50 Shades of Garlic Roasted Chicken

We garlic lovers wanted to perfect Chicken With 40 Cloves of Garlic and Creamy Thyme Sauce by setting the roast chicken on a bed of 20 HEADS of garlic. We were able to squeeze luscious garlic cloves onto slices of Sourdough Bread in Custom-Programmable Zo ABM, plus we divided the leftover roasted garlic to freeze to make the wonderful Cooking Light creamy thyme sauce whenever we so desired. Plus our 18-mo-old grand-daughter couldn't get enough of this moist and delicately seasoned chicken. We are still working on the cooking time, as the oversized chickens available in U.S. markets need a lot more additional time; we added a tent of aluminum foil after the chicken's skin had browned enough. By all means, use an instant-read cooking thermometer. If you saved some roasted garlic from a prior chicken, you can work on the sauce while waiting for the chicken to finish roasting. We found that if loose garlic cloves are spread in the pan, they turn into charcoal briquettes; it isn't necessary to cover the entire base of the pan with garlic, but the chicken should rest on garlic heads. You could fill the rest of the pan bottom with celery, carrots and potatoes to roast along with the chicken.

• Ready In: 2 hrs 5 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• ROASTING BED

• 20  heads garlic, top 1-inch cut off (about 3 pounds)
•  celery, cut in large chunks (optional if reducing the # of heads of garlic)
•  carrot, cut in large chunks (optional if reducing the # of heads of garlic)
•  potato, cut in large chunks (optional if reducing the # of heads of garlic)
• 20  small  sprigs fresh thyme
• 2  sprigs fresh rosemary
•  olive oil flavored cooking spray

• CHICKEN

• 1⁄3 cup onion, chopped
• 1⁄3 cup green bell pepper, chopped
• 1⁄3 cup celery, sliced
• 1  tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons fresh thyme sprigs
• 5  garlic cloves, peeled and trimmed
• 3 1⁄2 lbs chicken (optimal, a larger chicken will require much longer cooking time)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
•  olive oil flavored cooking spray
•  fresh thyme sprig, for garnish

• CREAMY THYME SAUCE

• 1 1⁄2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1⁄4 cup white wine or 1⁄4 cup dry vermouth or 1⁄4 cup dry sherry
• 1  teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 5  reserved roasted garlic cloves from chicken
• 2  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3  tablespoons water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (I'm tempted to change that to 400F for a larger chicken.).
2. ROASTING BED:
3. Cut off tops of heads of garlic (do not peel the garlic, but you may remove excess "skin"). Arrange in bottom of half size serving tray (~9" x 13"). (At least use enough heads of garlic to cover the base of the chicken. You could use a steaming tray to corral the garlic, or arrange additional vegetables on the outer edges.).
4. Spray roasting bed with olive oil flavored cooking spray.
5. Spread a small piece of fresh thyme on each head of garlic, then lay 2 branches of rosemary across center group of garlic heads.
6. CHICKEN:
7. Combine onions, bell peppers, celery, parsley, fresh thyme sprigs and 5 garlic cloves. Place in cavity of the chicken.
8. Place chicken, breast side up, on top of the roasting bed.
9. Sprinkle chicken with mix of pepper, salt and 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme.
10. Coat chicken with cooking spray.
11. Tie end of legs together with cooking twine and tuck wing tips under the chicken.
12. Roast for 40 minutes.
13. Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees F.
14. Bake an additional 20 minutes (for a 3 1/2 pound chicken, maybe) or until a thermometer registers 170 degrees. (It has not been unusual for me to need an additional 30 minutes for a 4 1/2-to-5-lb. roasting chicken.).
15. Transfer chicken to a platter.
16. Remove garlic cloves from the roasting pan, squeeze them out of the skins and reserve 5 of them for the sauce. Scatter the remainder around the chicken, cover the platter with foil and allow the chicken to rest. (Remember, you can also freeze excess roasted garlic cloves for use in Creamy Thyme Sauce at a moment's notice.).
17. CREAMY THYME SAUCE:
18. Place the reserved roasted garlic cloves, broth, white wine and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes.
19. While the broth is simmering, combine flour and water in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth.
20. Slowly pour the slurry into the broth while whisking the broth (if I can do this, you can, too. Just don't ask me to chew gum and hop on one leg).
21. Simmer the broth for 5 minutes or until thicken, whisking often.
22. Remove and discard garlic from the sauce (or not, depending on your guests' preference).
23. I recommend that you leave the skin on this chicken; it is terrific!
24. Carve chicken, garnish with thyme sprigs, if desired.
25. Serve chicken with garlic cloves and sauce.
26. Bonus: We always have chicken-roasted garlic cloves left over, so I freeze 6 cloves to a sandwich bag and put all the sandwich bags into a 1-pint freezer bag so they are ready to plop into whatever recipe needs some garlic. Roasted garlic does not requiring sauteeing.