Long over due locally sourced chicken dinner

It has been a pathetically long time since I posted. No excuses but I must say in the last few weeks I have been procrastinating a little bit. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking. I’m always cooking. I haven’t stopped cooking since I learned how to assemble ingredients together when I was eleven. A few years later I discovered Chef at Home on The Food Network. The tagline was about learning how to cook without a recipe. It’s a little dated now as it was filmed during the early to mid 00’s on P.E.I. But I highly recommend you catch reruns if you want to learn flavour combinations or how to walk into a kitchen and own your culinary skills and have a great time cooking.

If we're talking about looking to television for inspiration, my all time favourite cooking show has to be Jamie at Home. Seriously, look it up on Youtube. Jamie Oliver’s garden is a thing of beauty. There are fresh vegetables growing everywhere and it’s tended to by a hermit (I don’t know how that’s still a profession. But it’s awesome.) They even raise chickens and harvest fresh eggs.

It was shot in numerous country style kitchens. Every dish is rustic and I salivate just watching my screen. Jamie Oliver preps fresh herbs and vegetables sitting outside and he cooks in his garden over an open fire. There’s also a wood fired oven which I definitely need in my dream home.

I don’t have the abundance of vegetables in my home garden compared to what they showed on the series. However, that doesn’t stop me from being influenced enough to try to replicate the atmosphere in my own garden. Every cook should prep and cook a meal outside when it’s nice out. It’s inspiring, the smell of fresh herbs and grass, the chirping of birds, and the excitement of cooking on the barbeque over the open flame. How can you not be inspired?

As for sourcing ingredients when you can’t grow them all yourself, farmers markets are a wonderful way to source ingredients. It's not only great for discovering what your local environment has to offer in the way of produce and meat but you also get the opportunity to meet and chat with the people who grow and raise your food.

I think it’s important to value what you eat. I find that I waste less when food isn’t packaged and disposable. I also feel a greater need to make the best food I possibly can not only for my and my loved one's well beings but also for the well being for the animals that gave their lives for the meal.

So with all that in mind, I made this dish a few weeks ago. The dish is Honey wine braised chicken thighs flavoured with bacon, rosemary, and horseradish served with grilled zucchini and a warm tomato and grilled kale salad. I made it outside with local ingredients and it was cooked over my barbeque. It’s very simple to make and it’s easy to add additional servings depending on how many people you’re cooking for. But word to the wise, it’s best to get your mise en place in place before you start cooking. You don’t have to. However, it is the easiest way to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed while you’re cooking.

For the chicken you will need

· 1 slice of cubed bacon per piece of chicken

· 1 or 2 bone in chicken thighs or legs per person seasoned with salt and pepper

· 1 diced medium white or Spanish onion

· A clove of grated garlic

· A stem of rosemary (separate the leaves, chop, and reserve in a small bowl)

· About a tablespoon of freshly grated horseradish (more or less depending on your taste)

· A glass of honey wine (I source mine from Bird’s and Bee’s winery) Or a glass of dry white wine + a tablespoon of honey

· 2 or 3 cups of water or stock

· Sea salt and fresh black pepper

· Cook the bacon in a large frying pan until the pork is crisp and rendered of fat. Turn off the heat. Drain the bacon bits and reserve them in a large salad bowl. Save the fat in a small jar. Leave a spoonful of fat in the pan.

· Turn the heat back on in the pan to medium. Add the chicken to the pan skin side down cooking until the skin is a golden-brown colour. Flip once, cooking for a few minutes on the second side. Remove from pan to rest on a clean plate.

· Add onions to pan. Cook until a little softened. Add garlic and a pinch of horseradish to the pan. Stir a few times and deglaze the pan with wine. Watch the pan. You want to reduce the wine until there’s almost no liquid left. Add back the chicken with the rosemary stem. Add just enough water to pan to almost cover the chicken (If you don’t want crispy skin feel free to completely cover with water. Otherwise leave the skin uncovered.) Bring the pan to a simmer. Leave to cook for about 30 minutes. Add more water if the liquid reduces too quickly.

While the chicken is cooking make the grilled zucchini

· However much zucchini you want sliced + reserved bacon fat (This is seriously lovely and simple)

· Preheat grill to medium high. Brush zucchini slices with bacon fat (not too much because you don’t want flare ups.) Grill slices for 2-3 minutes a side to gently cook and get nice grill marks. Once cooked, place on a platter. Done.

Last but not least, the Tomato and kale salad

· A handful of small heirloom tomatoes per person halved

· A large kale leaf stem and all per person

· Reserved bacon fat

· A large lemon juiced and zested

· Black pepper

· Reserved bacon bits

· Add the tomatoes, lemon juice, and zest to the bowl with the bacon.

· Brush kale with bacon fat and grill for a minute each side. Remove from grill, chop and add to the salad (I really liked the added texture and slight bitterness from the stems but if you don’t you can just discard them in your garden before brushing with bacon fat.)

· Sprinkle with pepper and toss to mix.

To serve

· Remove chicken from pan onto serving platter (it should be tender and cooked through.) Add the fresh rosemary leaves to the pan with another pinch of horseradish. Reduce the sauce until it’s almost the consistency of a glaze. Pour over chicken and serve.

With the exception of the rosemary (which I grow in my own garden) I sourced all of my ingredients from the SouthWest Edmonton farmers market which is every Wednesday rain or shine from May to Thanksgiving. It’s always a great time. The chicken and bacon are from Sunworks Organic farms. The wine is from Birds and Bees winery. And the vegetables are from the lovely people at Gargatz family farm (we also bought 90% of our herbs and vegetables growing in our garden from them.) They’re all great vendors and people and they inspire me every week. I hope that all of this served as some inspiration for your own culinary adventures outside.

Rachel