For a special request, I prepared Fifty Garlic Chicken.
There used to be a restaurant near where we lived called "The Stinking Rose", the name being a sly reference to garlic since Greco-Roman times. One of their best dishes was Forty Garlic Chicken, which is a whole chicken stuffed with garlic. I tried to improve on the dish by stuffing fifty pieces of garlic into the cavity, but they did not all fit and a few got scorched in the oven.
Stuffing a bird reduces the surface area through which moisture can evaporate while cooking. A large bird like a turkey requires stuffing so that it won't dry out in the oven. A smaller bird like a chicken or a quail doesn't need stuffing because the bird is small and cooks quickly. Even so, stuffing a chicken can improve its flavour and moisture content.
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| What fifty garlic looks like, before cooking. |
Commonly, I will stuff a chicken with a small onion and a small lemon chopped into rough pieces. I've also tried "beer can" chicken on the barbecue (stuff an open beer can with 1/4 cup of beer remaining into the cavity as a stand to keep the bird upright on the grill). Fifty pieces of garlic also work well.
Stuff the chicken with the garlic. Rub a mixture of olive oil, salt, and pepper (and other spices) on the skin of the bird. Bake in covered cookware in the oven at 450°F for an hour to 90 minutes, until the bird is cooked through and the juices run clear. Consult and use a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is cooked! Afterwards, dig out the garlic stuffing, mash it with a fork in a bowl with a pinch of salt and some more olive oil or melted butter. Serve the garlic as a side dish; it pairs very well with fresh crusty bread and white wine.
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