Homemade Chicken Stock

Homemade Chicken Stock
From Ina Garten 

Making your own chicken stock is clearly not necessary.  According to me, and according to most sane people.  BUT, something strange happens when you watch enough episodes of Martha Stewart and The Barefoot Contessa.  Sure, at first you mock the TV screen and joke about fetching eggs from your chickens out back.  But then one day you wake up and say something absurd to your husband: "honey, I think we should make our own chicken stock today."  And then, because he's been second hand smoking this crazy food babble for the past 3 years, he agrees to the process of sitting around all Saturday afternoon to make this happen (to be fair, college football season makes the sitting around part less objectionable for him).

So what was the result?  Actually, a pretty awesome product for what was really very little work.  Everything goes into the pot whole or nearly whole, so there's not much hands on effort.  And it makes a TON of stock, so thanks to some Gladware and our new freezer in the garage, we'll be enjoying this super rich stock for a while to come.


Ingredients

• 2 (5-pound) roasting chickens
• 2 large yellow onions, unpeeled and quartered
• 4 carrots, unpeeled and halved
• 2 stalks celery with leaves, cut into thirds
• 3 parsnips, unpeeled and cut in half
• 15 sprigs fresh parsley
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme
• 15 sprigs fresh dill
• 1 head garlic, unpeeled and cut in 1/2 crosswise
• 1 1/2 Tbsp coarse salt
• 1 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Preparation

1. Place the chickens, onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, parsley, thyme, dill, garlic, salt, and peppercorns into a 12-quart stockpot.
2. Add 5 quarts of water and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours.
4. Remove the chickens and place in a big bowl.  Pull the breast meat off both chickens. 
5. Return the carcases and all scraps to the pot.  Simmer, uncovered, for an additional 2 hours.
6. Strain the entire contents of the pot through a colander and discard the solids.
7. Chill the stock overnight.
8. The next day the fat will have congealed on the top.  Skim it off with a ladle.
9. Use immediately, or pack in containers and freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes about 4 quarts.

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Grilled Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Panini

Grilled Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Panini
From The Pioneer Woman 

John is generally wary of meatless dinners, but he has been a great sport throughout my ongoing fall produce-based entree rampage.  So when I set my sights on making parsnip soup for dinner last week I decided to be nice and suggest a soup and sandwich duo. 

John's sandwich pick is from one of his favorite man-friendly food blogs, the Pioneer Woman.  It rounded out our meal perfectly, and was really flavorful and hearty.  The marinated, grilled chicken is beyond awesome.  I could have easily just eaten that as an entree, and one of these days we probably will.  But taking it to the next level and making the panini is easy enough.  I bet you could even use jarred roasted red peppers for a great result and a few less steps.  Plus the pesto mayo spread can easily be re-purposed the next day for breakfast sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 8 whole sundried tomatoes, packed in oil
• 3 Tbsp prepared basil pesto (we used jarred - but use your own if you're awesome and have some on hand!)
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 red bell peppers
• 8 slices provolone cheese
• 8 slices bread
• 2 Tbsp butter, softened

Preparation

1. Pound chicken until it's uniformly thick.
2. In a blender or food processor puree sundried tomatoes, pesto, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
3. Mix 3 tablespoons of the tomato mixture with mayonnaise.  Cover and refridgerate until needed.
4. Add remaining mixture to a ziploc bag with the chicken breasts. Smush around to coat the chicken, then refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
5. Heat heavy skillet or grill to medium.  Grill chicken until done.  Slice into strips.
6. If you have a gas range, blacken red peppers directly over the flame.  If you do not have a gas range, blacken them directly under the oven broiler.
7. Immediately seal blackened peppers in a ziploc bag. Allow peppers to sit, sealed, in the bag for at least 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove from bag and use fingers to slip off the blackened skin. (Don't be afraid to leave some black bits!)
8. Cut the peppers in half, remove seeds, and slice into strips.
9. To assemble the panini, spread mayo mixture on one side of all 8 slices of bread.  Place chicken, peppers, and 2 slices of cheese on the mayo side of 4 of the bread slices.   Top with second bread slice, mayo side down.  Butter the outsides of the bread.
10. Grill in panini pan until the cheese looks melty and the bread is brown and crunchy.

Serves 4

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Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways

 

Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways
From Ribs, Chops, Steaks & Wings by Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe

 

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a lazy Sunday barbecue at our friends' house in the suburbs.  We were there to watch the Bears game, but since they let us down (as usual), the focus turned towards food.  Our chorizo bean dip was a hit, but the real star of the show was the grilled chicken wings made by our lovely hosts.

 

The next weekend we stayed home for the game, but we just had to have more of those wings!  We found a recipe for wing rub in a grilling cookbook we got as a wedding gift.  Then we saw that the book had a whole chapter dedicated to wing sauces, so we decided to take it up a notch.

 

All three of these versions turn out amazing and prove that deep frying ala your favorite sports bar is totally unnecessary for a crispy skin.  They all start with the same rub and grilling process.  Then one third is served as is, just rubbed and grilled.  Another third is tossed in a buffalo sauce, and the remaining third gets honey-BBQ sauce.  Of course, you can make all the wings to have one or two of these sauces, but we thought having all three was more fun.

 

Ingredients

 

Ribs

• about 20 whole, fresh chicken wings (they're weird looking if you're expecting what you see at the bar - see step 1 for cutting them down)

Rub

• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Hot Wing Sauce

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce (other brands would do, I guess, but Frank's really has that classic hot wing flavor)

Barbeque Wing Sauce

• 1 cup barbecue sauce (we're partial to Sweet Baby Ray's, but use what you like)
• 1/4 cup honey 

Preparation

1. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut each wing into three parts.  One end turns into the little drumstick, the middle turns into the rectangle shaped one, and the pointy tip end is garbage (we accidentally left it on, so you may notice it in the pic - we just ate around it).  I recommend You Tube if that made no sense, but if you order wings at bars a lot just take a second to look at the wing and I think you'll see the familiar parts.
2. Mix salt, sugar, and next 8 ingredients (through cayenne pepper) together in a small bowl.
3. Rub the spice mixture over each wing.  Allow wings to rest for at least 15 minutes, and up to 4 hours.
4. Heat grill to medium.
5. Grill wings for about 25 minutes, turning often.  They are done when they are nicely browned and the juices run clear.
6. For dry-rubbed wings, serve as is.
7. For hot wings, melt butter in a small sauce pan.  Stir in hot sauce.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.
8. For barbecue wings, warm barbecue sauce and honey in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.

Serves 40 wing pieces.

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