Sunday, January 27, 2008

Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

1/2 Cup onion -- chopped
1/2 Cup celery -- chopped
2 Cloves garlic -- minced
1/4 Cup butter or margarine
1/2 Cup flour
2 Teaspoons sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon dried basil
1/2 Teaspoon pepper
1 Package frozen green peas
4 Cups chicken -- cubed, cooked

DUMPLINGS
2 Cups buttermilk baking mix
2 Teaspoons dried basil
2/3 Cup milk


In large saucepan, saute onion, celery and garlic in butter until tender.Add flour, sugar, salt, basil, pepper and broth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 1 minute; reduce heat. Add peas and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in chicken. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan.

For dumplings, combine biscuit mix and basil in a bowl. Stir in milk with a fork until moistened. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto casserole (12 dumplings). Bake, uncovered, at 350F for 30 minutes. Cover and bake for 10 minutes more or until dumplings are done.
Buttermilk Brined Chicken Thighs

1/2 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 quart low-fat or fat-free buttermilk (well shaken)
12 chicken thighs (about 5 pounds total)

In a large bowl whisk onions, garlic, salt, sugar, cumin and black pepper into buttermilk. Rinse chicken thighs under cold and pat dry with paper towels.

Place thighs into a 1-gallon re-sealable plastic bag, pour buttermilk mixture over thighs, and squeeze out as much air as possible and seal bag. Work the thighs around in the buttermilk until well coated and then refrigerate four hours or overnight.

Remove chicken from refrigerator. Heat grill and to medium-high.
Remove chicken from brine and wipe excess liquid from thighs with paper towels. Place thighs on grill and close lid. Cook until browned on both sides.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Great-Grandma Gibson’s Fried Chicken
(From the Homesick Texan web site:)

Ingredients:
One fresh whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
8 cups of water
1/2 cup of salt
1 1/2-2 cups of lard (can use shortening or oil) depending on size of your skillet. Fat should rise up the sides about 1 inch.
1 cup of flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Heat up 8 cups of water, and then add 1/2 cup of salt. Either add ice cubes or chill water until cool.

When water is cool, add chicken pieces and submerge. Keep covered in the refrigerator overnight or at least 8 hours.

Mix flour, salt and pepper and place in a paper bag.

Place each piece of chicken in paper bag and shake until evenly coated with flour. Lay coated piece of chicken on a plate. Repeat until all pieces are coated.

Heat lard on high heat in a large cast-iron skillet (though if you don’t have one you can use any other kind of skillet as well) until temperature is 350 degrees.

If you don’t have a thermometer, it should take about five minutes to reach that temperature. You can test the heat by throwing in a dollop of flour—if it floats and starts frying, the temperature is perfect; if the flour sinks to the bottom, the lard needs to heat up a few more minutes.

Place chicken pieces in skillet skin-side down (they can be near each other, but shouldn’t overlap) and turn heat down to medium. Fry on one side until golden brown (10-15 minutes), then turn with tongs and fry other side until golden brown.

Remove fried chicken from skillet with tongs, and drain for 10 minutes on a rack over a sheet pan or on paper towels or a paper bag. Serve immediately.

Note: This method produces a very thin but crispy crust. If you want a super-thick crust, you can do a flour dredge, then dip it into buttermilk and then dredge in flour again. And go easy on the salt since the chicken will already be salty from the brine. If you desire, you can add herbs to your brine.

If you want to do a buttermilk soak, place the pieces in a bowl and then submerge in buttermilk for at least eight hours. If you have the time and want to do both the salt-water and the buttermilk soak, do the salt-water first and then the buttermilk soak.

If you need to fry in batches, you can keep the fried chicken warm in an oven set at 150 degrees. Just don't leave it in the oven longer than 30 minutes or it will get too dry.