Garlic Fried Chicken

The dish we are looking at today, while requiring some technique, is simplicity itself when it comes to its ingredients yet has flavours that are a must -- especially for any fan of garlic.

While I have adapted it slightly, this recipe is closely based on one found in The Urban Peasant cookbook by the late Canadian TV chef James Barber that was released in 1991. We looked at a James Barber cookbook in a previous Vintage Cookbook #TBT post.

First, season 6-8 chicken thighs liberally with Herbs-de-Provence and sea salt. If you don't have Herbs-de-Provence you can use a seasoning of your choice or just the sea salt. The thighs should be skin-on and bone-in. This dish won't work with drumsticks or breast meat (which would really dry out).

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large, deep saucepan. You want to do this at about the 5 1/2 to 6 mark (medium-high). Be sure to wait until the oil is properly heated for cooking and then place the chicken pieces in the pan skin side down.

Cook for 5 minutes. Do not move the chicken while it is frying, there is no need to. You want the skin to get dark and crispy. If you are concerned they are burning reduce the heat slightly.

After five minutes, flip the chicken to the skinless side. Add 40-50 unpeeled cloves to the pan placing them between the chicken pieces. This is approximately 3 full heads of garlic.

Fry the garlic and chicken for another 5 minutes.

After this is done, lift the chicken pieces and place on top of clusters of the unpeeled garlic cloves so that the chicken is no longer touching the pan. Reduce the heat to medium (around the 4 1/2 to 5 mark), cover the pan and let cook for 30 minutes.

Do not uncover until the full 30 minutes have passed.

While this is cooking your home will fill with a truly wonderful cooking aroma and when you do finally uncover your pan a blast of this will greet you in a delightful wave.

The chicken will be very crispy and browned at the bottom (as well as on top as pictured) and this tastes absolutely delicious. While the unpeeled  garlic cloves will be almost burnt on the outside you will still be able to squeeze out the now very soft garlic clove insides and eat them on the side. This is quite tasty.

Serve the chicken with the garlic and some rice or a salad. Also serve with lemon wedges and squeeze the lemon over top the chicken.

This dish is perfect with a chilled Vinho Verde, Riesling or Chardonnay.

Enjoy.

See also: Clay Baked Garlic Chicken

See also: West African Peanut Chicken

The Urban Peasant Quick & Simple with Lamb & Pumpkin Stew and Stuffed Papaya (and a bonus video of Salmon Latkes!): Vintage Cookbook TBT

Vintage Cookbook: The Urban Peasant Quick & Simple, James Barber
Publication Details: Urban Ink, 1993


Beloved by many Canadian home cooks in the 1990's, James Barber was the host of a CBC Television cooking show, The Urban Peasant, that became something of a hit not only in Canada but in other countries as well. Barber had a very warm, friendly, accessible style that was really the antithesis of what many see as the "celebrity chef"

Barber sought to demystify cooking and to feature ingredients used in ways that anyone could handle. This was done without any fancy or unusual preparation normally, but with often surprising and always delicious results. His show was a real pleasure to watch (and likely still is, out there somewhere in syndication) and was almost relaxing, a seeming contradiction given the nervousness with which many approach cooking. It even ingrained this atmosphere in its set, which was of an open-concept living space as opposed to an impersonal professional style kitchen.

Barber died in 2007 as he had lived, cooking. His wife told the CBC "As far as we can tell, James was sitting at the dining room table, he was reading a cookbook, and he had a pot of soup simmering on the stove."

In 1993 he released one of several companion cookbooks to the series, and one of which I am particularly fond. This was his Urban Peasant Quick & Simple cookbook. As he himself put it on the back cover, this one was "completely practical" and with "no trimmings, no romance". It is almost entirely unillustrated (though the few drawings that there are are his own charming ones) and while it might at first seem a bit spare, it is also full of terrific recipe after terrific recipe, all of which are, as the title would imply, quick and simple. And there are dozens of them. It is a real resource of new ideas.

Today we are sharing, as always, two recipes, as they originally appeared. 

Also, as an added bonus, after the recipes is a video of him doing salmon latkes! You can now find many videos of excerpts from his show on You Tube! 

Lamb & Pumpkin Stew Served in a Pumpkin  

1 lb/500g pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
1/2 lb./250 g cubed  leg of lamb
2 Tbsps olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tomato, chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp ground cumin
Salt & Pepper

Heat the oil in a frypan and brown the meat. Add the onion, cayenne pepper, sugar and garlic and stir well. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the cumin, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour into a hollowed out pumpkin and put in a 400F/200 C oven for 30 minutes. Garnish with cumin and some more chopped cilantro. 

Stuffed Papaya    

1 papaya
Cottage cheese
Fresh peeled shrimp
Fresh prawn tails
Freshly ground pepper
Cilantro

Halve the papaya and remove the seeds. Scoop out the flesh and chop. Half fill the shells with cottage cheese and arrange the chopped flesh around it. Top with a mound of fresh, peeled shrimp and decorate with a few fresh prawn tails. Grind some pepper over the top and garnish with cilantro. Serve on crushed ice.

Video: Making Salmon Latkes