This is a recipe by a Ballymaloe graduate now based in Chicago, Jared Baston. The chicken ends up really tender with super crispy skin. Serve with some plain steamed rice. We tried this because Jono couldn’t resist the black garlic that they’ve started to stock in our local veg shop. It’s staring at us every time we open the fridge so you can expect more black garlic recipes in the coming weeks!
Wine Suggestion: From our friend Amy came a bottle of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau, the Chasselay ‘la Marduette’. A little unusual as it spents 7 days resting in a barrel before bottling unfiltered, unfined and unsulphered and it was pure joy. You get the fresh, bright fruit of just fermented wine and it is what Nouveau is all about. An added benefit it was great with the chicken. We know this is a moment in time, but for every other moment choose a medium bodied, fresh fruited Gamay or Grenache.
Jared’s Black Garlic Chicken – serves 6
- 1 chicken, cut into 12 pieces, we just used chicken thighs
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 black garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- ½ tsp Aleppo pepper (pul biber)
- 3-4 scallions, cut at an angle, to serve
- steamed rice, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper, then transfer to a large casserole or roasting tray, skin side down – you want it to fit on one layer.
Whisk the sunflower oil, garlic, black garlic, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, honey, hoisin sauce, and Aleppo pepper together, then drizzle over the chicken pieces and toss to coat.
Cook the chicken for 20 minutes, then increase the oven temperature to 230C/gas 8 and cook for a further 10 minutes. Baste the chicken with pan juices, turn over so the skin-side is facing up and cook for another 10 minutes.
Reduce the oven heat to 180C/gas 4 and cook until the chicken is cooked through, another 10-20 minutes, basting occasionally.
Remove the chicken pieces to a warm serving dish. Deglaze the pan juices with a little water and reduce until syrupy. Season to taste, then pour over the chicken pieces. Garnish with the scallions and serve with steamed rice.
(Original recipe from Grow Cook Nourish by Darina Allen, Kyle Books, 2017.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 
Is the black garlic make the chicken more black or give a good sweet taste or both? Have you tried using fresh garlic and what makes the different? The price of black garlic is quite expensive. We usually eat that for herb medicine. Regards from Prambanan.
Hi there, nice to hear from you. The black garlic gives the sauce sweetness and savouriness. It is quite expensive but worth it for this dish we think. It would be different results you would get from regular garlic. J&J