Chicken, and even baked whole with garlic and capers, is a dish that will always look advantageous on any holiday table. Tender chicken, soaked in the aromas of garlic, bay leaf and lemon, is cooked in the oven with potatoes and capers, making the dish quite satisfying and incredibly fragrant.
Ingredients:
- Chicken weighing 1.4-1.5 kg – 1 pc.
- Capers – 2-3 tbsp. l.
- Lemon small – 1 pc.
- Potato – 600 g.
- Garlic – 2 whole heads and 5 cloves.
- Olive oil – 5 tbsp. l.
- Salt – to taste.
- Freshly ground black pepper – to taste.
- Bay leaf – 8 pcs.
- Water – 150 ml.
How to cook:
1. Lightly crush five unpeeled garlic cloves with the wide side of a knife blade.
2. Wash the lemon and cut in half. Squeeze juice from one half. Combine lemon juice with water (150 ml). Use the other half of the lemon for other dishes.
3. Wash the chicken, dry it and rub with salt and ground black pepper on all sides.
4. Place 2 crushed garlic cloves and 4 bay leaves inside the bird.
5. Brush the chicken with olive oil using a pastry brush.
6. Place the bird in a large, high-sided fireproof dish. Pour in the lemon juice mixed with water.
Instead of water mixed with lemon juice, you can add dry white wine.
7. Preheat the oven to 200⁰ C.
Place the dish in the oven and bake the chicken for 30 minutes.
While the bird is baking, peel and wash the potatoes. Cut each tuber into 4 wedges and place in a bowl.
8. Salt and pepper to taste.
9. Add the remaining crushed garlic, capers and 4 bay leaves.
If you don’t like capers, you can replace them with pitted olives. You will need 80 g of olives.
10. Pour in the remaining olive oil and mix thoroughly.
11. Cut off the tops of two washed, unpeeled garlic cloves and drizzle with oil.
Remove the chicken dish from the oven and place potatoes with garlic, bay leaf and capers around the bird. Put the whole heads of garlic in the dish too.
12. Return the mold to the oven and bake the chicken and potatoes for another 40 minutes.
After the specified time, the whole chicken baked with garlic and capers will be ready. Transfer the contents of the refractory dish to a large platter and serve. As an addition to this dish, you can serve a salad of seasonal vegetables.
Bon appetit!