WHEN JAMES BEARD first whipped this up for Julia Child, he included matchstick-sliced carrot and slivered onion in the dish as we’ve done here. What we took out was half of the olive oil and all of the chicken skin. You won’t miss it! We’ve also browned the chicken to add color before the long oven roast. The result is wonderfully rich and deeply flavorful. Serve the finished dish straight out of the Dutch oven, or, spoon all onto a platter. To save guests the trouble of plucking out the roast garlic cloves to squeeze and spread on crusty bread, we pull out about half of the cloves after baking, remove the skins and put the soft little dollops in a little crock to serve alongside the bread and chicken.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 8 chicken drumsticks, skin removed

• 6 chicken thighs, skin removed

• 4 celery ribs, sliced into thin strips, and then cut into matchsticks

• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks

• 1 large yellow onion, peeled, cored and cut into slivers

• 40 cloves of garlic, unpeeled (about three full heads)

• 2 tsp. each fresh tarragon leaves and thyme leaves OR

1 tsp each, dried

• 2 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp freshly cracked pepper

• A few gratings of a whole nutmeg OR . tsp. ground

• . cup extra dry vermouth

• 2 Tbsp brandy

Method

Place oven rack at center position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss skinless chicken pieces in . of the oil in a 6-quart Dutch oven. Brown chicken over medium heat on your stove top. Remove from heat. Stir in onion, carrot and celery matchsticks. Sprinkle with tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper. Tuck garlic cloves throughout the pan. Drizzle with remaining olive oil, vermouth and brandy. Cover Dutch oven and bake for 90 minutes. Serve piping hot with crusty bread to soak up the pan juices.

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