How do you parcel out a whole chicken for making several meals? Or is your family large enough to require one or more whole birds at a meal? Or do you make up one recipe for the whole thing and enjoy leftovers?
Since there are only three of us at home now, I don’t mind divvying up parts and pieces into several different meals. For the past couple days, we enjoyed a 4.25 lb broiler from Pigeon Creek Farms in five different entrees. Now, i must admit that they were small meals, so these may not be enough individually if you are outside working hard.
After cutting up the thawed chicken,
Fried chicken – used the 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings dredged in flour and until crispy and golden. Saved the cooking oil and flour….
Chicken gravy – used the saved cooking oil and flour stirred in, added milk and heated through to make thick country gravy. Use on the chicken, smashed potatoes, or over torn pieces of bread.
Chicken broth – placed the back and bones from the breast meat into 3 cups of water, brought to a boil and simmered for a couple hours. Tear bits of meat off the bone to add to broth or….
Salad – use those bits of chicken meat and top off a chef salad
Chicken Kiev – had never made it before and likely won’t again. It’s tasty, but not worth the extra work. Not even as tasty as fried chicken or spatchcocked chicken, both of which are much easier to prepare.
Fried Chicken. Parts of chicken dredged in flour and fried in olive oilThe back and the bone that i removed from the breast are boiled and simmered in about 3 cups of water.Use any leftover fried chicken flour and add to hot frying oil.
Web search sites to help consumers find producers of all sorts of food products near you or available for shipping. CSA’s, farmer’s markets, and all sorts of shopping opportunities. Be sure to check to see if your own state has a state buyer’s guide! and be sure to let me know of any i missed.
This is a dorky video, but this young hen wants to be a mommy SO badly, yet she is well behaved and does not peck or bite me when i collect the eggs beneath her, so i thought i’d share with you how a broody hen reacts when disturbed.
If i had a purebred Welsummer rooster, i’d let her lay and set on some fertilized eggs so she could raise some chicks, but i don’t. Of course, these eggs are not fertilized and will never develop embryos. These Welsummers, purchased from Cacklehatchery, are the most entertaining, friendly (though are easily startled), beautiful hens i’ve ever raised. They are excellent layers to boot.
I had a few repairs to make to the eggmobile since its high profile encourages it to be blown over in heavy winds, which we seem to get more of these past few years. I have rigged a way to support it so it doesn’t blow over anymore.
Anyway, collected these few eggs a bit early in the day because it’s a bit wet and muddy and the hens sometimes come into the nesting boxes with muddy feet, soiling the eggs.
Truly pastured hens protected from ground predation with Premier 1 Supplies’PoultryNet. This is the best netting i’ve found for performance and ease of handling. I bought two of the 100 foot green rolls (product number 207001). It is still a bit heavy. They also offer a 50 foot version (207002). They also offer the plastic nesting pads which are excellent – forget straw, paper, chips – these keep the eggs cleaner and the hens can’t scratch them out of place. Item #5404120
A recipe i learnt from my Grandma Falconer is Beef Salad. This mixture makes great take-to-the-field sandwiches, yet easily fits onto a bed of lettuce, use as a dip with crackers or chips, or eat by itself.
The starting point for the meat is about 1/2 lb of ground cooked roast, ground cooked chicken, or 1 6 oz can of tuna. I’ve tried this with lamb roast and turkey, and for whatever reason, it just doesn’t taste quite right. Personal taste – i love lamb.
6 hard cooked eggs
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped pickles or pickle relish, optional
Peel and chop the eggs, either by hand or in a food processor. Place them in a medium sized bowl, then add the meat and other ingredients. Stir and mix thoroughly.
Voila! already ready to serve. This recipe if fully adjustable to your own tastes. Perhaps you prefer more meat to eggs or vice versa. Or a spicier mustard or more mayo.
Cooking time: about 4 hours Servings: 12-24 servings
INGREDIENTS:
2-3 lbs stewing hen (you’ll need about 6 cups of ground meat)
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons black pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Slow cook stewing hen until tender. Remove meat from skin and bones and cut meat into pieces. Place meat back into cooking water with sage and cayenne pepper and simmer 2 to 3 hours. Drain and reserve stock.
Chop meat with a knife or food processor, being careful not to grind it too fine. Set aside.
(Note that i had already done all the above and just froze ground meat separately from plain chicken stock – i only add spices when ready to make this recipe)
Measure 5 cups of stock and return to pot. Bring to a simmer, add meat, cornmeal, salt, and peppers, then stir constantly until thick and smooth – about 15 to 30 minutes.
Pour mixture into 2 loaf pans and refrigerate until completely chilled. Un-mold scrapple. Slice and fry until golden brown and crispy on both sides.
Whilst stirring, you may need to break up clumps of corn mealWhilst stirring, you may need to break up any clumps of corn meal.The mixture needs to be thick to hold together once you’ve removed from pan.Refrigerate or cool outside like i did here since it’s colder outside than in the frig anyway!
No need to grease or butter the loaf pan, but definitely sliding a knife around the edge to loosen really helps it ease out of the pan.I’m using beef fat here for frying, but butter or olive oil works just as well.
Fry on low-medium heat, then carefully flip to reveal this crispy brown side, fry the other side, then ready to serve.Philadelphia Scrapple with egg – this is just a terrible photo, but you get the idea. Notice the pale yolk on our farm egg – that’s a winter egg. No green grass out there now.Despite the savory aspect of scrapple, you may enjoy just a smidgen of syrup on this. Try it on just a corner. We are so fortunate to buy pure maple syrup from our neighbor – Coyote Orchard, Purdin, Missouri.Almost all gone! Yum!
An excellent non meat recipe. But meat can easily be layered on and consider other vegetables. Pictured here, I used sliced zucchini from my garden and added ground chicken breast from pastured poultry raised by my friends at Pigeon Creek Farm.
Cheese and Rice Casserole (Riso e Formaggio)
8 servings
2 cups water
1 cup uncooked regular rice (or barley or couscous or any combination thereof)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon red pepper sauce (optional
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion (I used green onions)
1 medium green pepper, chopped (optional)
2 cups shredded mozzarella or Cheddar cheese (8 ounces)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2 ½ cups milk
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Heat water, rice, salt, mustard, red pepper sauce, and pepper to boiling, stirring once or twice; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. (Do not lift cover or stir.) Remove from heat. Fluff rice lightly with fork; cover and let steam 5 to 10 minutes.
Layer half the rice mixture in bottom of greased 11 x 7 x 1 ½ inch baking dish. Top with 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (and 1 cup vegetable if desired); repeat. Whisk together 4 eggs and 2 ½ cups of milk then pour over rice mixture. Sprinkle with ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese. (Casserole can be covered and refrigerated up to 24 hours at this point.) Cook uncovered in 350°F oven until set; 45 to 50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. Cut into squares.
