Long time, no post – convenience food

 

honey baked chicken with roasted root vegetables

When the topic convenience food comes up, I don’t think of already prepared foods, I think of something that is convenient for me to cook.  For some it is a already prepared meal that can taken out of the freezer and reheated, or perhaps a pot of soup that can make several meals.

My “pantry” stores consist of staples from the store, home canned foods, frozen meats and vegetable we have grown ourselves, and stored root cellar type goods.  Trying to leave my options open as far as recipes go, I don’t can up jars and jars of spaghetti sauce – I just can tomato puree and add seasonings when I cook the actual meal. No kits or ”make a mix” meals here.  My recipes are basic, but I find that I can tweak them a little to make the best use of my seasonal garden offerings, and in the process, do less processing.  Boy that was a dumb sentence!  What I am trying to say, is that most of my cooking is actually a method more than following a detailed recipe for every single meal.  Quantities depend on what is on hand, and seasonal.

I am a foodie, but I am also a farmer, who likes to eat more than I like to cook.  I also like being outside with my cows and in the garden more than I like being inside chained to the stove.  

Lawn mowers, rear bagger option!

 

getting the kinks out

 

My jitney Coral, my everything truck

We moved the cows outside and began grazing over a week ago.  So my days are filled with movement, and no time inside the house.  Rain, snow or sun, it doesn’t matter, the grazing schedule has started, so that means less time to languish over the watch pot, and time to fall into my summer type recipes.  For me, that means a quick prep and maybe a long cooking time, so I can leave the house and go back outside, and maybe just come back to check once in awhile on the food.  So with that all in mind, I will share a recipe that came from Polyface via a friend who stayed there for a summer a long time ago.  Now that I have seen the recipe on-line, I feel I can post it here too, and with my variations as an addition.

Salatin’s Honey Baked Chicken

Arrange in shallow baking pan, skin side up.
1 fryer, cut up

Combine and pour over:
1/3 c melted butter
1/2c honey
3 T prepared mustard
1½ t salt
1½ t curry powder

Bake at 350°F for 1 ¼ hour, basting every 15 minutes with pan juices.
Bake until chicken is tender and nicely browned.

Since I usually am pressed for time I bake this chicken with vegetables, and get at least a dinner for 3 and lunch for three the next day.  The vegetables vary with the season, in summer it may be haricot verts,  green garlic, beets, baby carrots and new potatoes.  This week it was celeriac, garlic, potato onions, beets, parsnips, rutabaga, and carrots.

chopped and seasoned roots

Here is where the method part comes in – use what you have on hand.  If you belong to a CSA or have your own garden, cooking like this helps, because you sometimes never know exactly what the harvest will bring.

For this batch, I used 1 rutabaga, 1 celery root, 3 parsnips, 1 beet, 4 carrots, 6 cloves of garlic, and 4 potato onions.  Chop or slice vegetables, toss with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Use what you have and let your baking pan determine your amounts.

ready for the oven, I'm outta here!

 Make the honey glaze, place the chicken on top of the vegetables, and pour glaze over the meat.

This time, I only used the thighs, drumsticks and wings, which stretches the chicken, and gives us a little protein.  I used the same amount of glaze though, since I was adding a large amount of vegetables.

Due to the increased amount of moisture from the vegetables, I baked this at 400°F for one hour, and basted it several times with the pan juices.  If I had used more tender summer vegetables, I probably would probably stick with the 350°F from the original recipe.

This is a sweet recipe, so if your family isn’t too keen on sweet vegetables, maybe skip the parsnips and beets.  In this combination, the garlic and onion seemed to counteract the sweetness.

Yum!!

So this is convenience food for me, quick and easy prep, and at least an hour of cooking time, that allows me to complete a different task at the same time.  I think this recipe would easily lend itself to prepping the night before, and baking the next day.  Let me know if it works for you!

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