Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Bad garlic
--Caramelized Garlic Chicken



Caramelized Garlic Chicken
Saving Dinner Copyright 2003

3 teaspoons olive oil, plus additional for greasing foiled pan
6 cloves garlic, pressed
6 teaspoons brown sugar
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Heat oven to 500 degrees F. Line shallow roasting pan with foil, lightly grease the foil with a little oil.

Heat oil in small skillet over medium-low heat until hot. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes or until garlic begins to soften. (Don t let garlic get brown!) Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar until well mixed. Set aside.

Place chicken breasts on greased foil-lined pan, spreading the garlic mixture evenly over chicken.

Bake for 10—15 minutes or until chicken is fork-tender and juices run clear.

Makes 6 servings. PER SERVING:295 Calories (kcal); 5g Fat (16% calories from fat); 55g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 137mg Cholesterol; 155mg Sodium.
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This cookbook from the library really excited me. There's a Saving Dinner website where you can plan recipes and shopping lists and this book does the same. I prefer to plan my own menus and shopping lists but I thought the recipes were tempting.

Some of the recipes were marked 'Recipe Rave' and this was one of them. I'm not sure why a cookbook would want to draw special attention to some recipes. They should all be 'raves' as far as the author is concerned, right? There was a quote from someone saying how her husband really doesn't like chicken but he loves this recipe. I was drawn in immediately. I'm a sucker, what can I say?

The result? Well, I wasn't 'raving' about it. I do think my garlic was a problem. It's so hard to find good garlic around here. I often attempt to purchase it in the grocery store and all I find is a basket of splitting, sprouting, sometimes rotting garlic. As much as I love jarred ginger, I don't care for jarred garlic very much - it's not even close to fresh.

My garlic looked good until I cut into it and saw that it had started to sprout. I always remove the little sprouted area but by that point, the rest of the garlic is usually off which I think was the case here. The garlic had a weird 'green' flavor. I can't fathom that the dish would have been all that fantastic with fresh garlic but I suppose it might. I don't think I'll waste my time trying this recipe again. At least it wasn't horrible and it was still edible.

Blast From The Past: Garlic Bread from October 2005. Now, that was a good day for garlic.

Question of the Day: Do you have any trouble finding good fresh garlic?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been buying the big bag of garlic at Sam's Club and it is good. I paid less than $5 for the big bag and in the grocery store it's close to that for a couple of little cloves that aren't very fresh.

Lindyluwho

ThursdayNext said...

I am lucky that I live in an area that has a great Korean market; the produce is always good...and cheap.

Wanda said...

No, I don't think I have ever gotten bad garlic. Usually, I either buy it loose, or in the little packs with a cardboard bottom, back and sides and a celophane top and front. I think the brand may be Rosita, but I'm not sure.

Sara said...

Oddly, I have an easier time finding better garlic here in Kamloops than I did when we lived in Calgary, a much larger city.

Heather said...

I guess I have never really thought about good v. bad garlic. I guess I haven't had any problems.

Anonymous said...

I never buy fresh garlic (use the minced jarred) because we go really light on the garlic.

Jan

Aviva Goldfarb, CEO, www.thescramble.com said...

Paula, I hope you'll try my Six O'Clock Scramble cookbook--I think you will find that every recipe is a rave. The recipes are easy, healthy and delicious, and the cookbook gives you a whole year of recipes, organized by week. Let me know if you give it try!

Thanks, Aviva Goldfarb, author, www.thescramble.com

Anonymous said...

My regular natural food store is great, but I went to another store for garlic and it was rotten. I came back with it and exchanged it for two in case it happened again! If you see green sprouts again, trim them off, because they are bitter (so says ATK).