Roasted Rosemary Chicken Breasts

FYI - This week I'm cooking from my a personal collection of recipes from the RelishRelish online menu service. I'm exploring the recipes I selected for the week of November 24, 2008.

RelishRelish recipes are easy to follow - most of the time. This one stumped me just a bit. The recipe admonishes you to use a sharp knife and slice the tops from two heads of garlic and reserve the bottoms. Then you're supposed to arrange the tops in the center of a large roasting pan. The object, it seemed was to use the garlic tops as a "rack" for the chicken.

Itty Bitty Garlic Tops

Yeah right. The itty bitty garlic tops were never going to be able to support the monster chicken bone-in breasts I'd purchased that weighed in at nearly a pound and a half each. I simply placed the chicken in the pan and proceeded on. I noticed no difference in taste.

The two garlic heads I placed alongside the super-duper-breasts and drizzled olive oil over all. I didn't have fresh rosemary, so simply sprinkled crushed rosemary around, and placed the heavy pan into an oven preheated to 425.

Chicken and Garlic Slathered in Olive Oil

 Thirty minutes later I removed the pan, flipped the garlic over, and returned to the oven for an additional twenty minutes. What emerged was roast chicken of utter perfection - crisp skin, glistening juices, and succulent, melt-in-your-mouth breast. 

Roasted Chicken and Garlic

Standing at the stove, temptation overtook me. I sliced some breast, squeezed a handful of baked garlic cloves. Then I sliced up day-old baguette and sopped up the juices directly from the roasting pan, and moaned with pleasure. Thank you RelishRelish!