Don’t Be a Chicken, Try a New Chicken Recipe!

By Sarah Correll

September is Eat Chicken Month! Chicken is a great source of lean protein, not to mention a delicious part of many meals! The Real Farmwives of America and Friends have shared some delicious chicken recipes. Which one are you most excited to try?

Chicken Stuffing Casserole

Cris shares the secret to making great stuffing in this crockpot recipe!

Too-Easy Teriyaki Wings

Wings take a fun twist in this recipe from Marybeth.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Liz adds protein, and flavor, to a white pizza with this recipe.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Cheese, ham, and chicken are all included in this recipe from Leah- and this version is low-carb, too!

What do I do with THIS?

Guest Post by Marybeth of Real Farmwives of America & Friends and Alarm Clock Wars

In January, I undertook a new challenge. An Iron Chef Challenge. My friend Ott, A. over at A Latte with Ott, A was running an Iron Chef Challenge for all her bloggy friends. And the theme for January was duck! I love duck! I had only cooked it once before, a whole roast duck, and I loved that I had an excuse to try it again!

So I hit the cookbooks, and found a recipe for duck breast that looked yummy. Off to the local grocery store, where there was no duck breast to be found. Only a whole duck.

Hmmm.

Okay, so scrap the duck breast recipe, and look for a recipe that used the whole duck. I had done a whole roasted duck before, so I wanted to try something different.

I am a huge Alton Brown fan, and have yet to try a recipe from him that I didn’t like, so I cruised the Food Network website to find an AB recipe I could try. Oh, and did I find one! Mighty Duck! (Who can resist with a name like that?)

The problem? This is not a recipe for a whole duck. This is a recipe for a quartered duck. But I didn’t have a quartered duck… I had a whole duck!

Lucky for me, AB gives detailed directions on how to quarter a whole duck.

Lucky for you, I took pictures while I quartered my duck!

(Although AB says “a chicken is not a duck,” this technique will also work for a chicken, or a turkey, or whatever other kind of poultry you’re trying to quarter. Just substitute your poultry of choice wherever you see the word “duck.”)

Start with a thawed duck (sorry for stating the obvious here, but, hey, you never know!), and assemble the rest of your tools. You will need: a large cutting board, kitchen shears, and a large knife. I also had a cheat sheet. Unwrap your duck, and take out the giblets and the pop up timer (if there is one). Rinse off the duck so it is clean and shiny.

Put the duck on your cutting board, breast side down, and use your kitchen shears to cut off the wings. (Now he just looks sad.)

Pull the big flap of neck skin out of the way. (You can cut it off if you want to.) Using your kitchen shears again, cut through the ribs on either side of the backbone. Start from the neck and work your way back. When you’ve got the backbone free from the ribs and the meat, take it out.

Now put the duck breast side up on your cutting board. You should be able to spread it out so it’s kind of flat.

Again, with the kitchen shears, cut the duck in half, right down the middle of the breast bone. Now you should have two halves of a duck.

Next we need to separate the legs from the breasts. You should be able to see a division between the leg and the breast where there is not much meat. Use your big knife to make a crescent-shaped cut around the top of the leg. (We’re keeping the thigh and the drumstick together here, so don’t worry about separating those two parts.)

Do this step again for the other half, and, voila! Quartered duck! Great job!!

Just in case this didn’t get you quite the information you need, or if you want the details on how “a chicken is not a duck,” Alton Brown has a fantastic video detailing the entire process, with a chicken. Although, really, even if you are an expert in breaking down a chicken, this video is worth watching, for pure entertainment value alone! “Quoth the chicken, ‘fry some more!’”

You gotta love anyone who incorporates great literature into fried chicken! Oh, and the pan-fried chicken recipe is wonderful, too, although it’s just teased in the video. (If you want to skip right to the meat of the matter, the breaking down demonstration starts around 3:50 into the video clip.)

Wordless Wednesday: Hungry Yet?

Hungry yet?

Head on over to Two Maids a Milking to get this yummy recipe from Liz of the Real Farmwives of America and Friends'

From Our Tables to Yours: Buffalo Chicken Chili

Guest Post by Dennis Henry of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture

Hello, Dennis here!  I am the Licensing Officer for the Indiana Grain Buyers & Warehouse Licensing Agency (a mouthful) and on the Social Media Team with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.  Our team was tasked with bringing you a favorite recipe and we decided with the cold weather a good Chili recipe would be good.  Well I knew right off the bat; I had the recipe to showcase.

 I by no means am any gourmet chef, I like simple food that tastes good, is easy to make and has a little different twist to it.  I love Chili and from growing up in Michigan I found out there are many different varieties when I moved here to Indiana.  It seems that every area of the country has their own way of making this warm and hearty dish.  Knowing this, I am always trying out different recipes. 

When visiting my Sister on Holiday, we were looking thru some of her Recipe Magazines and I stumbled across this one I am going to share with you.  This Buffalo Chicken Chili has become a household favorite, we have even taken the ingredients with us to make during our camping trips one autumn trip.  What a wonderful dish to eat around the campfire during the cool autumn camping season.  I found that if I chop my vegetables and boiling my chicken breast before we leave and place them in containers, I can whip up a batch in no time.

Ok enough about me, here is my favorite Chili recipe; Buffalo Chicken Chili.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. Canola Oil

2 Ribs Celery, diced

1 large Green Pepper, diced

1 large Onion, diced

2 cloves of Garlic, minced

2 lbs boneless, skinless Chicken Breast, cut into 1” pieces

1 pkg. (1.6 oz.) Buffalo Wings seasoning mix

1 can (14 oz.) diced Tomatoes with Mild Green Chilies

1 can (6oz.) Tomato Paste

1 can (19 oz.) Red Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups Vegetable or Tomato Juice

2 tsp. Frank’s RedHot Sauce

1 cup chopped fresh Cilantro*

1 bottle of your favorite Bleu Cheese salad dressing

I begin by heating the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  

Then I added the Celery, Green Pepper and Onion to the pan and sautéed until the vegetables start to soften, at which time I added the Garlic and continued to sauté for a total of about 5 minutes. 

I then added the diced Chicken to brown.  I add in the Buffalo Seasoning Mix and continue to stir often, to brown all sides of the Chicken.

 Once the Chicken has done, I then transfer the mixture to my slow cooker.  After this I add the tomatoes with their juice, the tomato paste, beans, vegetable juice and the hot sauce.  

I let this slow cook on High for a good two hours or on Low for four to six hours.  About ½ hour before you serve, add 2/3 cup of Cilantro.  *I prefer this recipe without the Cilantro, so I reserve and let each guest add their own.  The more it cooks, the better it gets!