A Month-of-Chicken: Rule-of-Four Sweet Garlic Chicken

Big Mama arrived for her five years, er, five weeks visit. So, sweets for the sweet, I say. Although the Internet is rife with variations of this recipe, I first heard of it from Chicago and his girlfriend, Caldwell.

Chicago loves to cook (That’s my boy!), and Caldwell is interested in learning more so they are a fun couple to get recipes from. I modified (as I always do) what they told me to make it easier to remember--4 ingredients and measurements in four. This recipe is very forgiving about exact measurements so it is perfect for a measurement-aversion cook like me.

You have to be in my garlic-lovers camp to appreciate this one, but though it may seem overdone, keep this in mind: the bigger the garlic pieces the milder the taste. So while half the garlic in this recipe is minced (therefore sharper and garlicker), the other half is big, thick slices, thus milder to the taste.

Here’s my version of their

Take Four Sweet Garlic Chicken (serves 4)

4 t olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 cloves garlic, big slices

4 T brown sugar

4 chicken thighs--I use skin-on, bone-in, but use what you want

Sauté minced garlic in olive oil. Add garlic slices and cook 1 minute. Add brown sugar to all and stir. Remove from heat and let cool. Spread paste all over top, bottom, and sides of chicken thighs. Place in Pammed baking dish, skin side up, and bake for 2 hours at 250º.

I like to serve this with a fruit salad as a counterpunch to the garlic and dribble the pan drippings on either rice or noodles. You could remove the chicken from the pan and quickly dump the rice or noodles into the pan and stir around to coat your carb. That’s tasty, too!

DH’s Rating: 4 Tongues Up. This had more garlic than he liked. (Wimp!) He also said it reminded him of a less spicy version of my five TU Cocoa Chili Chicken (recipe this month). True dat! Still, four TUs aint’ bad! Big Mama liked it a lot, but she’s still getting the hang of the TU rating system.