Hello Everyone!
I know I said the next blog was going to be my Bouillabaisse recipe but It's the week of St. Patrick's Day and I have one more idea that I want to share with you. If you are one of the handful of people who purchased a brisket from me then you are getting pretty excited, as am I, because these briskets look and smell phenomenal. I will be sending out direct messages on Wednesday to you folks about what we need to do to finish them.
In this post today I want to talk about a little experiment I did last week.
I had some leftover brine after taking care of my brisket so I decided to try something that I have never done before and I corned a chicken. I have to say, it was damn good. So I thought I would share this idea with you. Maybe you don't eat beef but you want to do something foodie and fun for St. Patty Day that still fits the theme.
These chickens I carry are Mary's Chicken's and I sell them three to a box. They are individually vac sealed for ease of use. The recipe I am going to provide you with here is for one chicken at a time so if you wanted to cook more chickens - do the math.
For the Brine
3L Water
1/2 C Salt
1/2 C Brown Sugar
3 Clove Garlic, Crushed
2 TBSP Pickling Spice
Mix all ingredients well
Then submerge your bird in this brine and refrigerate for 24 hours.
You could see from the cover photo of the blog I rubbed the bird down before I put it in the smoker. The spice rub I used for this was equal parts Black Pepper Corn and Coriander Seed. Call it one spoon of each. I crush that up with the mortar and pestle and liberally seasoned the bird with that.
Then, in my Traeger (set at 375) I roasted the bird for about 45 minutes on hickory pellets (it's what I had). You could strait oven roast it if you don't have a smoker. You could spatchcock the bird and grill it over coals or you could braise it. The magic is in the brine so cook it however you like to cook chicken. I'm a chicken skin guy so I love the Traeger because it gets the skin nice and crispy/chewy.
The end result was this juicy, bone-in, corned chicken (and a nice piece of cured pork belly that I found in the freezer that I had forgotten about). This was so good I just ate it with a dollop of good stone ground mustard and some pickles. Obviously you could eat this with just about anything and it would be great.
If you don't eat beef, I'm telling you; you gotta give this a try this year for St Patrick's Day.
But then...
Pulled, Corned Chicken Sandwich
The next day for lunch I took the leftover bird and picked it clean to make this INSANE Pulled, Corned Chicken Sandwich. I must have known I was going to do this because a few days before I had picked up a chunk of Swiss from the random cheese bin at Lazy Acres, so of course that went on there. Then, I took a little cabbage from BD Farms and mixed it with chopped pickles & pickle juice & olive oil. I let that sit and soften a bit while it did this next part...
Next, I sautéed the pulled chicken briefly to get it warmed up and then I topped it with cheese and placed it into the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes to get that cheese good and melty. Then I topped it with that fresh slaw. The best part was, my kids wanted Peanut Butter and Jelly so this bad boy was ALL MINE!! My only regret is that I didn't have more chicken so that I could make one for my loving wife when she got home.
This sandwich has potential.
My bread for this one was less than perfect but it was what I had on hand and it still was a face-melter. I also didn't take the time to make a Russian Dressing, I just used mustard and mayo, so it could have been better in that regard too. I don't usually critique my own lunch but this is me being a professional for you on what I could do better next time. Or things you could do to ONE up me if you want to give this a try.
What I am trying to say is; this is how good the corned chicken came out. It didn't matter that these other things weren't perfect because the flavor of the chicken was like KAHPOW!!
I don't stock very many whole birds so if you are interested in giving this a try, please call or text me today for delivery tomorrow. You'll still be in time for March 17th!! You could do this with boneless skinless breast or thigh but I don't think it would be quite the same.
I will be out making deliveries all day Monday when I get back from LA. My truck will be fully stocked and I would love to get you what you need for the week ahead. I promise you'll taste the quality and I can probably save you some money too.
Be well,
Justin
Check out this bonus recipe for Pickling Juice and Pickling Spice. This will be the format that I will be giving out recipes from now on. I wanted the PDF's to be easier to print for you. I will also be creating an archive page (just as soon as I learn to do that)
Check out this link.
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