Learn how to prepare the classic garlic chicken , the traditional traditional dish of Spanish cuisine. So much so that it is rare for a bar or restaurant to not have this dish on its menu, either as a tapa or as a suggestion at the table.
Chicken is the star ingredient, flavored with herbs and, of course, garlic. Chicken is a low-fat meat, with great nutritional value. Very easy to digest and can also be prepared in a thousand ways. On the blog you have a lot of chicken recipes , I am the number one fan of this type of recipes, most of them are very simple and, above all, cheap. Perhaps this chicken recipe is one of the most visited along with baked chicken with potatoes .
And this recipe is reminiscent of childhood, of preparing something easy to eat on Sunday and that the whole family would like. If on top of that my grandmother Lucrecia gave us a free-range chicken, one of those fed like any other chicken at home, the result was delicious. That little sauce left over from frying, with the chopped and crushed garlic, and with a touch of vinegar for the most daring, made the delights of a good piece of bread. If on top of that they let you put it directly in the pan, it was glory.
Ingredients:
- 1 free-range chicken, cut into pieces (approximately 2 kg)
- 8 cloves of garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 300 ml. Sherry wine or white wine
- Aromatic herbs: 1 sprig of fresh rosemary and thyme (to taste)
- 100 ml. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 g. freshly ground black pepper (to each household’s taste)
- 6g. of fine salt (or to the taste of each house)
- Optionally, 5 ml. lemon juice or white wine or apple vinegar
- To decorate, a little chopped fresh parsley or cilantro (optional) will do well.
How to Make Garlic Chicken Recipe
- The first thing we do when buying chicken is ask the butcher to cut it for us. At home we clean the pieces of fat residue well and remove the skin except for the wings. Removing the skin is optional, but I find it adds unnecessary excess fat to the dish. Season the pieces lightly with salt and pepper.
- In a wide saucepan, heat plenty of extra virgin olive oil and add the unpeeled garlic. We cook them over medium heat, making sure they don’t burn. The idea is that they are caramelized and serve as a flavoring for our oil. When we see that they are soft after about 5 minutes, we remove them and set aside.
- We add the chicken pieces to the casserole with the garlic-flavored oil, along with the bay leaf, the rosemary branch and the thyme.
- The chicken should be well fried, which will take at least 15 to 20 minutes. We have to be careful to turn the pieces from time to time to ensure that they are toasted everywhere. It’s not just about browning and sealing it like when we prepare it for a stew. What we want is for the chicken to be perfectly cooked and tender on the inside and toasted on the outside.
Cooking and final presentation of garlic chicken
- When we see that our meat is almost ready, we remove the excess oil. We add the reserved garlic again and add the wine. We continue cooking the meat until the wine has reduced almost completely.
- If we don’t have sherry wine, we can perfectly use any other quality white wine we have at home. An Albariño, a Godello… the Sherry gives it a particular touch, but with any of these it will be wonderful. We serve warm on the table with a little chopped parsley or cilantro on top. We just have to enjoy this authentic “platazo”.
- Pour a little of the sauce that will remain in the casserole on top. Don’t forget a good piece of bread to taste this chicken, wine and garlic sauce. Simply delicious I assure you, I can only say that you try it at home, a recipe from my mother and you will tell me…
Tips for a perfect garlic chicken
- If it is a little dry, you can always add a little chicken broth to your garlic chicken in sauce in addition to the white wine that the recipe uses. Although in this case I assure you that if you follow the recipe step by step it will be perfect.
- As you can see, the chicken is skinless except for the wings. If you don’t mind, I would leave a little more frying so that the skin of the chicken is as crispy as possible, the fat that will be released into the sauce will also give more flavor.
- There are those who coat the chicken in flour before frying it to seal the chicken, but in my case I think it is not necessary, we will only make it absorb even more oil.
- The touch of vinegar, that acidic touch, is great but it is optional. It would be added at the end of everything, when finishing cooking the chicken, just a little splash. Don’t be brave for me.
- The garnish to accompany this dish can be a simple mixed salad. Almost because of the issue of balancing the plate. But the garlic chicken screams for some fries, bakery potatoes or poor people’s potatoes , don’t you think? Other simple garnishes would be mushrooms stewed with peas, white rice or mashed potatoes . The microwave potatoes that we have already prepared several times on the blog also fit perfectly. An almost fat-free accompaniment idea, a good option.
