Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic (Poulet Aux Quarante Gousses d’Ail)

Dishes like chicken unfairly become stamped as pedestrian due to simple over-exposure. This baked chicken graces our table almost every week, to the point of it becoming ho hum at home. But I’m reminded of how good it is if someone happens by in time to catch a whiff flowing from the oven. Baking it with foil over it, simmering it its juices combined with herbs and a nice dry sherry can be compelling, even to the over-exposed like me.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium whole chicken
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• Several turns of a pepper grinder
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 sage leaves
• 1 respectable rosemary sprig
• ½ cup dry sherry

Directions:
Remove giblets, rinse, and set into foil-lined baking dish

Apply oil over bird, followed by salt and pepper

Litter the bottom of the pan with the sage, bay, rosemary, and pour in the sherry.

To Bake cover the chicken over with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for 75 minutes

Uncover and brown until crispy on the top and the juices run clear.