Chicken & Dumplings

I haven't had chicken and dumplings since I went gluten free almost 8 years ago. For some reason, it never occurred to me to try to make this great southern classic until I recently discovered the 123 Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuit mix. I suddenly remembered that dumpling dough is pretty much the same as biscuit dough, so I went for it. Plus, I've recently seen people using smoked paprika on lots of cooking shows and decided to check out the trend - the smoked paprika really brought a nice depth of flavor to the dish. This turned out perfectly. If you are GF and need a comfort food, this is a great one! 

Ingredients:

• Whole Chicken, roasted and stripped of meat
• Brine
• Apple Cider
• Sage
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Smoked Paprika
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper
• Garlic Salt
• Celery Salt
• Juniper Berries
• Stock
• Carcass and bones from brined chicken
• Water
• Celery
• Onion
• Carrot
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Black Pepper
• Garlic
• Basil
• Oregano
• Sage
• Onion
• Celery
• Carrot
• Dumplings
• 123 Gluten Free Mix, follow box directions

Procedure:

I went all out with this one. I started by brining the chicken. To make the brine, I combined the ingredients in a large pot, simmered for about half an hour, let it cool, then covered a whole chicken with the brine and let it sit for about a day. Once brined, I broke down the chicken - see this great video for how to break down a chicken. I seasoned some chopped vegetables with smoked paprika, salt, and pepper, and lined a baking pan with them. I finely chopped some garlic with rosemary and sage, stuffed the mixture under the skin of the chicken, and put the chicken on top of the vegetables. That all went in a 425 degree oven for about 45 minutes to roast.

I ate some of the chicken for dinner, but saved most of it. The next day, I started a stock using the carcass and wings of the chicken, the roasted vegetables, and some fresh herbs. While that simmered, I stripped all of the meat from the roasted chicken and added the bones to the stock. After the stock simmered for about 3 hours, I strained it. 

The stock went back in the pot, and I added some fresh carrots and celery. While that started to simmer, I followed the directions on the 123 Gluten Free buttermilk biscuit mix box to make the dough. I rolled the dough into small balls about half an inch in diameter. The chicken meat was then added to the soup and the soup was brought to a boil. I dropped the dumplings into the boiling broth one by one, being careful to space them out so they wouldn't stick together. They would drop to the bottom then rise after about 2 minutes, as they started to cook. After I added what seemed like a good amount of dumplings, I let them cook for about 15 minutes. While they finished I made biscuits out of the leftover dough. Once the dumplings were cooked through, I turned off the heat and the soup was done!

Resulting Deliciousness:

This was the best soup I've ever made. Chicken and dumplings are a great southern comfort food that I hadn't had for about a decade. The texture of the soup was perfect and the flavor was fantastic. You could really taste the garlic and smoked paprika in the pieces of chicken. The dumplings took on the flavor of the soup nicely and turned out really well. While this turned out to be one of the best all around dishes I've ever made, I think the dumplings could be improved by adding herbs or some other seasoning to the dough and making them thin strips instead of balls. You could definitely make a simpler version with diced chicken breast and store bought stock instead of the whole brining-roasting-stock making procedure, but I think the incredible flavor was well worth it.

Roast Duck with Celery Roots, Beets, and Asparagus

I recently heard about a new butcher shop in Alexandria, Virginia called Let's Meat on the Avenue.  They specialize in local pasture fed and naturally fed meat.  Obviously, I had to check it out.  It's a great little butcher shop, just what I've been looking for in the area.  The selection is good and you can get custom cuts and order specialty things that they don't always have.  While I went in looking for grass fed beef, I ended up getting a duck.  It wasn't local like most of the other meat (farm raised in Indiana), but I found I was in the mood for fowl.  If you are in northern Virginia or DC and appreciate meat with a traceable source that has put real thought and care into how they farm (as well as a butcher that understands that) this is the butcher shop for you!

Ingredients:

• Duck
• Brine
• Apple cider
• Kosher salt
• Garlic
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Juniper berries (lightly crushed)
• Pepper
• Celery salt
• Paprika
• Rub
• Kosher salt
• Cane sugar
• Paprika
• Cloves
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• Garlic Salt
• Celery Salt
• Oregano
• Basil
• Celery Root
• Beets
• Asparagus
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Apple Cider

Procedure:

    Like most of the meat I've prepared in the last year, this started out with a brine.  I took some apple cider, added the ingredients listed, simmered it for about 45 minutes, and let it cool.  I removed the giblets from the duck, cut off a little excess fat and skin, and rinsed it well.  The brine and the duck met each other in a ziplock bag and moved to the fridge, where they together pursued perfection of flavor and texture for the next 24 hours.

    The next evening, I cut up a celery root, three beets, and a bundle of asparagus.  These were covered in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed in a baking pan with a little cider and a fowl roasting rack.  A fowl roasting rack holds a bird in a V-shaped rack a bit above the bottom of a roasting pan.  This keeps the whole bird in the air and allows the vegetables placed underneath to receive a slow shower of flavorful drippings. If you've never used celery root, I highly recommend it.  It is a large white root vegetable that you can prepare the same ways you can prepare potatoes.  However, they have a nice subtle celery flavor that blows potatoes out of the water.  They are an easy way to take a meat and potatoes kind of meal and kick it up to a higher level.  I only discovered celery root recently and it is my new favorite thing.

    Once the pan was prepared, I mixed up a rub of equal parts cane sugar and kosher salt, plus the seasonings listed above.  I took the duck out of the brine, rinsed it lightly, smeared it with a little olive oil, and covered it with the rub, including the cavity.  Remember that rubs are called 'rubs' for a reason - don't just sprinkle meat with it, really rub it in.  This grinds it into the skin and fat and keeps the rub from running off with the drippings while you cook.  Instead, the flavor infuses the meat and makes the skin slightly crusty and extremely tasty.  Once rubbed, the duck got its cavity stuffed with the rest of my fresh rosemary, sage, thyme, and garlic.

    I placed the duck breast down in the fowl roasting rack above the vegetables.  I've started cooking birds breast down whenever I remember to.  This lets all of the fatty, flavorful drippings seep through the prime meat, making it juicier and more succulent than when baked on its back.  I roasted the duck on the bottom rack at 325 for about 2 hours.  I then flipped it on its back and roasted another 30 minutes breast up because the back was perfectly done and the breast needed a little more heat.  

    While this description is long, roasting like this is quick and easy.  You only have to roughly chop the vegetables and the meat preparation is very fast.  The only time consuming part is the actual roasting, but that's a fairly passive undertaking.  

Resulting Deliciousness:  

    This duck turned out exactly how I wanted it to.  The skin was just a little crusty and had a powerful flavor that complimented the meat.  The celery root, beats, and asparagus were delicious - they held their own and did not just taste like drippings, as could easily happen with things like potatoes and carrots.  I was really happy with the way this turned out.  

    Duck is a naturally fatty and flavorful meat, and if you cook it too fast or don't let it drip, you risk ending up with a greasy meal.  This was not greasy at all.  The fat that did not drip off to enhance the vegetables stayed with the skin and took on the flavors of the brine and the rub.  That flavor made the difference between feeling like you were eating a nice piece of meat with a nasty strip of fat, and feeling like you were eating a well balanced, flavorful, well prepared cut.

Brined and Roasted Chicken

I made this chicken on May 31 and just realized I never posted it. Here it is for your delight.

Ingredients:

• Brine
• Apple cider
• Cranberry juice
• garlic
• bay leaves
• kosher salt
• pepper
• Chicken
• Potatoes
• Green pepper
• Celery
  
• Onion
• Rosemary
• Thyme

Procedure:
First, I made the brine. I put all of the ingredients in a large pot and boiled them for about 30 minutes, time to get rid of some of the water and carmalize some of the sugar in the juices. While that was cooling off, I put the chicken in a large pot and threw some salt, pepper, and paprika on it. The chicken was covered in brine and left in the fridge for about a day.

Once the chicken had thoroughly brined, I cut up the potatoes, onions, celery, and green pepper. I lined a baking pan with those and added the spices, olive oil, and some cider over top. The chicken was stuffed with more onions, celery, green pepper, and spices, then went on a rack that held it above the vegetables in the pan. I baked it at 275 for an hour, then covered it with tin foil and bumped it up to 300 for 25 minutes. The chicken was too high in the oven and the skin burned just a little. The foil kept that from getting worse while it finished cooking.

Resulting Deliciousness:
This turned out really well. The chicken was moist and flavorful, as were the vegetables that cooked in the drippings and cider. The skin looked pretty burnt, but tasted fine. Next time I'll move it down in the oven to keep that from happening.

Spring Break Ribs

22-23 May 2008:  Second Annual Spring Break!  We made some ribs out of forrest fed pork.  Delicious: 

Ingredients:

• 2 racks (4.3 lbs) of ribs from Buffalo Creek Farms (www.forestfed.com) - forest free range pork that I bought at the Old Town Alexandria Farmer's Market
  
• Brine
• Apple Cider
• Some kind of Italian dressing-like marinade that Scott had
• pepper
• Sea salt
• oregano
• garlic salt
• honey
• brown sugar
• Glaze
• Apple Cider
• pepper
• honey
• brown sugar
• Dipping sauce
• red peppers
• pepper
• leftover glaze
• Baked Beans
• Bush's Baked Beans
• Bacon
• Onion
• Celery
• Potato Salad
• not sure, Scott's recipe

Equipment:

• Stove
• some pots and pans
  
• oven
• baking pan and rack
• grill
• blender

Procedure:
We started out by making the brine on Thursday evening. We simmered all the ingredients listed for about half an hour. The brine was heavy on salt and easy on the brown sugar. Once it was ready, we cooled it down, and put it in bags with the ribs to sit in the fridge overnight. We then went out on the town and experienced several of Wilmington's fine establishments which caters to those of the imbibing persuasion. Very nice night to kick off SPRING BREAK '08!!!

The next morning (afternoon), we had mimosas, put the ribs in the oven at 235, and went to the beach for some fun in the sun - a SPRING BREAK necessity. We took too long at the beach and called Scott's neighbor to turn the stove off after the ribs had been going about 4 hours. When we got back (about 5 hours after putting the ribs in the oven), Scott and I got started on the fixin's. I made the glaze pretty much the same way as the brine, but smaller quantity, no salt, no vinegar based marinade, and lots of honey and brown sugar. I cooked it until you could smell the apple sugars caramelizing and it got syrupy. Scott added bacon, caramelized onions, and celery to some baked beans. The day before, he had made some killer potato salad. We roasted three red peppers, then put the ribs on the grill for about 15 minutes per side with the glaze. I put the roasted peppers, the leftover glaze, some salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a blender to make an awesome smoky, sweet dipping sauce for the ribs.

Resulting Deliciousness:
When everything was ready, we all sat down for a fantastic meal. The seasoning on ribs was great and they were nice and moist and tender. The beans turned out delicious - what wouldn't with a bunch of bacon added? The dipping sauce was a nice addition to the ribs and didn't take anything away from the flavor of the meat the way most barbecue sauce does. It was all capped off by several hours of drinking and s'mores around the campfire in Scott's back yard. Not much could have made it a better second night of SPRING BREAK '08!!

The only think I might change would be to leave the vinegar based marinade out of the brine and add more black pepper to both the brine and the glaze. Roasting the peppers longer might have been good too, but they were decently done and the sauce turned out well.

The next day, we went deep sea fishing and got caught in some bad weather. Karma is real - the day after cooking awesome pork ribs, I chipped a rib while being slammed into the side of the boat. It will take about 6-8 weeks to heal, right now I feel like I'm about to die when I sneeze. Totally worth it.