Chicken Thighs with brown Sugar, Garlic, & Herbs

Ingredients:

2 TBL white wine vinegar

¼ cup plus 2 TBL extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 TSP fresh thyme, stripped and chopped

4-6 bone-in, skin-on Gilcrest chicken thighs

1 lb Brussels Sprouts, cleaned and halved

½ lb carrots. Tops trimmed and halved

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine ¼ cup olive oil, vinegar. 1 tsp pepper, garlic, brown sugar and thyme.

Marinate chicken for 30 minutes.

Add vegetables to baking sheet and drizzle with remaining oil, then season with more salt and pepper.

Nestle in chicken thigs. Bake until everything is golden and cooked through, 50 minutes. Enjoy.

 

Apple Cider Roasted Chicken with Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

4 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes

12 cloves garlic – whole, skin-on

½ cup apple cider

4 Gilcrest chicken breasts – boneless, skinless (6 oz each)

1 TBL cinnamon

1 TBL olive oil

1 TBL salt

½ TSP pepper

Chopped parsley – optional garnish

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and line a roasting pan with foil

Scatter butternut squash cubes and whole garlic cloves on bottom of roasting pan and then pour cider on top.

Place chicken breasts on top of the squash/garlic and drizzle with olive oil.

Season chicken and squash with cinnamon, salt and pepper. (don’t be afraid to use your hands—the breasts need to be evenly coated and well seasoned.

Cover pan loosely with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until chicken reaches internal cooking temperature of 165 degrees.

Steaks from Gilcrest Natural Farm

These are two new recipes from Amy Foster at Gilcrest that accompanied Amy's latest e-mail Newsletter:

Garlic Herb Shoulder Tender

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

This garlic rubbed shoulder tender is coated in just a few fresh herbs to give the steak a vibrant summer flavor without weighing it down. A few of these shoulder tenders served with some salad or stir fried veggies will make the perfect dinner. 

(Gluten Free, Primal, Soy Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free)

Ingredients

·         1 shoulder tender steak from Gilcrest farm of course

·         1-2 heads rosemary, chopped
·         2-4 heads thyme, chopped
·         1 teaspoon granulated garlic
·         2 teaspoons salt
·         1 teaspoon pepper
·         1-2 tablespoons butter, for cooking

Instructions

1.      Rub the chopped rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper onto the shoulder tender. Heat a pan to medium high heat and grease with 1 tablespoon of butter. Place the shoulder tender in the pan and pan fry for about 10-15 minutes, flipping occasionally as needed and adding more butter if the pan dries out. Cook to 130 for rare, 135 for medium rare, and 140 for well done. 

Yields: 4 Servings 

Cook time: 15 minutes 

Black Pepper Teres Major Steak with Bleu Cheese and Bacon Cream Sauce

 Ingredients

·         2 teres major steaks from Gilcrest Farm (approximately 0.5 lb each)

·         kosher salt 

·         cracked black pepper 

·         1 tablespoon unsalted butter 

·         1 tablespoon flour 

·         1 cup whole milk 

·         2 oz. Maytag blue cheese 

·         2 slices thick-cut bacon (cooked and crumbled)

       And what is a Teres Major Steak you might ask?

·         The teres major is a sel­dom used mus­cle in the shoul­der that is sec­ond only to the ten­der­loin filet in ten­der­ness. This mus­cle requires skilled crafts­man to extract, but yields a won­der­ful din­ing expe­ri­ence and is a new lead­er in trendy white table cloth restau­rants.

·         The teres major steak is also referred to as a shoul­der ten­der. If sliced into medal­lions, they are appro­pri­ate­ly named petite ten­der medal­lions.”

·         It is very sim­i­lar to beef ten­der­loin (or filet mignon) in that it is also lean and uber ten­der, but not quite as lean as filet or ten­der­loin and thus it has bet­ter fla­vor and is gen­er­al­ly about a full third cheap­er. There’s a rea­son filets are wrapped in bacon. The bacon gives the filet fla­vor it just doesn’t have due to a lack of fat. While the petite ten­der is not quite as ten­der as the filet, it has more fat and thus is tastier. And when I say not quite as ten­der, I’m not say­ing it’s tough. It’s just about the most ten­der steak on the cow not named ten­der­loin.

·         Don’t both­er look­ing for a huge petite ten­der or teres major . They gen­er­al­ly don’t come larg­er than about 12 ounces. 

Instructions

Season both sides of the teres major steaks liberally with Kosher salt. Refrigerate steaks for 1 hour. Remove steaks from the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. Prepare grill for high-heat cooking, approximately 500°F. Season both sides of the steaks with cracked black pepper and additional salt.

1. Grill steaks for 4–5 minutes per side until they reach an internal temperature of 130°F for medium rare.

2. Remove the steaks from the grill and close the grill’s bottom vents to lower the temperature to approximately 350°F.

3. Place a small skillet on the grill and add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the flour and stir to make a paste. Add the milk and allow it to come to a boil. Once the sauce has thickened (approximately 2–3 minutes), stir in the blue cheese and crumbled bacon then add salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Sticky Crockpot Drumsticks

A Favorite Recipe from Amy Foster at Gilcrist Farms.  We like to serve this with rice and vegetables and the leftovers the next day are even better.    

Sticky Crockpot Drumsticks

• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. thyme leaves
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 4 lbs. chicken drumsticks, or leg quarters
• 1 chopped onion

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine salt and all the spices. Rinse drumsticks and pat dry with paper towel. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, skin side and bone side, making sure it is evenly distributed and pressed down deep into the skin. Place in a re-sealable plastic bag, seal, place in a baking pan to catch any drips, and refrigerate overnight.  (You can skip the overnight chilling and just put the meat in the crockpot.)  Place the onions in the bottom of a 4 quart crockpot and top with the chicken and spices. Cook on LOW for 4-8 hours until very tender. Serves 8-10.  From  Busycooks.about.com   Enjoy! 

Broccoli Salad

Recipe from Anna Barbee

Broccoli salad    

 In a bowl combine:

One head of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

4 slices of bacon,  chopped and cooked until crisp

(or use bacon bits, about 4 tablespoons)

¼ cup of sunflower seeds

¼ cup or less of raisons, or currents

1 green onion thinly sliced

Dressing:

¼ cup of mayonnaise

½ teaspoon of vinegar White or white wine)

4 tablespoons of sugar

Mix the dressing ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat on a low heat until sugar is dissolved.  Set aside to cool.  When dressing is cool, mix with ingredients in the bowl until broccoli, bacon, seeds, raisons and onion slices are coated with dressing.

If you are making for a crowd--four or more:

3 heads of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

½ cup of bacon pieces chopped and cooked until crisp, or use bacon bits

1 cup of sunflower seeds

1 cup of raisons and or currents

4 green onions, thinly sliced

Dressing

1 cup of Mayonnaise

4 tablespoons of vinegar (white or wine)

½  cup sugar

Follow above directions for making dressing and adding to salad ingredients

Moroccan Chicken

Moroccan Chicken

4 large chicken leg quarters, Gilcrest of course

1 TBL minced garlic

1 TSP grated fresh ginger

1 TSP ground turmeric

2 TSP ground cumin

1 TSP ground cardamom

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Flour for dusting

2 TBL vegetable oil

1 sliced onion

1 cup chicken broth

8 dried apricots, quartered

½ cup shredded coconut

1.       Combine garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Rub into leg quarters. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

2.       Dust chicken with flour. Heat oil in a large, heavy sauté pan over medium heat. Add leg quarters and cook until brown. Drain chicken on paper toweling. Transfer to an ovenproof casserole dish. Set aside.

3.       Add onions to sauté pan; cook until softened. Spoon over chicken. Add chicken broth to casserole. Top with apricots and coconut. Cover casserole and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until chicken is tender. Yields 4 servings.