Lemon Cider Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

Now here is a recipe that merges three great ones. There’s Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, Lemon chicken and Cider chicken. Turns out that combination of the three is quite good actually. With a little rosemary aroma, this recipe is a winner. The only thing I would change next time is to make it only using chicken drumsticks and thighs, as they are softer and juicier than the rest of the chicken when prepared this way.

Lemon Cider Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

1 whole chicken (1,5-2 kg), jointed into a couple of pieces
40 cloves of garlic, unpeeled (about 3 heads)
250 ml apple cider
about 100 ml clear chicken stock, more if you need
2-3 lemons
a couple of rosemary strings
dry thyme
1 bay leaf
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 170°C/340°F.

Heat olive oil in a pan and fry pieces of chicken until golden all over (about 2-3 minutes). Remove chicken from the pan and now fry garlic cloves for about 2 minutes until golden too. Return chicken to the pan and add cider, stock, branches of rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a minute.

Transfer everything into oven safe dish, add lemon wedges and cover tightly with aluminum foil or a lid if dish has one. Bake for about 1 hour or until chicken is tender. You might want to check everything occasionally and see if you need to add more stock to the dish.

Serve with toasted bread. Baked garlic goes fantastic with it.