike someone else…
/ steals Scotchy’s last bottle of scotch
The cooking time is for the garlic not the chicken.
Is that you, Buffalo Bill?
You said “breasts on the bone”.
Have no idea why I have the Aussie feed of The Tour de France but I’ve been advised that this is, ‘a reel gaood rice’.
Netflix’s food shows are very hit or miss, but they can shoot the hell out of some visual food porn. So at least they’ve got that going for them.
Anyway, this seems pretty neat. I have to visit the yeah right kitchen next time I’m in L.A. which hopefully will be before 2021
The Peloton going downhill at incredible speed reminds me of Eli Manning’s last three seasons.
Why? Are they using Big Wheels for this stretch?
It’s National Ice Cream Day. Let me tell you a story before I ask you to tell me your fav flav.
Dad had an ice cream business that made it from scratch. Real. Fucking. Ingredients. I was a very chunky kid. The End
That said, black cherry ice cream with bits of actual black cherry? Holy fuck balls! Nothing has come close since. There’s just something about cherry/vanilla pairing that approaches what I would now describe as umami.
Your favourite flavour?
Pistachio then butter pecan.
The butter pecan made by dad and company had way too much sugar in it. As a kid I couldn’t have more than 2 large bowls because it was too sweet.
Iced cream? Eh, wake me up when it’s Partially Gelatinated Non-Dairy Gum-Based Beverage Day.
Shake? Hmph. You don’t know what you’re getting
–Michael J. Fox
Pretty sure he got an Emmy.
You hippies are so easily identified these days. [shakes 1992 Lithuanian basketball jersey in front of herodotus450] Ole! Ole!
I have a fucked up relationship with ice cream such that I think I have to give it up for good like peanut butter. But a good chocolate rules.
I used to eat the shit out of breyer’s black cherry ice cream. Haven’t had it in years. I love salted caramel ice cream but am pretty ecumenical on the matter, especially since there’s such ridiculously good (thought outrageously priced) hipster ice cream around here. Why yes, I would like to try the grass fed sweet cream ice cream with avocado and gold flakes.
GOLD HAS NO FLAVOUR! Please, please stop supporting this crap.
That was a joke, but now I’m going to go find some and eat it.
Au my.
I feel like if you bought a bunch of vanilla and threw some iron pyrite flakes on top of it you could make a killing selling it to the rubes at Trump rallies.
DOES IT COME IN BITCOIN!?!?!?
We got some hipster ice cream when we were in SEA a couple months ago. It was really good. It was really pricey too.
Chocolate.
Chocolate done right is heaven. The stuff that I gulped down in copious amounts was creamy but had that strong choco flavour. I learned later that whole milk (not skim) was used in the recipe.
It’s hard to say that I have a true “favorite” flavor but Heath Bar Crunch is a well that I go back to more than any other.
a well that I go back to more than any other
Is that you, Lassie?
Heath bar is generally majorly underrated
Toffee in dark chocolate ice cream
The UConn Dairy Bar does a banana chocolate chip that I defy you to find a better flavor than.
The only bad thing about it is that you can’t really make a shake out of it because all the chips go to the bottom, and they’re half the point.
Breyers Coffee or GTFO.
And do not ever bring Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk in to my house. I will cut you.
Welp, on to the Tour de France, or as I like to call it, “The World’s Thinnest Chest Championships”.
I’d hate to be the British Open official that has to tell Lowry that he doesn’t get a green jacket.
He’s just got to ask one of his wee friends from back home to borrow one
HOUSEKEEPER: [postpones until Tuesday, which is two days away]
DR. MRS. DEADLY: [begins cleaning the entire house from top to bottom]
That’s similar to when you do a thorough brushing and flossing right before going to have your teeth cleaned.
Wifey does the exact same thing and every week I get to shake my head and say, “what’s the frickin’ point!?”
Rikki-Tikki-Deadly: STOP HITTING ME….THAT MESS WAS ALREADY HERE WHEN I GOT HERE!!!!!
For future reference, if you need vermouth or pretty much any alcohol ingredient, ping me and if I’m in town, I’ll deliver, pour, and help you eat.
Duly noted.
Well this is the most surprising thing I expect to read today:
The Bundys knows Trump ain’t gonna do nothing for them. Yeah, he’ll leave them alone and look the other way about them not paying their leasing fees but the minute one of Trump’s rich pals wants that public land for nuclear waste storage, concentration camp construction, or both — Trump will have those ranchers stomped out so fast they’ll wish back to the days of a President who wasn’t black enough.
Not gonna lie, part of me really wants to see that.
That’s gonna leave a mark….
Adams going with the Homer Simpson strategy I see…
apple time!
https://story.californiasunday.com/cosmic-crisp-apple-launch
Good read. I recently moved Cripps pink in front of Fuji as my preferred apple. I may even give a review to the Cosmic Crisp when I encounter it.
What about Bloods red?
Mutsu crispen or gtfo
Koepka would be doing much better if he wasn’t wearing that shirt.
It has to be affecting his vision.
The amount of stamina Lowry has despite being 7 months preggers! Just incredible…
After every hole, they should have to throw out one club from their bag and can’t use it again for the rest of the round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_hwerqogzQ
I don’t think the heavy stuff is gonna come for quite a while
“It’s gonna start raining menses?”
-The Weather Girls
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
– Drew Magary, to hospital technicians tasked with weighing his bowel movements
Remember back when I was bitching about living in the sticks because I had to wait for a buttload of chickens to cross the road? Hah!!!! Little did I know.
This morning I wokeded up to cows in my front yard. Aaaaaaaand, they’re still there. Second time it’s happened in the past few days. We called the guy who owns them, but who obviously is bad at building a fence. So far, nothing. I’m sure it’s because they are dressed up and talking to Jesus (the dumbass people, not the cows).
Maybe they should ask Jesus to fix their fence. I hear he was good at that stuff.
Get the twelve-gauge and have yourself steaks for the next two weeks. Problem solved.
Funny you say that. Mom just called the guy and left a message. Among things she said was that if he didn’t come get them she was gonna have them butchered.
Forget about that: two words-“Grazing fees”.
ewwwwwwwwwwww!
Wasn’t that whole thing at Bundy Ranch over grazing rights?
There’s a not-the-worst podcast about the Bundy nonsense called Bundyville (I think that’s it).
Personally, I’m just out of patience for white trash. If they don’t like it here, they can leave. I’m sure Norway will gladly offer some sort of reciprocity deal to get their talent for watching tv and collecting junk on their lawns within their borders.
I heartily endorse this course of action. Kill a herd and you have steaks for weeks. Charge the herd fees and you’re good for however long cows live.
Three-plus decades, at least, according to Bing.
Cows are good people and valuable. She is less than worthless.
Breaking news from the golf broadcast: it’s raining in Scotland but hot and sunny in New York! Weird.
“This is literally impossible. I would call you stupid but the elders in my tribe do not approve of ‘Neanderthal shaming’.”
-Unfrozen Caveman QB Sam Darnold
Wtf? Paging Hippo to the white courtesy telephone. TSN2 is showing Cardiff City and Real Valladolid!
Whoops-this is a replay.
American Rickie Fowler doing surprisingly well on some of these bunker hills.
My back won’t let me sleep, so I’m going to watch The Open in my sister-in-law’s kitchen, drink whiskey, and smoke cigarettes all morning. Hi, folks.
Is it a day ending in “y” already?
This post brought to you by the American Heart and American Lung Associations.
And Jameson’s. Don’t forget Jameson’s.
All these umbrellas-is this golf tourney just cover for a viral marketing campaign for a Mary Poppins reboot?
It’s a subtle reference for Tobias Funke’s new series:
Fleetwood at Westwood, that takes me back to 1974
Looks as though Lowry has had more than his share of Murphy’s Irish Red.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7qUmvH-JfQ
Looks well seasoned though
British Open does usually have the best last round collapses.
Greg Norman resents this remark.
Every time I see or hear about someone making a roux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk8eJh4i8Lo
Super hot and humid? I know, I’ll make hot coffee. I am so smrt.
Those are some gorgeous hillocks at the British Open.
[is presented with chicken legs at supper] “SEND THEM BACK! SEND THEM BACK! SEND THEM BACK!”
-yeah right’s brother