In the mood for chicken and gravy? This delicious garlic chicken fits the bill perfectly and is a garlic lover’s dream. You’ll want to bust out the mashed potatoes to soak up every bit of this fabulous gravy!
This rustic chicken recipe features a fabulous garlic gravy, that’s tailor-made for spooning over mashed potatoes. Just a vegetable for a delicious chicken dinner!
What you’ll need
Garlic – If you’re like me, the thought of separating and peeling the 20 cloves of garlic for this recipe isn’t super appealing. I picked up a bag of pre-peeled cloves at the grocery store for about $1. Money well spent, if you ask me :) And again, don’t worry that you won’t be able to leave the house for days after eating this. Like roasted garlic, this garlic becomes very mellow. You’ll know it’s there, but it won’t knock you (or anyone else) over.
Chicken – As for the chicken, any cut will work here. I used skin-on/bone-in thighs and I left the skin-on for a more moist chicken. Boneless/skinless chicken thighs will also work here, as will chicken breasts, though the breasts will need longer in the oven to cook through. Be sure to check and test the chicken. It should be cooked to 165F internal temperature in the oven.
White Wine – the recipe specifies some wine to de-glaze the pan after it comes out of the oven. Any wine will do. If you don’t have wine on hand or you prefer not to use it, simply skip it and use 3/4 cup more chicken broth instead. If you skip the wine, you may like to add a little acidity to the gravy that the wine usually brings, maybe add a splash of fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar to the gravy. Just a teaspoon or so. It makes all the difference!
Other ingredients you will need – chicken broth, thyme (fresh or dried), flour, cooking oil, salt, pepper and butter.
Step-by-step photos
- Heat a bit of oil in a skillet, then place the chicken thighs into the skillet skin side down.
- After the skin is browned, flip and cook a few more minutes.
- Remove the chicken thighs to a clean plate.
- Add the garlic cloves to the skillet and cook, stirring, until golden.
- Add the flour to the skillet and cook with the garlic cloves briefly.
- Return the chicken to the skillet, cover the skillet and place into a 400F oven for about 15 minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the oven.
- Remove the chicken to a clean plate.
- Start the gravy by heating the juice and garlic over medium-high heat on the stovetop.
- Deglaze the hot pan with the wine and cook for one minute, scraping up the browned bits, then add the chicken broth.
- Season the gravy with thyme, salt and pepper.
- Return the chicken to the pan and simmer with the gravy until re-warmed.
Recipe video
Recipe tips!
- Take your time browning the chicken and garlic to get some nice colour, for the best flavour and presentation.
- Don’t forget to taste your gravy at the end of cooking and add additional salt and freshly ground pepper, as needed, to really bring all the great flavours together.
- You can eat the cooked garlic or not, as you like :) If you don’t want to eat it, you can mash some of it and add it to mashed potatoes for garlic mashed potatoes.
What to serve with garlic chicken
You’ll want to serve this with something on the side to make the most of the delicious garlic gravy. My choice is usually a creamy mashed potato, but pasta or rice would also be nice. At the risk of carb overload, I’d even throw a great crusty bread into the mix, to dip in the gravy. Add a salad or veg for a complete meal. I also love green beans or broccoli with this dish.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
You can make this chicken ahead, cover and refrigerate, then re-heat it later to serve. Simply reheat in a skillet on the stovetop over medium heat until the chicken is warmed through.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
This chicken with gravy will also freeze well for up to 3 months.
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Get the Recipe: Rustic Garlic Chicken with Gravy
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon cooking oil, for the pan
- 6 pieces skin-on/bone-in chicken thighs, or any skin-on chicken, such as breasts or drumsticks, about 2 lbs.
- Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
- 20 cloves garlic, separated and peeled (2 full heads) or start with pre-peeled garlic cloves
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup dry white wine, any kind, or alternately replace by using more chicken broth instead
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 1/4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, or about 3/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves
- 1 Tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. (not fan-assisted)
- Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Dry the chicken pieces well by patting them with a paper towel. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Add the chicken thighs to the hot skillet, skin side down and cook until well browned underneath. Flip the chicken over and cook on the other side for a couple of minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate. *Chicken thighs can be fatty! If you have a lot of fat in the pan, you can remove and discard some of it, but do leave a bit in the pan to cook the garlic in the next step.
- Reduce the heat under the skillet to medium. Add the garlic cloves and cook, stirring regularly, until the garlic is golden, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the garlic and stir until combined. Return the chicken to the pan, COVER, and bake for about 15-20 minutes in the pre-heated 400°F oven (*If your pan or skillet doesn't have a lid, you can tightly cover the top with tin foil instead.) Be sure to cook until the chicken is cooked to 165F internal temperature. *Bone-in chicken breasts will take longer.
- Remove the pan from the oven and put it on a burner. *Be careful not to touch the panhandle! It's hot! Remove the chicken pieces from the pan to a clean plate. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat, whisk in the wine and simmer for 1 minute to cook off the alcohol. Whisk in the broth, thyme and a bit more salt and pepper, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring regularly, until the gravy thickens. Turn the heat off and stir in the butter. Taste the sauce and add more salt and pepper, as needed. Add the chicken back to the pot to re-warm with the sauce. Serve spooned over mashed potatoes, rice or pasta.
Notes
- Take your time browning the chicken and garlic to get some nice browning, for the best flavour and presentation.
- If you’d like to make this with boneless chicken thighs or boneless chicken breasts, simply adjust the oven time accordingly, cooking the chicken until it is cooked through and reaches 165F internal temperature.
- You can eat the cooked garlic or not, as you like :) If you don’t want to eat it, you can mash some of it and add it to mashed potatoes for garlic mashed potatoes.
- If you’d like a thicker gravy, you can use a Beurre Manié, which is a fancy name for butter combined with flour, which is used as a thickener at the end of cooking. So instead of just adding 1 Tablespoon of butter at the end, you can rub 1 Tablespoon of flour into the butter instead, then add it a bit at a time to the pan, until the desired thickening is achieved. The additional flour will thicken the gravy more, without worry of lumps.
More Bone-in Chicken Thigh Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Can this be made without flour? I am having company and two people are gluten free.
Hi Dixie and yes you can. The flour is used as a sauce thickener. Instead of adding the flour with the garlic, just omit then and thicken the sauce at the end with a slurry of cornstarch or arrowroot starch and water. Also, you might want to make sure that your chicken broth is gluten free. Many of them contain gluten, so be sure to use one that’s clearly labeled gluten free. Enjoy!
Wonder if you could make this in a crock pot? (I’m a huge crock pot type of gal)
Hi Cara, I’m a fan of my crock pot too, but that said, I don’t think this one is well suited to it. It would basically disintegrate (the chicken, that is) and become more of a stew. Also, roasting is important for all that garlic, to mellow it.
This is probably my favorite chicken dish for a relaxed week night. The gravy that the dish yields is incredibly versatile and my family loves pouring it over mashed potatoes. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!!
So glad you are enjoying it :)
Thank you for sharing! With a family of 5 I’m always looking for new and delicious meals!
Regards,
Margaret
Thanks Margaret. Enjoy!
Ive made this before (and left a comment) but I just had to reiterate how amazing this dish is! My girls saw the cloves of garlic sitting out and immediately knew what was for dinner! They were so excited to have “20 garlic chicken”, as it’s been dubbed in our house, again tonight! The icing on the cake was that I got to use two heads of garlic that I grew in my garden last year! Made the dish extra special! Thanks again!
So glad to hear :) And love that you were able to use homegrown garlic Elizabeth!
Hi Jennifer! I pinned this because I thought it looked delicious, and am planning on making it this weekend. When I read your bio and saw you cook from your Muskoka kitchen, I absolutely flipped!
What part of Muskoka? My family has vacationed there since the 1920s, so it holds a special place in my heart. Where we’re from its very rare that anyone has heard of Muskoka, so you can imagine my excitement over your blog ?
Hi Lindy! I am a born and raised Muskoka girl, growing up in Bracebridge and now living just outside of Bracebridge (towards Baysville/Lake of Bays area). So wonderful to connect with so many people who pass through this wonderful area :)
Made this tonight. WOW!! It was so good. I thought I didn’t have any wine so I used lemon juice and water and it had a nice lemon tang to it. I also had to leave the chicken in about 10 minutes longer. We served the gravy over mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. Thanks for delicious and EASY recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it Laurie!
This recipe is a hit with my family. I’ve made it for my hubby who is a meat and potatoes man so I had to accompany it with mash potatoes and a veggie. I also made this meal for my sister and brother in law. My sis now has the recipe. I also prepared it for my daughter and her best friend for a girls night out. As you can see, this is one of my favorite meals to make, so easy and delicious!!
Hi Jennifer. A gorgeous recipe which really came into it’s own within the last 10 minutes (the butter sealed the deal for me). I agree that grilling (broiling) really finished the chicken perfectly but it also thickened the sauce a little too much so next time I do it (and this is a definite!) I’ll leave it a little runny before returning to the grill. Thanks ever so much for sharing this with us.
I saw this on Pinterest and it looks SO GOOD! I want to make it but I have a dilemma. I don’t have a Dutch oven and I don’t know if any of my pans are oven safe. Can you tell whether they are oven safe or not? I could go get an oven safe pan or Dutch oven but I’d rather use stuff I already have. Dutch ovens are a bit expensive and I don’t know if I’ll use it a lot.
I also did some research and I read that instead of using the oven you can use a crock pot instead. Do you think it will work? I don’t mind washing dishes I usually wash as I go. Let me know what you think.
Hi Katie, First, I don’t think this recipe is suited to a crock pot, as you will basically stew it all. My best advice is to invest in a Dutch oven. Really. You will use it tons and tons :) Failing, that, transfer the chicken to any oven-proof dish for the oven trip, then transfer it back to the skillet after. Enjoy!
I came across this recipe yesterday and I thought I would give it a try for tonight’s dinner.
Lovely! Very very tasty! Being East European, I served it with Polenta and it works really well!
Thank you, I’ll try more recipes in here.
Glad you enjoyed it, Irina. Polenta sounds lovely :)
The wine cooks out, right. I am thinking of making this for about 12 people (3 of which are kids under 5).
Can the wine be left out, and just add more broth. Would it change the taste.
Thanks, Jan
Hi Janet. Yes, the wine cooks out. Be sure to let it boil until the alcohol smell disappears. If you like, you can reduce the amount of wine and replace with an equal amount of chicken broth, but I think some wine provides a nice note in this dish.
Could you use chicken breasts instead of thighs?
Hi Madeline. Yes you can. I would use bone-in/skin-on and cook a little longer.
I made this for my in-laws and it was a big hit! (I’m glad because this was the first time my mother-in-law let me cook in her kitchen). I left out the wine and added extra broth instead because I couldn’t find any in her kitchen, and it still turned out great! Served with a green salad and crusty bread :)
So glad you enjoyed it, Adrienne :)
I absolutely love this recipe. I’ve been making it every Sunday for a few weeks now, and my family loves it. I skipped the wine and added more broth. I also added shallots and a tiny bit of dried basil. Thanks for sharing your awesome recipe. I usually don’t post comments, but this dish is totally worth it.
So happy you are enjoying it, Gema and thanks for coming back to let me know :)