We Can Pickle That!

I know it's been a while since we've posted anything, but once again, work and life has gotten in the way.  We've been sticking to old standby recipes that we can whip up in a flash.  Plus, the polar vortex has limited the amount of produce we've been receiving in our share, so we haven't had much to work with on that front either.

Nonetheless, we've got a quick an easy way to spice things up during these cold winter months.  A few months back, we got a bunch of jalapenos in our share.  With no immediate use for them, we decided to pickle them, following this recipe by Michael Symon.

Start by poking a few holes in each pepper, and placing them in your jar.  This will allow the brine to get inside the peppers, and pickle them from the inside out.

For your brine, bring to boil equal parts water and vinegar, some sugar and salt (in equal proportions), and your aromatics; bay leaves, whole coriander seeds, a few garlic cloves, and black peppercorns.  We didn't have any peppercorns on hand, so we just used our coarse ground black pepper instead.  We also didn't have whole coriander seeds, as the recipe called for, so we used ground coriander.  That's why our brine looks a bit muddy.  We also decided to throw in some mustard seeds for good measure.

Once your brine begins to boil, turn down the heat, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.  Pour the brine over your peppers, place the lid on, and let it cool.  Once cooled, put them in the fridge, and let the brine work it's magic.  Let them sit in the fridge for about a week before using them.  This will give the peppers time to pickle.

Then you can slice them up and serve as you see fit.  Ours have a nice sweetness to balance out some of the heat.  They're great on top of nachos or tacos.

To Brine, or Not to Brine?

I grew up always having a smoked turkey for Thanksgiving, which was easy to do when we lived in California.  After moving back east, colder weather came into play, and usually put a damper on our smoking plans, which is exactly what happened this year.  With about a week to go until the big day and a projected temperature of only 38 degrees, smoking the turkey just wasn't in the cards, and we resorted to oven roasting the bird.

Many people will recommend brining the turkey, to help retain moisture, particularly in the breast meat.  Wet brines are fine and good, but they require a lot of space in your fridge, and can leave your meat with a slightly mushy texture.  Instead, we tried a dry brine, which we found here.  One perk to dry brining is that you can apply the brine while your turkey is still frozen!  This was a huge time saver for us, since it took about 3.5 days for our turkey to completely defrost.

First, you'll want to get your brine ready.  As the recipe suggests, you want about 1 tbsp. of salt for every 5lbs. of turkey.  We had a 16.6lb. turkey, so we used a little more than 3 tbsp. salt.  Because we still wanted to try and get a smokey flavor, we used 2 tbsp. of applewood smoked salt, and 1 tbsp. kosher salt.  In addition to the salt, we added in some smoked paprika, again for some smokiness, along with some chopped thyme, rosemary, sage, and juniper berries, which we crushed in our mortar and pestle.

Now it's time to rub it all over your turkey!  Since our turkey still had to defrost, we placed him in a brining bag.  That way it would collect the water, and it'd be easy to dispose once Thanksgiving day came.  Before rubbing your salt mixture on the bird, be sure to pat him dry with paper towel to get rid of any excess moisture.  Also make sure that any gizzards and organs have been removed from the cavity.  Sprinkle a bit of your salt & spice mixture in the cavity too.  Then you'll want to use about 1 tbsp on the breasts, and 1 tbsp on each leg/wing/thigh.  If your turkey is defrosted already, be sure to get in all the crevices.

Once you've rubbed him down, you can seal up the bag.  Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible.  It can be a little tough, so it's best to have an extra set of hands to help you do this.

Now you can just pop your bird into the refrigerator, breast side up, for 3 days, and let the salt work its magic.  If you remember, give your turkey a little massage each day.  We massaged ours through the bag, just to keep our hands clean.

After the 3rd day, you'll want to remove him from the bag, and refrigerate him for at least 8 hours, uncovered.  We first put the brine on our turkey on Monday, so Wedensday night, before we went to bed, we took him out of the bag, gave him one last massage, and let him sit overnight, uncovered, in the fridge.

At least 1 hour before you're ready to cook your bird, be sure to take him out of the fridge, and let him start to warm up.  We also gave him an additional dusting of my Grandpa's secret rub, the one he'd use on his smoked turkeys.  As when roasting a chicken, we prepared some aromatics to put in the cavity to add a bit of flavor, and also keep the breast moist.  We stuck to traditional ingredients here, roughly chopping up some carrots, onion, celery, and lemon, and making a bundle of rosemary, sage and thyme.


We stuffed what we could into the cavity, and the rest went into the bottom of the roasting pan, so we'd get some added flavor to the pan drippings, in case we wanted to make gravy later.  Also make sure to tie the legs together, closing up the cavity as much as you can.  This will also help prevent the meat from drying out.

Now you're ready to roast!  Heat up your oven to 425 degrees, and place your bird, breast side down, on your roasting rack.  I know this is atypical, but trust us, it works!  We also brushed some softened butter onto the skin of the turkey to help it brown.  When you're oven comes to temperature, throw your bird in for 30 minutes.  This will help get the bottom nice and brown.

After 30 minutes, pull your bird out of the oven and flip him over.  Remember that the pan and bird are extremely hot.  Be sure to have oven mitts or dish towels handy to help you flip the bird without burning yourself.  While you're trying to flip the bird, you'll also want to lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Give him another coat of butter, and pop him back in the oven until a thermometer, stuck into the thickest part of the thigh, reads 160 degrees.

For us, it took about 2.5hrs. more.  Most will say that poultry needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees, but we knew that if we pulled him out when he reached 160 degrees, the carry-over cooking would bring him up to 165.

Be sure to let him rest for at least 30 minutes before you start carving into him.  While he's resting, you can give him a foil tent to keep him warm, and you can now use the oven to cook your side dishes, like our green bean casserole.

The dry brining method was a success!  The breast stayed nice and moist, and the smoked salt we used added a subtle smokiness to the meat.  It was a great alternative to actually smoking the turkey.

Whole Roasted Chicken

Tonight we tackled a whole roasted chicken for dinner.  It may seem like a daunting task, but in reality, the oven does all the work.  We ventured over to Trader Joe's to pick up some groceries for the week, and picked up our bird.  The nice thing is that they have whole organic chickens that are already brined.  Whether you brine it yourself or buy a pre-brined bird, brining is the way to go.  It helps keep the meat really moist and delicious.

So once we got our bird home, Justin got to work on him, giving him a nice rub down with some butter and Kosher salt, making sure to get some of the butter under the skin as well.  Despite the brining, you still want to liberally salt the skin.  This too will help keep him moist.  And the butter helps brown the skin so it's nice and crispy.



While Justin was massaging the chicken, I got to work chopping up all the veggies to make a nice little bed for him.  We went with leeks, celery, half an onion, and some carrots.


I also got together the aromatics that we stuffed into the cavity of the bird.  These included a whole lemon, sage, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and half an onion.  Then you just stuff it all inside the cavity.

Once everything is stuffed inside, you want to close the cavity by tying the drumsticks together.  We'd consulted Ruhlman's Twenty prior to roasting to see what Mr. Ruhlman suggested, and to keep the meat moist, he recommended either stuffing the cavity or closing the cavity (he also recommended the liberal use of salt).  Doing so prevents the hot air from circulating through there and drying the meat out from the inside.  We figured we'd do both, to keep the meat moist, and add some additional flavors.

Once he was all tied up, we placed him on his bed of veggies so he was nice and cozy, and placed him in a 450 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  Justin has a convection oven, so he cooked a bit faster than if we were using my regular oven.  If you want to check your bird, the telltale sign of doneness is when the juices run clear.  After about 45 minutes, our bird was pretty much done.  We wanted to crisp up all of his skin, so we flipped him, and put him back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Mmmm...look at that delicious, golden brown, crispy skin!  Just like any other meat, you'll want to let your chicken rest for a good 10 minutes before you start carving him.  So while our guy rested, I added a little butter, and some fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, and fresh cracked pepper to the veggies.  I also took a wedge of lemon that had been in the cavity, and squeezed some of the juice over them.  Then it was time to eat!

The meat was so juicy and moist, with hints of the lemon and herbs that we'd stuffed inside it.  The skin was perfectly crisp with just a hint of salt.  The veggies still had some bit to them, and were a perfect complement to the bird.  We also baked up a sweet potato and topped it with some pancetta and green onion.  So if you're looking for an easy, one pan meal, you should definitely try roasting a whole chicken.  Plus you'll have leftovers for later in the week!