Chicken in Garlic Sauce

This week at the Food Network Chef's Cooking Challenge we were commissioned to cook one of Daisy Martinez's recipes. I chose to make Chicken in Garlic Sauce.

I made two mistakes with this recipe (well, more than two really, but we'll get to that)

1. The first mistake I made with this recipe was choosing to make it.

2. The second mistake I made was looking at this recipe about 10 minutes before I started making dinner which made me wish I was making it instead. Which I should have, and could have, since I had all the ingredients. But I had to fulfill the challenge, so on with the Chicken in Garlic Sauce I went.

As you can tell, this week did not go well for me. But in keeping with the challenge, I will post the recipe and give you my thoughts anyway. But I will not add this one to the family favourites box. Sorry, Daisy, maybe next time.

Chicken in Garlic Sauce - from Daisey Martinez
3-4 chicken legs
Salt
Pepper
1/8 cup EVOO
10 cloves garlic (oops - I had already minced them when I realized they were supposed to be sliced)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2/3 cup dry sherry
2/3 cup chicken broth, homemade or canned

Wash the chicken thighs and pat them dry with paper towels. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add as many of the chicken thighs, skin side down, as will fit without touching.

Cook until the skin is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Flip the chicken pieces and cook until the other side is golden brown, about 5 minutes more.

Remove the pan from the heat and spoon off all but about 2 tablespoons of the fat, leaving all the lovely brown bits behind. Return the pan to low heat, stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until the garlic starts to turn golden, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Pour in the sherry, increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil.

Let it boil a minute or 2, then return the chicken to the pan skin side up. Reduce the heat to low, pour in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer.

Cover the pan tightly and cook 20 minutes. Flip the chicken pieces (or rotate them top to bottom if using a smaller pan) and cook until the chicken is very tender, about 20 minutes. Serve hot. Unfortunately, after about 12 minutes on the first side, I had something that looked a little like this on my hands.

I tried reducing the heat and cooking it over a really low heat, but it just kept burning. Eventually I gave up and took the chicken out of the pan. I put it in the microwave for a few minutes to ensure that it was fully cooked. I had planned on cooking up some fettuccine to serve with the remaining garlic sauce, but since it turned to be garlic burn, I didn't bother with the pasta.

When all was said and done, and I picked the burnt pieces off, the chicken tasted okay. It wasn't dried out and the flavour was pretty nice but I felt I could have gotten just as good, or better (less burnt) results by roasting it in the oven, which would have avoided the use of the oil and would have been less time consuming for me, since I had to be constantly by the pan, flipping and checking the chicken.

I won't be making this one again - but I guess you can't win them all. I thought it was one of the worst experiences I had had, but then I was reminded of the time THIS happened and remembered that it could have been worse.

Hopefully the rest of you had better luck than I this week!