Chicken/Poultry Recipes

Occasionally, we'll get inspired to share a specific recipe…either something we love and make on a regular basis or something new we tried and found worthy.
In some cases, we have created these recipes, in others, it's something we've made for so long, we've forgotten where it came from originally. Where we have a specific source for the recipe, we'll share it.

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Herb-Roasted Chicken
This recipe comes from our friend Laurel H. Many thanks-it's a real winner! I tried Laurel's recipe as is, but used one of our larger (5 1/2#) chickens. I slightly adjusted the herb combo to allow for more herb paste, but not extensively. I also was forced to use dried herbs instead of fresh, since my local market didn't have fresh thyme, rosemary, or sage. So, I used about a tablespoon of dried leaves of each of these herbs. It tasted fabulous! So good that I subsequently tried the same herb paste with a pork roast and with some lamb shanks. I then skimmed fat from the pan drippings and slightly thickened it and made a sauce that was wonderful!)
1 3- to 3 1/2 lb. chicken
1 medium lemon
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T minced fresh parsley, stems reserved
2 tsp. minced fresh thyme, stems reserved
2 tsp. minced fresh sage, stems reserved
1/2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary, stems reserved
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Finely shred the peel from the lemon, avoiding the bitter white pithy layer. You should have about a little more than 1 tsp. peel. Remove remaining white layer from lemon. Halve lemon. For herb paste, in a small bowl combine lemon peel, olive oil, garlic, minced parsley and herbs, salt, and pepper.
Rinse chicken, pat dry. Rub herb paste over chicken. Place reserved herb stems and lemon halves inside the chicken. Tie drumsticks to tail. Twist wing tips under back.
Place chicken, breast side down, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Roast in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes. Carefully turn the chicken breast side up; roast for 30 - 35 minutes more or til no longer pink and drumsticks move easily in their sockets.
If using a meat thermometer, insert into the bird after it has been turned breast-side up. Insert thermometer into the center of one of the inside thigh muscles. The tip should not touch the bone. The chicken is done when the thermometer registers 180° - 185°F.
To serve, remove herb stems and lemon from cavity. Cover chicken loosely with foil; let stand for 10 minutes before carving. If desired, garnish plates with additional herb sprigs.

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Coach Stop Farm Turkey Pot Pie
(or, what to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers!)

Ingredients:

Turkey, cut into bite-sized pieces

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Turkey Gravy

Corn

Peas

Carrots

Other veggies to taste

Chicken broth or broth from turkey carcass

Prep (leading up to Thanksgiving): get a very large, fresh  turkey from a local provider if you can . . . as large a bird as you can fit into your oven. Make your favorite stuffing to fill this bird – make lots of stuffing and bake any extra in a casserole dish. Make mashed potatoes and gravy and corn to match this bird (as if the whole thing will be devoured on Thanksgiving), and then invite as few people to Thanksgiving Dinner as you can get away with and not be drummed from your family.

After the meal, store all leftovers (the gravy, the stuffing, the potatoes, corn, and the meat) until you are ready. However, I find it most efficient to strip the bird and cook down the broth from the carcass immediately, then store the resulting meat and broth.

Strip all turkey meat off the carcass, putting all meat chunks in one pile and bones with scraps on them in another.

Broth:  Put the bones and other scraps into a large pot (the carcass will have lots of flavor from the stuffing, as well as the meat). Cover with water and cook off broth. Strain out bones (I like to do this with a slotted spoon so that I leave flavorful meat and stuffing IN the broth. If you don’t wish to make broth from the carcass, just buy whatever chicken broth you prefer – starter paste, bouillon, canned . . . you may need some of this on hand anyway, when you get to the pot pie mixture part.

The Pot Pie mixture:

In a large pot or mixing bowl, put your leftover turkey (cut into bite-sized chunks), leftover corn, frozen carrots (or cook some carrot slices from fresh until not quite done), frozen peas, and any other veggie you might fancy in a pot pie. Mix up these items and make sure the balance of ingredients looks good to you.

Pot Pie Gravy:

You’ll need a blender or food processor or a strong arm:

The broth you cooked down or bought

Leftover gravy

Leftover stuffing

Leftover mashed potatoes

The potatoes and stuffing thicken the liquids (broth and gravy), and add flavor, so that your pot pie gravy is thick and savory.

Using your blender or food processor, blend amounts of the stuffing and potatoes with the broth and/or gravy you have. You want a fairly thick, stew-like consistency so your pot pie filling will not be runny.  Pour your blended gravy over the turkey/veggie mixture you have in your pot. Stir the gravy through thoroughly and evaluate again – too thick? Add a little broth.

So, now you have your filling and can fill up pie shells (2-crust pie - see our recipe below). Use disposable aluminum pie plates and put your bottom crust in, add filling, put on top crust, pierce and seal. We cover the pies with aluminum foil and place them into large freezer bags for freezing. When we want to eat one, we heat the oven to 425 degrees and bake the pie from frozen for about an hour and a half. Loosen the foil cover before placing in the oven, and remove it entirely for the last half hour or so for browning up. When the liquids bubble through the air vents in the top crust, it’s done! Depending on your quantity of leftovers, you should be able to get quite a few pot pies for your freezer.

Pretty Near Foolproof Pie Crust Recipe (from Darrell):

2 ½ cups flour*

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ cup lard**

½ cup butter**

1/3 cup cold water

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 egg

Mix flour and salt together.

Beat egg, add water and vinegar – keep in refrigerator until ready.

Have lard and butter very cold, cut butter into small pieces, cut both into flour with pastry cutter.  Don’t over blend.  Then, using a fork, toss in water mixture until all the flour is incorporated.  This recipe will make a two crust pie or two single crust pies.  Divide the dough in half, press into disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.  Will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.  If you’re going to make the pie right away, refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling it out.  The key is to keep it cold.

If you are going to bake a pie right away, having it cold will make it flakier.  If you’re blind-baking the crust, refrigerate for an hour before putting the parchment and beans in and baking.

* a note about flour.  I get my best results with this pie crust if I use pastry flour.  You can use all-purpose flour just as well.  It won’t be quite as flakey as with the pastry flour but it will still be an above average pie crust..  I have also used bread flour in a pinch but to keep it from getting a bit tough (because of the extra gluten and protein in the bread flour) you have to have a very light hand and keep everything very cold.  I wouldn’t recommend cake flour as it probably wouldn’t hold together as well but then again, I’ve never tried it.

** Most often I use lard and butter because butter has a bit of water in it that explodes into steam when you put it in the oven and the pie crust is just a little flakier. Also, butter flavor is never a bad thing.  You can use a cup of lard, omitting the butter, and get an excellent crust.  You cannot use a cup of butter, omitting the lard, and end up with a good crust at all.

Using this recipe for Pot Pies:  When we make pot pies, we use the 9 inch tin disposable pie plates that you can get in large quantities at GFS.  We also make large quantities of pot pies.  What I do is double the pie crust recipe, then divide it into 6 pieces, enough for 3 pot pies.  Any more than that and my pastry cutter won’t handle it, not to mention my arms.  If you have a food processor, you can probably cut the fats into the flour with that but I don’t have a food processor so I don’t know that for sure.  When you make 3 pies out of this crust it is just a little thinner, but still enough and you don’t have to make as many crusts.  When you’re faced with 15 to 20 pies and cutting in the fats by hand, thinner gets acceptable pretty quickly  Also, since you’re probably going to freeze these, you can go from mixing the dough to rolling it out without chilling.  It will get cold enough in the freezer.  Just use a light hand and handle the dough as little as possible.  My grandmother would save all the scrap dough from making pies and put it all together to use for the next crust.  I’ve always found that that makes for a tough crust. I just practice my rolling pin skills to make the crust almost exactly the right size and then tuck it together so there aren’t trimmings.

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Parmesan Chicken Noodle Corn Casserole

4 cups diced cooked chicken or turkey

4 cups dried noodles (bow tie works well!)

15 oz. corn, frozen or canned

1 can cream style corn

2 cups carrots (fresh or frozen – if frozen, thaw, if fresh, cook ‘til tender)

Sauce:

3 T butter, melted

1 medium onion, diced (approx.. 1 cup)

1 stalk celery, diced (approx.. ½ cup)

1 garlic clove,  minced

¼ cup flour

2 ½ cups milk

1 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon minced sage

1 tablespoon minced thyme

2 tablespoons minced parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

3 cups bread crumbs

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Cook dried pasta in appropriate amount of water until tender, turn off heat and let stand. If you’re using frozen corn and/or carrots, you can drop them in this pot to thaw. I like to let the pasta absorb a little more liquid before draining. If you drain it immediately, the pasta will then absorb too much of your sauce while heating and the casserole will be drier than it should be.

While pasta is cooking, using a 4 quart pot, start the sauce by melting the butter, then sauté onions and celery until tender; add the minced garlic and sauté another minute.

Add the flour to this mixture, and stir well; then add milk slowly, stirring constantly. Bring sauce to a boil and cook for 1 minute.

Turn off heat, add herbs, salt and pepper, corn, creamed corn, sour cream, carrots, chicken broth, Parmesan, chicken and noodles.  Mix until well combined.

Pour casserole mixture into a greased 3 quart casserole pan.  In a bowl, pour the melted butter over the bread crumbs (I use diced bread crusts from homemade bread) and mix well.  Spread the bread crumbs evenly over the casserole. You can also sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.  Cover with foil  or a lid and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until bubbling, remove the lid and bake another 10 minutes.

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Mediterranean Chicken Salad

(original recipe from Dash)

Friends were coming for lunch yesterday. When we first made the plan (it's March in Michigan), I thought "a yummy chicken soup from one of our chickens, along with some homemade French bread, will be just the ticket!" Then, watching the forecast on Monday, I realize the temp will be in the 80s on Wednesday (this was a record-setter for our area!), and that hot soup and warm bread was probably not the way to go. So I re-visited the menu.

Fortunately, my mom collects recipes for me out of the paper, and on Sunday I had gotten the March Dash insert. It had a Mediterranean Chicken Salad recipe than sounded interesting. Of course, being me, I had to alter it some - partly because there are a couple of ingredients that I just don't care for (tarragon and olives) and partly because I didn't have exactly what the recipe asked for, so I substituted. Served on large leaves pulled off a head of Romaine lettuce, this was a wonderfully tasty, cool lunch on a hot day, with some of our home-canned peaches on the side!

6 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar (I used Balsamic vinegar)

1/2 tsp dried tarragon (I used some dried "herbs de province")

1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (I used the bottled kind, as I'm too Dutch to waste a whole lemon for half a tablespoon)

1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (I used yellow, as I don't care for or have Dijon)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper (I found myself adding a little more pepper while eating, so I would likely increase this next time)

1 (3#) rotisserie chicken, diced (I used the breasts from one of our birds, which I had baked with a citrus blend seasoning on the outside.)

1/2 cup orzo

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, because I prefer them)

1 6 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained (I cut them into halves or quarters, depending on size)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped, pitted kalamata olives 

1. Combine oil, vinegar, tarragon, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to blend.

2. In a medium bowl, toss chicken with ¼ cup dressing.

3. Boil orzo in a large pot of salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Rinse under cold water to cool and drain well.

4. Transfer orzo to a large bowl. Stir in remaining dressing and toss to coat. Add chicken, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and olives. Keep chilled until lunchtime.

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