40 Cloves and a Chicken

Hope you like garlic! Preparing this will protect your home from vampires for at least a week, and it is delicious to boot. The crazy thing about it is that it really isn't 'garlicky' at all - the long, slow cooking turns the garlic into this smooth, creamy, sweet spreadable stuff that is like mild garlic butter. Obviously it is best if you have some delicious homemade bread to spread it on!

Hardware:
Large oven-safe skillet or saute pan with tight-fitting lid

Software:
2-3 lbs chicken pieces
40 cloves of garlic, peeled (about 3 bulbs worth)
1/4 cup olive oil (NOT virgin)
bundle of fresh thyme sprigs
salt and pepper

Start by peeling lots of cloves of garlic. Supposedly some megamarts will sell pre-peeled cloves but I haven't seen them in my neighborhood H.E.B.

Once you have your 40 cloves, take your chicken pieces and toss them in a splash of olive oil and salt & pepper.

A side note about the chicken - you can do this a LOT of different ways. The cheapest is to buy a whole chicken in the 3lb range and butcher it yourself; I tend to go the route of buying de-boned chicken thigh 'fillets.' You can also use the standard boneless skinless breasts for this dish but they won't taste as good as the darker, fattier cuts :)

Regardless, preheat your oven to 350 and heat your skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken on each side (will take 5-10 minutes if using thighs.) Add the garlic, the oil, and the thyme sprigs, cover, and move to the oven. Bake at 350 for 1.5-to-2 hours (depends on what cuts of chicken you are using.) The chicken at the end will be nicely browned with a crusty roasted exterior and falling-apart tender.

I recommend serving the oil and garlic on the side as a dip/spread for the fresh homemade bread you should have made to go with this :)

How healthy is it? I guess that depends on your definition of healthy - this is fairly high in fat, but it's 'good' fat from the olive oil, and garlic is really good for you. A couple of deboned thighs with a hearty slab of homemade bread is probably 600-700 calories, so it's definitely not 'light.'