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.

Jeremy + Tomato Jam

Today, I've been married for 2 years. Ideally I'd be telling you about the super fancy pants dinner I have planned for the occasion. But my dad has been in the hospital and we spent the weekend visiting him in Florida. (He's out now and he's going to be fine, but I had to see him in person to reassure myself.) So instead, I thought I'd dedicate this post to my husband Jeremy and share a new recipe that we both really love.

This is how most of the world views Jeremy. A coffee-inhaling software engineer with his iphone permanently attached to his hand:

If you get to know him better, the next picture shows what he's really like. A 5-year-old masquerading as an adult that thinks that robots and Morse code are super cool and that uni-cycling indoors is a great idea. (He also makes questionable fashion choices like wearing socks with Sperrys.)

Don't let all the nerd street cred fool you though, he is a great husband. He keeps me in the caffeine, walks the dogs, and fixes the html when I start screaming at Blogger because it's putting everything in italics.

And after two years, we've got some important stuff figured out: like coffee and watching our dogs play fixes a lot of things, when I'm mad I'm always right, and breakfast is always a good option.

When it comes to food, we like a lot of the same things. But I definitely have the sweet tooth, while Jeremy is all over the savory. Which is why this tomato jam recipe is so perfect: it's both.

This was my second canning experiment. And it was so good I promptly went out and bought an obscene amount of tomatoes to make another batch. I thought I might give them as Christmas presents, but the way we're eating through the jars maybe not.

The procedure is so ridiculously simple too. Basically chop a lot of tomatoes and reduce them with sugar and spices. Although I followed the recipe and did this on the stove top, you could probably do this in a big crock pot too.

The better your tomatoes, the better this is going to taste. Lucky I've got an organic tomato hookup.

Slicing and dicing is so much easier with a mandoline. 

A double batch worth of tomatoes:

A lot of sugar, plus cinnamon, cloves, ginger, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, and salt.

After cooking down: 

 Served with toasted slices of baguette and cheese. We really liked it with goat cheese and bleu cheese.

The taste of this tomato jam is sooooo good. There isn't really anything store bought that I can compare this to. It's sweet like jam, but acidic from the tomatoes, and it has a little bite from the red pepper flakes. The cinnamon, ginger, and cloves are really pretty tiny amounts compared to the weight of the tomatoes and just enhance the tomato flavor. If you're a fan of pepper jellies, you should really try this. If your not going to can it you could easily scale the recipe down.

Tomato Jam
(adapted slightly from Food in Jars recipe)
Yields approx. 3 pints (about 6 cups)

Ingredients

5 pounds tomatoes finely chopped
3 1/2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Combine everything in a non-reactive stockpot and simmer over medium heat for 1 to 2 hours stirring occasionally. You'll know you've got the right consistency when you've got a large sticky mass on the bottom of the pot.

2. Refrigerate for immediate consumption or ladle into hot jars leaving a 1/4 inch headspace.

3. Wipe rims and apply lids finger tight. Process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath.

4. Cool jars, test seals, and store in a cool, dark pantry for up to one year.