Oven Roasted Chicken with Herb Butter

Thank you Show Me St. Louis! I had a ball at the station last Thursday making Herb Butter with Host Julie. Cooking on Show-Me is always a pleasure J

I made Herb Butter in during the demo and Julie loved it on Eckert’s Bakery Bread. Luckily, I had a extra Herb Butter to take home after the demo so I decided to use it on chicken last night. The results were delicious and kid-approved!! (Really! The kids didn’t even mind the little flecks of “green stuff.””) I simply melted the herb butter in the microwave for 20 seconds and brushed it on chicken pieces from Eckert’s Butcher Shop. I hope you will give both of the recipes a try.

Thank goodness fresh herbs are finally here in our greenhouse at Eckert’s. I have started to grow a few on my windowsill and as a result I am feeling like I have a little more optimism about spring actually arriving….

Eat well this winter-like spring, Angie

Eckert’s Garlic Herb Butter - As Featured on Show Me St. Louis

1 head garlic
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 Tbs. fresh thyme
3 Tbs. fresh rosemary
3 Tbs. fresh sage
3 Tbs. fresh parsley
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

With a knife, trim the papery tip off the head of the garlic to expose the white tips of the cloves. Leave cloves connected to the root end. Place bulb of cloves on aluminum foil. Drizzle with oil and wrap with foil. Bake 30-45 minutes or until cloves are soft when pressed. Remove foil and allow garlic to cool.

Extract the soft garlic from the skins and discard skins.

In a small bowl, combine garlic, butter and herbs until well-combined. If desired, shape butter into a log and wrap with wax paper. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Herb Butter

3 Tbs Melted Herb Butter

3 ½ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (2 split breasts cut crosswise, 2 drumsticks, and 2 thighs)

Rinse chicken pieces and pat chicken dry with paper towels. Lightly season with salt and pepper. In a oven-proof baking pan, place chicken pieces, skin side up; arranging breast pieces in center and leg and thigh pieces around the outside of the baking pan.

Brush chicken with herb butter. (If butter is cold, warm a few seconds in microwave). Roast until breasts register 160-degrees and legs and thighs register 175-degrees about 35 to 40 minutes. Rotate the baking pan half-way through the roasting.

Transfer chicken to a warm serving platter. Tent loosely with aluminum foil and let rest 5 to 10 minutes.

We still have a few spots available in our upcoming herb classes. We are offering a herb class this Saturday, March 29th and another herb class on April 12th. Click here for a full listing of our upcoming classes.

Grandma's Egg Custard Pie

A few nights ago, I had the urge to make a pie for dessert but I was lacking fresh or frozen fruit so I decided to go with a classic custard pie.  My family likes this pie because it reminds them of another family favorite…crème brulee.

The pie is relatively simple to make once you learn how to scald milk. According to the Food Lover’s Companion Cooking Guide, scalding is a “cooking technique whereby a liquid is heated to just below the boiling point.” Before I attempted to scald milk,  I watched a few videos on-line to make I understood the process.

To scald the milk, I placed the milk in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. I stirred the milk every few minutes until I started to see small bubbles form around the perimeter of the pot. Then I started stirring constantly. I tested the temperature and turned off the heat when it reached 210 degrees F. Then I set my pot outside in the cool winter air to allow the milk to cool down to 100 degrees (one of the very few benefits to cold winter days!!). When I poured the milk into the eggs and sugar mixture, there was some milk stuck to the bottom of the pot that I did not include with the ingredients.

 Once all the liquid ingredients were well-combined, I poured them into the pie crust and topped the pie with freshly grated nutmeg (ground nutmeg works fine too). I had a little extra liquid so I baked it alongside the pie in a ramekin without a crust.  I placed the pie on a sheet pan to prevent oven spills and set my timer!

 For pie serving time, I heated a few different jars of Eckert preserves in the microwave for 30-40 seconds. The heat made the preserves thinner and easier to drizzle on the pie. We tried several different preserves in a recent cooking class at Eckert’s. The crowd favorite with the custard pie was Eckert’s Rhubarb-Raspberry Jam. This jam had just the right balance of sweet and tart to pair with the pie.

Give this pie a try and you’ll see how a simple technique results in a classic & delicious dessert. Eat well this winter, Angie

 

 

 

 Grandma's Egg Custard Pie

 

1 Eckert’s frozen pie shell
1 egg white
3 eggs, beaten (preferably free range)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush inside of pie crust with egg white to help prevent crust from getting soggy. Scald milk by pouring it into a medium, heavy bottomed pot. Place pot over medium heat. Watch pot and stir periodically. Once bubbles start to form around the edges, read temperature. Milk is considered scalded when it hits just below the boiling point (The boiling point is approximately 212 degrees F). Cool milk to approximately 100 degrees before proceeding.

 

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together 3 eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour milk into bowl and mix well. Pour liquid into pie crust (you may have more liquid than you need to fill the crust.) Grate nutmeg over the top of the pie. Bake 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool before serving. Store remaining pie in refrigerator after serving.

 Note: Free range eggs provide more color to the custard. We recommend Miller Farm eggs.

Chicken & Amish Noodle Soup

PART 1: ORCHARD UPDATE

Wow, it’s cold. Our peaches and blackberries are not accustomed to subzero temperatures. As a result, my husband is going on his fourth sleepless night of monitoring farm weather station temperatures and worrying about bud damage on two of our significant crops. Only time will tell how back-to-back cold nights impacted this year’s crop. We will be cutting some peach branches and forcing their blooms to evaluate bud loss. Unfortunately, we won’t know how the blackberries faired until spring. More soon….. think warm thoughts until then!

PART 2: KITCHEN FRENZY

This cold weather has me in a kitchen frenzy.  Over the past 2 days we have made soup, goulash, shephard’s pie, angel food cake and multiple salads. While fretting about the temperatures leaves me feeling helpless, cooking seems to lessen my pain.

This is an Eckert family favorite recipe I learned from my mother-in-law. She makes it without a recipe so I had to take notes when she walked me through the steps. My kids adore this soup and there are rarely leftovers. I like this soup thick but you can always add more water or broth to thin it down.

Chicken and Amish Noodle Soup

Stay warm and eat well this winter, Angie

Ingredients:

1 Tbs vegetable or canola oil

1 cut-up whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 lb)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 small onion, diced

4 large carrots, cut into chunks, divided

4 celery stalks, cut into chunks, divided

5 cups water

2 tsp Better than Bouillon Chicken Base*

1 bay leaf

1/2 package of Amish Noodles (approximately 8 oz.)

Directions:

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, heat the oil.  In two batches add the chicken pieces to the hot oil and cook until well browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Return all chicken to the pot and add all of the onions, half of the carrots, half of the celery, water, chicken base and bay leaf. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer gently until the meat is nearly falling off the bones, about 1 hour. Skim off the foam and discard. Transfer the chicken to a plate and let cool about 10 minutes. Strain broth through a fine mesh strainer or a colander lined with cheese cloth. Measure remaining broth. Discard bay leaf and vegetables. 

 

Remove skin and bones from chicken. Tear chicken into pieces.

Add enough water to reserved broth to measure 5 cups of liquid and return to stockpot.  Add chicken pieces, remaining carrots and celery to stockpot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer about 10 minutes or until carrots are nearly tender. Add noodles and simmer another 10 minutes. Salt to taste and serve.

*If you don’t have access to the Bouillon Chicken Base, substitute 2 cups of chicken broth and reduce water to 3 cups.

At our Country Store this month, our Amish Noodles are on SALE. Pick up any two bags for only $6, regularly $3.99 each. This deal expires 1/31/14. Check out our other specials by viewing our insert sheet here: http://www.eckerts.com/insert.htm.