Roasted Garlic with Fresh Thyme & Goat Cheese

Roasted garlic transforms from sharp and pungent to sweet, buttery, and almost caramel-like when baked low and slow in chicken broth. These whole heads come out of the oven with cloves so soft you can squeeze them right onto bread like warm, savory jam.

The chicken broth bath is what separates this from the usual foil-wrapped method. Instead of just drying out under foil with a drizzle of oil, the garlic steams and braises in the broth, producing cloves that are creamier and more flavorful. Fresh thyme sprigs infuse the liquid as it bubbles around the heads, and those cooking juices become a spoonable sauce on their own.

The serving here is half the fun. Break off a chunk of toasted sourdough, smear on some tangy goat cheese, then scoop a roasted clove on top. The combination of sweet roasted garlic, tart chevre, and crusty bread is simple but genuinely hard to stop eating.

Pro Tips

• Use plump, firm heads of garlic with tight skins. Older, sprouting garlic turns bitter when roasted
• Cut just enough off the top to expose the cloves without slicing into them too deeply
• The garlic is done when the skins look like browned parchment and the cloves give easily when pressed
• Spoon those cooking juices over the garlic when serving. They’re concentrated thyme-garlic gold

Variations

• Rosemary version: Swap the thyme for fresh rosemary sprigs for a more piney, resinous flavor
• Brie instead of chevre: Use a wedge of room-temperature Brie for a milder, creamier spread
• Vegetarian: Replace chicken broth with vegetable broth. The garlic and thyme carry plenty of flavor on their own