Chicken with Peach Bourbon Barbeque Sauce

Let me start by saying that homemade barbeque sauce is where it's at! This sauce is an adaptation from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook and it's reeealllllyyyy good. The first few days it's too peachy almost like seasoned peach butter. It really needs at least 2 or 3 days for the flavors to meld, then it tastes awesome. Smooth. Complex. Mellow peach flavor. Hint of bourbon and molasses. If you want the best flavor, can it and let it mature for a week or two. This would be a perfect use for overripe, bruised peaches. I used peaches that I had frozen and weren't fit for anything else.

Although this is a canning recipe, it doesn't have to be. There is enough sugar and acid in this homemade sauce that it will keep at least a couple of weeks in the fridge. You could also scale this back to a quarter batch for a single 16 ounce jar. Be warned: this is a sweet thick sauce, so if your into the runny vinegary Carolina stuff, this is not for you.

This is also my favorite way to make chicken in pieces. It's quick, easy, doesn't require a grill, and produces moist meat every time. While your oven preheats to 450 degrees, you brown the chicken skin side down for a few minutes in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. No need to oil the skillet since the fat of the skin will render and the chicken will release from the pan. Flip and brown on the other side. Usually I brown chicken to a darker bronze, but since we're adding a sweet sauce that will caramelize some, go for a lighter golden brown (unless you want to set off your smoke detectors. Twice. Not that that ever happens in my perfectly organized kitchen. Riiiiiiight.)

Then you baste them with a coat of the sauce:

And throw them in your preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes. And voila, you're done!

You can make as many chicken pieces as you can cram in your skillet. The beauty of this method though is that it's quick so I usually make just enough for that night since leftovers won't have the crisp skin like chicken straight out of the skillet.

Peach Bourbon Barbeque Sauce
Yields about 4 Pint (16 ounce) Jars
Cooking Time: Approx. 90 min. (including hot water bath canning)
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma's The Art of Preserving

4 lbs peaches
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

olive oil, for sauteing
8 ounces (about 2 cups) onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup bourbon

2 Tablespoons molasses
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons chili powder
salt and pepper, to taste


1. Pit and slice the peaches, no need to remove the skin. Toss them with the lemon juice in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a sauce pan, saute the onions in a little olive oil until tender.

3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

4. Add the peaches, sugar, vinegar, and bourbon. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until peaches and onion are very tender, about 30 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender.

6. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer about 10 minutes to let the flavors meld a little. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

7. Ladle the hot sauce into hot clean jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles, wipe rims, and apply lids. Process for 15 minutes in a hot water bath.

Turkey Stock

A week after Christmas, my husband and I were wandering around the grocery store when we spied several turkeys with big sale stickers sitting in a refrigerated case. Knowing I had just enough space in my freezer to wedge one in, I scored a 14 pound turkey for 9 bucks. It's important to note that I've never made a turkey before, but in recent years I've had a Norman Rockwell-esque vision of myself hosting the perfect holiday dinner complete with a perfectly roasted turkey. No matter that I don't actually own a real roasting pan and that my apartment fridge was barely big enough to hold the sucker. It was time for a test run! I decided to go pretty simple and roasted it on my broiler pan with a foil tent for a while. And then took off the tent the last 45 minutes so it could brown more. The results:

Not too shabby, right? It wasn't the moistest turkey I've ever had, but the skin was awesome. I think an electric roaster or a domed roasting pan plus browning time in the oven at the end would give you the best of both worlds--really moist meat and crispy skin.

After my husband had carved the turkey up, I used the bones to make stock. This is something else I've always wanted to do, but never tried. The process is really easy and I'll be saving all the bones from roasted poultry in the future for stock making. First, I broke up the carcass and threw it into a 6 quart stockpot along with the drippings from the pan and a few chicken bones I'd been saving.

Then I added water in the neighborhood of 15 cups (a cup under 4 quarts). In hindsight, I should have added a little less because when I added the veggies later, I had to take out a couple of bones so the pot wouldn't overflow.

Then I put the heat on very low (180-190 degrees) and let it go for about 3 1/2 hours. Gentle cooking over a long period is supposed to be the key to a good stock. You don't even want it to simmer in this case since the bones are already cooked. I used a thermometer to get the right temperature and checked it every 1/2 hour or so. If you're oven has a low enough setting you could just do this in the oven so you don't have to monitor the temperature. (Of course, I thought of this afterwards.) At 3 1/2 hours I ran some vegetables through my food processor and added them to the stock with some seasoning. I cooked the stock for 1 more hour and then used tongs to fish out the bones and larger chunks of vegetables.

I let the stock cool for about 1 1/2 hours and refrigerated it. By the next day all the fat had risen to the surface and formed a semi-solid layer. I skimmed it off with a spoon. (If you have a gravy separator you could also use that to separate off the fat, although I think this method is simpler.)

I ran the finished stock through a strainer to get rid of any remaining chunks of vegetable and spices and portioned it out into freezer bags. My yield was 14 cups plus a few tablespoons. What's nice is you hardly lose any water to evaporation since you cook stock at such a low temperature. I think the missing water was actually absorbed by the veggies.  The finished taste was fantastic too. It tasted so much more meaty and roasty than store bought. Which reminds me, I just learned the difference between stock and broth: stock is made with bones and meat, where broth is made with meat only. It seems stock typically has more flavor too. Clearly I learned this after I labeled the bags in the next picture.

This may look like a lot of steps, but the active cooking time is actually really minimal and the results are awesome. You can freeze your leftover chicken or turkey bones until you have enough of them. If you're the type of person that never has a solid block of time at home, I'm thinking you could probably do this overnight or while you're at work in a slow cooker that has a low setting. The longer you cook the stock the better the taste is going to be. So if you want to run it overnight for 6-8 hours and then add your vegetables, go for it. Stock seems to be pretty forgiving in terms of ingredients too. According to this book the most important thing is to have a ratio of at least 2 pounds bones to 3 pounds water. Which means for every pound of bones, you should add 3 cups (1.5 lbs) of water. I'm including a recipe here, but if you don't have some of the vegetables or spices, don't worry about it. I used a little more bones and less vegetables than the recipe called for and the stock still came out way better than store bought. Plus after doing the math on how much I saved buying good store bought broth, I actually made like $3 by buying the turkey (not to mention the meat fed us for a week).

Turkey or Chicken Stock 

Adapted from Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

Ingredients

4 pounds cooked turkey or chicken bones from roast plus pan drippings 

6 pounds water (12 cups)

1 pound onions, chopped (about 2 largish onion)

1/2 pound carrots, chopped (about 4 medium carrots)

1/2 pound celery, chopped (about 4 celery ribs)

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons crushed peppercorns

2 teaspoons thyme

2 teaspoons parsley

4 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper, to taste 

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180-190 degrees. 

2. Add the bones and drippings to a stockpot. Add the water.

3. Put in oven and leave for 3 or more hours.

4. Add the vegetables and spices and cook for 1 hour more.

5. Remove the bones and strain out the vegetables. Let stock cool up to 2 hours.

6. Refrigerate overnight. Skim the fat off the surface. 

7. If there are still vegetables and spices left in the stock, strain again. Portion into containers and freeze for future use.

Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with Rice)

You should know I'm not a native Southerner. I'm from Miami, which is a whole different ballgame. You know what the most awesome thing about Miami is (ok apart from all the awesome beaches and the fact that you can have pool parties in December): the food, specifically Cuban food. And I miss it like crazy. So a couple of weeks ago I made a 45 minute trip outside of my usual stomping grounds in Atlanta for Cuban food. And while the arroz con pollo at this restaurant was very good, there was enough salt in it to kill a horse, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Don't get me wrong, I like salt, but if your first thought is "This is salty.", then it's too salty. Anyhow, I digress.

So, I decided to pull out a Cuban cookbook that I bought a while back and haven't used. I made their version with a few tweaks. OMG, best arroz con pollo ever! I am kicking myself for not having tried it sooner. It's pretty easy, makes an enormous amount of food, and is way better than any restaurant version.  Tender, fall off the bone chicken and perfectly seasoned rice studded with chorizo, onions, bell pepper, and peas. You won't look at chicken the same way again. It's from the cookbook Three Guys from Miami Cook Cuban, which despite the dorky title appears to be a gem of a cookbook. I've since tried a split pea soup recipe, which was also excellent (I didn't even think I liked split pea soup before).

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the authors/publishers of this cookbook, and if I ever receive something free to try, I will always let you know. 

This dish is not healthy and you really shouldn't try to healthify it by using boneless, skinless chicken. It will just be bland. If you have to cut the fat a little, skip the chorizo or use turkey sausage or turkey bacon instead. The original recipe actually calls for regular bacon, but my favorite versions always have pork or chicken chorizo.

Another word of warning: this recipe calls for Bijol powder, which can be a pain to find. The Bijol is mostly made up of annatto powder, which is a Latin spice that adds flavor and colors the rice the orange color that is typical of arroz con pollo. If you can't find Bijol or annatto powder, you can substitute Goya's Sazon con Azafran, which is pretty widely available in the ethnic section of grocery stores. DO NOT buy whole annatto seeds like I did. They are a royal pain to work with because they are super hard and can break spice grinders and food processors. I only managed to crack mine with my marble mortar and pestle. If all you can find is whole annatto seeds, soak them for an hour or two and make a paste with them after they soften. 

And last, but not least, make sure to get parboiled rice (aka converted rice) since it holds its shape and doesn't turn into mush with the extended cooking time.

Arroz con Pollo
Serves 8
Adapted slightly from Three Guys from Miami Cook Cuban

Ingredients

1/2 pound chorizo
8 chicken thighs, skin on (Don't substitute boneless, skinless chicken or it will be bland!)
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped green pepper
4 large cloves garlic, mashed or pressed
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 12 ounce bottle of beer
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon Bijol or annatto powder (or Goya's Sazon con Azafran, or as a last resort annatto seeds, see discussion above)
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 1/2 cups parboiled rice
1/2 cup frozen peas
salt to taste

Directions

1. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and a little cumin and set aside.  Squeeze the chorizo out of its casings and saute in a large skillet, breaking it into bite size pieces as it cooks.

2. Remove the chorizo from the skillet and add it to a large stockpot or dutch oven. In batches, brown the chicken on both sides in the rendered chorizo fat. The chicken shouldn't be cooked through just crispy and browned on the outside. Add it to the stockpot as well.

3. Saute the green pepper and onion in the same skillet until the onion is translucent. Then add the garlic and saute for an additional minute. Transfer the mixture to the stockpot.

4. Add all the other ingredients EXCEPT the peas to the stockpot and stir to incorporate. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce it to a very low simmer, cover, and cook for 30 to 45 minutes until the mixture is no longer soupy. Scrape the bottom occasionally so the rice doesn't burn.

5. Add the peas and cook 5 minutes more.