Chicken With 40 Cloves of Garlic and Creamy Thyme Sauce

From Cooking Light. The recipe calls for 1 cup frozen seasoning blend, which I am sure is a great convenience if you have it, but I chose to enter it with the components (onion, bell pepper, celery and parsley), as I felt more people would have that readily available. I buy peeled garlic cloves at the market, which is an enormous time-saver.

• Ready In: 1 hr 55 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1⁄3 cup  chopped onion
• 1⁄3 cup  diced bell pepper
• 1⁄3 cup  sliced celery
• 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh parsley
• 1  teaspoon dried thyme, divided
• 40  garlic cloves, peeled, about 6 ounces
• 3 1⁄2 lbs chicken
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
•  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
• 1  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
•  reserved roasted cloves from chicken
• 2  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3  tablespoons water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
2. Combine onions, bell peppers, celery, parsley, 1/2 tsp thyme, and 5 garlic cloves and place in the cavity of the chicken. (If you prefer, use 1 cup frozen seasoning mix instead of the first four ingredients).
3. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a roasting pan.
4. Sprinkle chicken with pepper, salt and remaining 1/2 tsp thyme and coat with cooking spray; surround with the remaining garlic cloves.
5. Tie ends of legs together with twine and tuck wing tips under the chicken.
6. Roast for 40 minutes.
7. Increase the oven temperature to 450 deg and bake an additional 20 minutes or until a thermometer registers 170 deg. Transfer chicken to a platter.
8. Remove the garlic cloves from the roasting pan and reserve five of them;scatter the remainder around the chicken, cover the platter with foil and allow the chicken to rest.
9. Prepare sauce: place the reserved cloves, broth, white wine, chopped fresh thyme and salt in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
10. While the broth is simmering, combine flour and 3 tbl water in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth.
11. Stir the slurry into the broth mixture and simmer 5 minutes or until thick, whisking often.
12. Remove and discard garlic from the sauce.
13. Remove and discard skin from the chicken (or don't, if you prefer!); carve chicken; garnish with thyme sprigs, if desired.
14. Serve chicken with garlic cloves and sauce.