Peach and Mint Sunday Chicken

When I was in college, my roommate Pam was the orchestrator of most of our meals.   There were four of us girls in a two bedroom apartment, and we organized ourselves into cooking/shopping and cleaning teams.   We had $30 per week to spend on groceries (don’t  try to figure this out, but suffice it to say we were very frugal and this was a long time ago). We fed ourselves everyday (and our boyfriends at least once or twice a week) on this budget.   To this day, I have Pam’s mom’s recipe for chicken to be served on a Sunday—and we had it during the weekdays even, it was so good (Pam’s Mom’s Sunday Chicken).  It was a tasty sauté/bake deal with cream of mushroom soup, raisins and some other yummy ingredients that were easy for a bunch of 19 year olds to assemble.  Today, though, I think I have my own Sunday chicken recipe. (Maybe No. 1 son will bring it with him to college so it can be “No. 1 Son’s Mom’s Sunday Chicken”).

Chicken Licken Licks Your Chicken!  Use your homemade peach preserves to boost the flavor of this dish. 

Chicken

·         1 cut up fryer (buy a whole one and cut it up yourself.  This way you save money and can put the back and other parts aside for a scrumptious stock.  Directions coming in a future post!)

Brine:

·         3 C peach nectar or juice remaining from canned home peach preserves (that’s what I used)

·         ¼  C canola oil

·         ¼  C apple cider vinegar

·         ½ C dry white wine

·         2 t lemon pepper

·         2 t diced fresh mint

Fry coating

·         1 C flour

·         1 C chick pea/garbanzo bean flour

·         ½ C cornstarch

·         1 T smoked paprika

·         2 T salt (kosher)

·         1 t ground cumin

·         1 t crushed red pepper flakes

Other ingredients

·         1 C peanut or canola oil (for frying)

·         4 T mint chiffonaded into thin strips (use more or less to taste)

·         4 T butter

·         1/3 C peach preserves/jam

·         ¼ C peach brandy (if you don't have it, don't worry, just skip it)

Mix up brine ingredients and pour over cut up chicken in a glass or plastic container.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Turn the chicken midway through to evenly coat.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine the fry coating ingredients and put into a paper bag or a plastic gallon bag. 

Get half your oil (1/2   C at a time) shimmering hot in a medium saute pan.   You will add oil into the process as it appears needed. 

Remove each piece of chicken from brine (keep the brine!),  shake it to get excess moisture off, dump into the fry coating bag and shake vigorously (you can do 3-4 pieces at a time).  Place gently into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.  This will have to be done in batches. Hint:  cook the thighs and drumsticks together and do them for about 5 minutes per side or more. They take longer to cook than breasts and wings, which should get about 3 minutes per side.  You’re not cooking through, just browning.

Once all the pieces are browned, put into ovenproof dish(es) and into your preheated 350 F. oven.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the thighs are no longer pink.  Set aside to rest on stove top or warmer oven and cover with foil while you make the sauce.

Meanwhile, take about 2 C of the brine (about half) and put into a saucepan and reduce to about 1 C.  You might need to skim off the scum (because the chicken has released some blood into the marinade earlier).  Once reduced, add jam and brandy when the brine is hot and boiling.  Keep it moving for a minute or two to evaporate the alcohol.  Take off heat and incorporate the butter to thicken.  Pour over chicken.  Sprinkle with fresh mint and serve.

Goes good with roasted vegetables and classic blue cheese iceberg lettuce wedge.  It would also be awesome with cornbread.

Enjoy!

Sinfully Good Hoisin Marinated Pork Tenderloin

This recipe is really not so much born out of inspiration as it was out of leftoverization.  I had this really nice pork tenderloin and no particular plan for its glorification on the dinner plate.  The grocery store was having a sale, so I actually bought several of these and froze them for future  use.  Scrounging through the fridge, and looking that kimchi eye to eye, I realized I had the makings of something tasty possible. 

Hoisin sauce is made from soy and wheat.  It is a rather thick sauce, almost like a paste.  It is sort of sweet, and for a long time, I assumed that there was fruit in it.  But that was before I read ingredient labels.  Now that I do read the labels, my life is so much more marinated with information. 

I got so enthused with making this that I forgot to take pictures, and there were no leftovers except for sauce.  Number 1 son said I should not include a picture of the sauce because it looked like what his friend Luke puked up on our livingroom carpet once.  Ha, I scoff at puke. And since I am the one who has to clean it up most of the time, I declare that this looks nothing like what Luke left on the carpet.  (Hey! this blog is for fun, not profit!)

Here's the picture (of the marinade):


The marinade!

  RECIPE

1 pork tenderloin

Kimchi to serve on the side
   (see previous blog post:What's Going On? Kimchi)

1 C  beer (whatever you like)

Marinade (below)
2 T olive oil to brown the meat

               

Marinade
3 T hoisin sauce
1 T fish sauce
1 t soy sauce
1 T rice wine or apple cider vinegar
1 T sesame oil
1 T minced fresh garlic
1 t fresh ginger (use the tube!)
1 t sesame seeds
2 t Chinese Five Spice Powder
¼ t red pepper flakes

Mix the marinade ingredients and pour over tenderloin.  Let marinate for 1-4 hours.  Remove pork from marinade (reserve the marinade).  Brown the tenderloin on all sides in the olive oil, about 3 minutes per side. Put into a baking dish/casserole dish/ or cast iron frying pan (all the better if you browned your meat in this!).  Add 1 C beer and the rest of the marinade.  Cover with lid or foil.

 

Bake in a 350 oven for 15 minutes.

Remove and let rest for 10 minutes.
While it is resting, you can reduce the marinade if you want it thicker by boiling it on the stovetop.

Serve over white sticky rice (Japanese style)—prepare according to package directions.  Drizzle hot marinade over it all.  Put kimchi on the side or mound it on the top.  Serve with a crispy salad for more veggie action.  Yum.

       

Heart and Sole: A Chicken’s Story



Chicken hearts



Chicken soles (feet)



The Post Office called on a Thursday to report the chicks were here.  We picked up our fluffy, white Cornish Cross flock, brought them home and nestled them into the galvanized feed tub with an alfalfa bed, water, feed and a heat lamp.  Each little guy had to be introduced to the water by dipping the beak into the reservoir, after which, their little eyes lighted up and they were now on their own—two  days old and thinking that some large pinkish people and a couple big, black dogs were their parents. 

The Cornish Cross variety is the classic meat bird: large breast, white feathers (about which, more later).  Frankly, they can’t live normal lives, as they grow too fast and too big.  When under 3 lbs, they’re your Cornish game hens.  At 8 weeks they can be 4-5 lbs.  Once, we let them go to 13 weeks.  They were 8-9 lbs—like little turkeys. And, frankly, they could no longer walk at that point.  They just sat at the feeder and ate all day.  So, this breed is really the Jabba the Hut of the chicken world.  They have one purpose in life, and that is to end up on your dinner plate.  We are happy to help them fulfill their destiny.

Two to three times a year, we “harvest” chickens for our freezer.  (Isn’t “harvest” such a nice politically correct word?)  Our goal is to get 26 chickens into the freezer to supply a chicken every two weeks.  When we first began this quest several years ago, we processed 1 chicken at a time. We were rookies and it took some time to get up to speed.  Now, we have this down to a humane and very matter-of-fact exercise, and we can do a dozen or so in one afternoon.  (I know, this is nothing compared to real pros.)    The processing part is the subject of a future blog post. 

Recognizing that the chicken is sacrificing its life for our table, we in turn appreciate that it is important to use every part of the bird that we can to honor its commitment:  the “Heart and Soul “of this blog post.  Below is an accounting of how ALL the parts of our chickens contribute to the betterment of our homestead:

·         Feathers: composted for the garden.

·         Blood: heated into pudding for the dogs.

·         Hearts and gizzards: poached and given to the dogs (perfectly good for people, but not our  favorites).

·         Livers:  used in pates, appetizers, pastas.

·         Feet:  saved for chicken stock (this is what will give it that rich, gelatinous texture).

·         Necks:  like the feet, saved for stock.

·         Entrails:  composted with the feathers.  The cool thing about this is that the maggots that break this down are then fed to the free range egg-producing chickens.  We don’t ever give our chickens the remains of other chickens.  But,  yummmm, they do love maggots.

Did somebody say chicken?

·         Major chicken parts: breast, legs, thighs, wings.  These are turned into tasty dishes!

·         Back and leftover bones from the meals: turned into chicken stock/broth with the neck and feet.  The meat remains from stock, along with carrots and garlic are given to the dogs.

In case you were wondering:  the chickens we raise are able to experience a free range life, flap their wings, engage in chicken politics, scratch in dirt, chase bugs, and dine on wholesome food.  They can see the sky, graze in the grass, nestle into alfalfa hay, or perch on pine limbs inside a secure chicken coop away from predators. They get daily rations of oyster shell pieces (for calcium) and cracked corn (for fun) in addition to their regular feed, garden cullings, and our household leftovers. They are watched over by our Blue Andalusian rooster, General Taylor.    And they snuggle together under a heat lamp at night when the temp drops below 50 degrees F.   When it comes the time for the end, the chicken has to travel about 20 feet in 45 seconds before it is all over in a peaceful non-traumatic way.  This is not the experience of the chicken you will find in a Styrofoam tray in your local grocery store.  Oh, and I didn’t mention. . . our chickens taste like chicken, not just some white, meaty material.

So, here’s to the chickens—heart and sole:

They like the pasture

They like the rolling hills
They like left-overs
I like the daffodils
They  like the heat lamp

When all the lights are low
Boom dee yadda
Boom dee yadda
Boom dee yadda  chow!



A nice chicken with Stacey's Secret Spice Rub and olive oil--shrink wrapped and ready for the freezer.