Stegt Kylling (Braised Chilcken w/ Parsley)

Oh how I wish I didn't have the poultry "issues" that I have, then I wouldn't have had to cut into this bird to MAKE SURE it was done. I could have left it alone in it's glorious presentation that could have been. Oh well, maybe next time I'll be a little more daring, then I'll post a new photo without big testing marks in the top of the beautiful, tasty bird!

This is a Danish recipe from the book: "Recipes: The Cooking of Scandinavia" and it was very good, not super healthy, but very, very good!

Ingredients:

~3 lb. roasting chicken

1 TB. salt

4 TB. butter, softened

Large bunch of parsley

2 TB. butter

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. water

1 c. heavy cream

Method:

Wash the chicken and pat it dry. Rub it inside and out with the salt. Then coat the entire inside with the 4 TB. of butter and stuff the inside with parsley. If you have twine (I didn't), truss it so that it will hold it's shape while cooking.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Heat 2 TB. of butter and the oil over moderate heat in a skillet big enough to hold the chicken. When the oil and butter are hot, place the chicken in breast side down, let it stay a minute or two, long enough to get nicely browned. Turn the chicken 1/4 turn to its side and do the same. Repeat for all the sides fo the chicken.

Transfer the chicken to a roasting dish that has a lid.

Pour out all but 1 TB. of fat from the skillet and add 1/2 cup water. Bring it to a boil and scrape up any browned bits left in the pan. Pour this over the chicken, cover the chicken and place it in the oven to braise for about an hour. You can test it by cutting into like me, or the good old method of holding it up and seeing what color the juices are as they run out of the chicken. Clear means it is cooked, pink means NOT!

When the chicken is cooked, let it rest on a platter for 5 minutes while you make the sauce. Skim the fat from the cooking juices and pour it back into the skillet used to brown the chicken. Add in the heavy cream and cook over moderate heat until it has thickened and reduced.

I served ours with carrots and parsnips, the book suggests boiled new potatoes and a certain cucumber salad which I will be making soon!

Irish Brown Bread

I just found this recipe in an old issue of Family Fun Magazine (March 2008).

It looked easy, we had all the ingredients and decided to give it a go!

And the results:

This is how we made it:

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 TB. sugar

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

Method:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all of the dry ingredients. Make a well and add half the buttermilk. Get your hands in there and mix it up (or let your kids).

Continue mixing with your hands and add the rest of the buttermilk. The resulting dough will be very wet and sticky.

Dust your hands with flour, shape the dough into a ball and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Shape it into a big mound, then use a long, sharp knife to score an "x" in the top (widening it with the sides of the blade while you cut).

Bake it until golden brown, about 50 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

This makes a crusty, dense loaf, really great when warm!!! Still good when it's cooled down.