Jerk Spiced Butterfly Chicken

Jerk Spiced Chicken – Baked/Broiled or Grilled

(note: while this not the "real deal" it is a decent shortcut - and makes excellent leftovers)

The Paste:

2 Tbs Jerk Spice (Get a blend that lists actual spices)

~ 1 Tbs oil

½ an onion – peeled & roughly chopped

1 Tbs soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime (1-2 Tbs)

2 tsp fresh ginger

Combine in a blender.

Butterfly a chicken

(Video help!) 

and then stuff the paste under the skin – start the video at about 1 min

(Video help!)

If you have time and space - place it like this, uncovered in the fridge
to dry the skin out a bit.
The string is optional - it just helped fit the chicken on the pan I was working with.

Simplest way to cook: Oven – on a pan lined with foil

(or if you are cooking greens - extra collard/kale leaves)

425˚F for about 25 min.  When temps are showing close to done (finish temp = Breast temp about 150˚F, Thigh temp about 170˚F)

Put under low broiler to crisp the skin, and finish cooking.

This one was done on the grill - but the point is - dark is FINE.

Crispier way to cook: Grill – work with a clean grill, and then oil grate as its heating – and then again right before you put on the chicken.

Start bone side down over medium direct heat for about 10 – 15 min (If the underside gets a bit crispy – no problem).

Change to indirect heat – and cook skin side down for about 20 min more - (Breast temp about 150F  Thigh temp about 170 F)

Rice to go along side:

2 cups cooked rice (cook rice, use leftover rice, 90sec. rice etc.)

2 tsp oil

1 can Seasoned black beans (Cuban flavors, chili beans etc.) partially drained.

1 red pepper – cut into small dice

2 cloves garlic – chopped

Cilantro

Heat the oil in frying pan over medium-high heat.  Briefly fry garlic, then add peppers cook 5 – 8min.  Add partially drained beans.  Stir until heated through.  Stir in the cooked rice.  Heat it through.

Add greens – cook with the other half of the onion.

Need a greens recipe?

Pile o' greens (I had collards, arugula and sorrel) - rinsed and torn
1/2 onion (the other half), chopped
1 tbs fat/oil
chicken broth/water
salt/seasoning to taste

Heat the oil in the pan - cook the onion until soft.  Stir in the greens.  Add seasoning and broth/water - 1/2 way up the side of the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.  Let the broth slowly steam off.  Over the course of 20 - 40 minutes, taste for doneness, add seasoning as needed. Add more liquid if they needs more cooking.

BBQ Chicken Pot Pie

Leftover Rescue...
(Or a way to kick it with rotisserie chicken... leftover turkey works it too.) 
Pot Pie Biscuit Starter Kit - leftover chicken and the basics for drop biscuits.

Fannie Farmer - one of the earliest compilers of 20th century American home cookery

1st thing - pot pie filling is a stew.  It just is.  The trick is making it a good stew.  No... a GREAT stew.  Cook your aromatics and hard veggies.  The onions, celery and carrots.

Add salt and pepper - bring out the flavors of the veg.  Cook them until they are softened, but way before they are mushy.
Then add in the softer veg (leaves and/or already cooked leftover veg).

I had chard and some leftover green beans.  (I am NOT a fan of peas, especially frozen, especially mushy).  So while peas are traditional, any green things you like work.  Again - check and make sure there's enough seasoning.

Go ahead and add the chopped, leftover poultry.

Now to make this a stew!  It needs the gravy that makes it into a thick, hearty stew.  And gravy is best when it starts with a roux.  Since I had just made some chicken stock, I had chicken fat - so chicken fat roux.

Melt the fat, whisk in the flour and keep it cooking until the flour smells toasty.  (I'm not making a dark roux, but want to make sure the flour doesn't taste raw).  Once the flour is cooked slowly whisk in the broth.  And THEN let make it BBQ sauce flavored!

Add some of the sauce, stir in, taste for salt and pepper (if you want it spicier - you could add tabasco, sriracha or other hotness to the gravy).  You'll have about 2 cups of gravy with this recipe.  It can be easily doubled if you have more leftovers.
Add the gravy to the chicken and veg mixture - add the gravy until you get the right consistency.  Well moistened, but not too goopy.

Now for the biscuits!
Drop biscuits - when I'm working with hard flour (pretty much all AP flour) rather than the soft flour that exists in the southern US, drop biscuits are the way to go.  That way you keep a fluffy texture, don't develop long gluten strands, and don't make a ROLL!
(You can always make a crust for your pot pie too - but biscuits are great!)  Feel free to make cut out biscuits if that's what you know and love, but for biscuit beginners - or if you're in a rush, drops are your friend.

BBQ Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
The gravy
    2 Tbs butter (or chicken fat/any fat)
    3 Tbs flour (or 2 Tbs rice flour + 1 Tbs cornstarch)
    2 C chicken stock  
    salt, pepper, BBQ sauce - to taste
    (optional - hot sauce if it needs it)

[This amount of roux can easily absorb another cup of liquid.  But if you need a quart+ of gravy double the amount of roux]    

The filling 
    2 tsp oil
    1 medium onion - medium dice 
    2 carrots - sliced
    2 ribs celery - sliced 
    1 handful bunch chard/leafy green - roughly chopped 
    1 C or so bonus veggies - (optional)
    salt and pepper - top taste (and taste lots to check!)

    2 C (approx.) roughly chopped leftover chicken 

[If you have more chicken - add more vegetables, if you have less poultry - cut down on the veg.  You can make more gravy too.]

The biscuits (Baking Powder Biscuits from Fannie Farmer)
    1 C AP flour (or gluten free baking mix)
    2 tsp baking powder
    1/2 tsp salt
    2 tbs fat (butter, shortening, etc.)
    1/2 + milk (or buttermilk, cream etc.)
    (optional - 1/2 tsp tasty/fancy vinegar - I have beer vinegar, cider or sherry is good too)

    butter for the pan/cookie sheet

Equipment:
knife
cutting board
skillet
sauce pan
measuring cups & spoons
bowl
9x12 pan or cookie sheet
fork/pastry cutter
spoon
whisk

Prep:
Measure out the ingredients, cut up vegetables and chicken.  The vegetables should be similar sizes.  Including any leftover vegetable.  E.g. if you are using green beans, cut them into approx. 1 in. lengths.  And chop any leaves so they are no bigger than 2in x 2in.  They'll cook down to a nice bit size and not disappear.

Preheat oven to 450˚F for biscuits
Grease the pan/cookie sheet with the butter

You can make the biscuits and the stew at the same time - or the stew 1st and hold it or freeze it.  Since it's stew, it reheats really well... possibly even better.

Cook:
The Stew

Heat the oil in the skillet.  Add the onion and a some salt.  Stir for a minute or two, then add the carrots and celery.  Let this cook over medium high heat for 5 - 8 minutes.  Taste for salt and pepper, and find when the carrots lose their raw crunch.
Add in the leaves and any leftover veg you want to add.
Add the cut up chicken - stir to warm everything up.  Taste again for salt and pepper.  Once the seasoning is right, set the skillet aside, and leave on very, very low heat.

Make the roux.
In the sauce pan heat the fat, and use the whisk to stir in the flour.  Cook it until the flour smells toasty, and no longer tastes like raw flour.  (You can cook roux for longer to make it darker, but that's not important for this recipe.)  Then stir in the chicken broth.  It should make a cream colored, smooth gravy.  Add BBQ sauce and any hot sauce to flavor the gravy to your taste.  Adjust salt if it needs it.
Stir the gravy into the chicken and vegetable mixture - add until it's well coated, but not goopy.  A spoonful should be delicious and velvety and well seasoned.  There's still time to get the flavor right here!

When the stew is ready - you can keep it warm while you biscuit, or if you are meal-prepping, divide into the right portions for your crowd and fridge or freeze.

The Biscuits - Make These Fresh!
Put the flour, baking soda, and salt in the bowl.  Stir together.  Chop the butter into smallish chunks.  Chop that into the flour mixture with the fork or pastry cutter or your fingers.    
(Add optional vinegar to your milk) 
Stir in about 2/3 of the liquid.  Keep adding until the flour is all wet (do not stir until totally smooth).  It should still hold its shape when you drop it on the pan.  

Make about 4 large biscuits or 6 - 8 small ones.

Bake at 450˚F for 12 - 15 minutes (try 8 minutes for small biscuits)

Spoon up your chicken stew, top with a biscuit and add a little more BBQ sauce.
Alternately reheat the chicken stew in a casserole dish and top with the biscuits and server family style.


    

Back to the Keyboard

I quit there for a minute...

Built a book, played with marketing, started working for the family and learning for real about forestry, got my black-belt, got my MBA, now have a kid who drives.

But I kept cooking.
And I found the Female Farmer Project.  

But the love of trivia stays with me.  So when the mix is food and learning - it is time to dig deep and see what new things I find.

I found out that my love of knowing how things work can be applied to how our current farm system is treating a few people very well, and treating most other people very badly.  There's plenty of food, but it is not treating us very well - and treating the people who get it to us possibly worse.

We need to change that.  As part of the Female Farmer Project, I want to work on changing things for women who grow food professionally in America.  They have always been there, but they have been largely invisible and ignored.  And we are all worse off for that.

Time to make some changes that benefits farmers.  And the things that benefit farmers produces beneficial changes for us consumers down the road.