It’s dinner time and you have several farm fresh chickens left right – well maybe not as many as you hoped for, but a few…  Now with a few months behind us from the big chicken day…  and sporadic emails coming back from customers telling us that the chicken is “the best they have ever had” I thought it might make sense to share OUR top three methods or recipes for making chickens – as of right now (our top three favorites change over time):

#3 – parts the bird and reserve the spine for stock. Heat about 1/2″ of oil in pressure cooker. Dredge breasts and thighs and legs in herb flour (dry herb and spices that you like). Fry the dredged parts in oil for about 6 minutes, turning chicken to evenly brown. Pour off some to all the oil – add the chicken back in and then add about 1 cup water.  From there add some carrots and potatoes and whatever else you want. Put the top on the pressure cooker and cook at temperature for about 15 minutes. VERY YUMMY! (make stock with the spine as illustrated here)

#2 – CAREFULLY split the chicken down the breast and flatten it wide open, put your favorite herbs and rubs and whatever on each half (thyme and lime are my favorites) put on grill LOW – bone side down, turn over and place over indirect heat (or else the flareups will ruin the bird) and finish off. Very very good this way when you toss some wood chips on the grill at the beginning.  We learned this one in the Cayman Islands.

#1 – This has been done once and that’s what we took the picture of.  We just did this on Sunday when the smoker was running to make some jerky and preserve some peppers.  To make the chicken – split the breast carefully with a big knife from neck to stomach, pull the bird open and place bones up in the smoker.  We used no rubs, flavors, salts – nothing goes on the bird.  Using only one batch of wood – 200 degrees – one tray of water. Let the wood finish and the water dry out – let go for a total of 6-7 hours.  No messing with nature on this one.  The water keeps things moist as the skin toughens up – then when the water tray in the smoker is dry the bird is sitting in a skins worth of juices taking it’s time to slow cook.  Honestly – most succulent and moist chicken we have EVER had.  The taste was no less than Kelli’s words “Amazing”.  Kelli won’t stop raving about it.  A very simple low involvement chicken that simply lets the meat, the natural Omega 3 rich fats and the smokes shine through.

As a lot of the garden is either winding down, puttering out or wasting away from Late Blight…  the small Asian Eggplant plants are doing very well.  To the tune of a lot.  This is just a single days harvest and Kelli has been pulling this number in ever couple of days for the last week.  Apparently – they are ready to fruit now – and there is no stopping these purple critters.

The good news is Kelli has come up with several creative battering, breading, roasting and grilling techniques to preserve these guys for late (LATE) season snacking and consuming.  With the garden under all that rain back in early June and then the cold summer this year we thought these plants were not going to yield much – instead – we are getting EGG-sactly what we love to see!

(no – that is NOT a yellow eggplant in there – it’s one of the few summer squashes that are still coming off the plants)

Just a couple of days ago I posted about the inadvertent chicken fatality and rapid preparation… Which let the cat out of the bag that my feather picker is done and works – and that I’m ready for harvesting these birds. But the question still on our “plate” had remained – how do these birds taste…

so, without further suspense – let me take you back to Wednesday evening… when the chickens were exactly 7 weeks from hatch.
Kelli had gotten home early and was continuing to work on getting the master bedroom walls painted. It’s been a slow process with all the things going on – but she has now set her jaw in resolve to get this job done. So, when I got home and asked the “What’s for dinner” question – I was the recipient of the look that marriage has taught me means that unless I’m thinking a bowl of cereal – I should take the feeding baton and run with it.
So off to the garden and the refrigerator. Of course – zucchini was part of the menu – it’s started – that annual avalanche of green logs that starts off welcome and somewhere along the way finds you leaving unmarked bags on the doorsteps of friends and family in the middle of the night – because there is just no way you can consume all of it! We aren’t there yet – only a week into the river of summer squash – still a good place to be.
Then to the refrigerator – open it up – and right there at eye level is a bagged very pink bird. Now, you might have thought to yourself – wait – the incident was Monday – I can’t believe they didn’t eat this guy (really gal) yet. And still – there I stood eye to something that had eyes that I had watched the spark of life leave. Ahh well – no time like the present – so I grabbed the bird and placed it on the butcher block. The plan was to grill up 2 chicken halves.
As I split the chicken along the breast bone – a couple of things looked a little “different” than any of Frank’s birds I have ever done this to… for one – the mercy killing was justified, the left thigh area had some clotting from the pen trauma and several ribs on that side were broken (as I surveyed this, I could hear Bones from Star Trek saying – “Damn it Jim, I’m a doctor not a butcher”)… the rib cage looked – ohh – I actually laughed out loud. See, one thing that’s supposed to be challenging about chicken evisceration is the fact that their lungs are notoriously difficult to remove. Now – when I did the deed – things came out pretty easy – I looked inside things looked good – and I called it a day and bragged to Kelli of my accomplishment. Now, with the bird laying split in 2 – it became apparent I had missed the lungs as they sorta fill the spaces between ribs – hence the reason they are apparently so tricky to remove. Good – note to self – move on.
Some observations I made as I finished splitting the chicken and placed her on the grill. The meat itself wasn’t the yellow of Mr. Perdue’s… as a matter of fact it wasn’t even the pink of the “organic” jokes you can buy… I would venture to say the breast meat looked almost as dark as a conventional chickens thigh… hummm – must be all the clover and critters they like to eat so much. As I dropped them onto the grill another observation was made – there is almost no fat on this bird! For her size – there should have been a lot of globby yellow chicken fat… very little… and again, what was there wasn’t the bright “corn yellow” stuff.
As the chicken grilled a very pleasant aroma started to fill the still evening air – and Kelli yelled down from her toils in the bedroom that “something smelled great”. I kept an eye on the grill – since doing chicken halves is notorious for flair ups… yet because there was so little fat on the bird it just remained more interested in cooking that charring – good bird – she always was well behaved (twinge of guilt here for again dropping the pen on her – good ole number 35).

It takes as long to cook a half chicken as it takes – and then – it’s done. So off the grill they came filling the house with a terrific aroma and starting my salivary glands to work. I called Kelli down – and it was time to test the fruits of our labor.
Now – for those of you who know me very well – you know it’s safe to say I’ll try just about anything once… So the veggies went on my plate, the baked beans went on my plate and we cut into 1/2 a chicken to share – Kelli taking the breast meat and me taking the thigh – because I always prefer something with a little more flavor.
“Mmmm – these beans a good” I said.
“Sure are – hey do you want some of our bread?” Kelli responded.
“Yeah, that would be great. I’ll get the spread.”
“The veg mix is terrific,” Kelli said as she shoveled a fork full of grilled zucchini into her mouth.
“Ohh, it is? I thought it would be they are fresh and small ones – the best to grill.”
(pause)
We stared at each other – then smiled. I laughed. “Are you scared too?”
Kelli’s face lit up and she laughed out loud at my question – “YES! I didn’t want to say anything and sound stupid!”
We both laughed then turned our attention back to the savory smelling uneaten bird 1/2 between us. And with that, I took fork to breast and thigh – carving up our first ever home grow, pasture raised, 100% all natural, can’t say organic – but it is – farm fresh broiler chicken.

I honestly can’t tell if it was the fear of working really hard on something and having expectations fall short or if there was a fear that somehow the bird had grown up LOOKING all normal but I had done something wrong… but we both were terrified to put that first fork-full into our mouths. But we did. And I’m not sure we were ready for what came next. Simply put – the flavor is absolutely, hands down, no question or contest, the best tasting chicken either one of us has ever had in our entire lives. Period. Exclamation point.
The flavor is substantial but also ineffable when it needs to be described. It’s just amazing. It’s one of those things that may make chicken outside of our home something that we simply will have to pass on. It is THAT good!
Beyond the ecstasy our palates were experiencing the meal itself became a powerful experience as our excitement over the amazing taste ebbed and we paid solemn respect to the fact we had raised this bird from 2 days after it hatched – we had nurtured it – we had cared for it – we had slaughtered it – butchered it – prepared it – and now rejoiced as we consumed it. It was a powerful (and tasty) meal that originated from our labors and our farm almost completely.

A simple 1/2 chicken dinner – I suppose – could change the world.

Lunch on the Farm
Originally uploaded by fishpickdiver

After a long morning of pulling weeds, putting down straw, thinning carrots and beats, hilling potatoes, and other general farm tasks… you start to get hungry. You do this several days in a row – and you start to get real hungry come lunch time.
So the way you fight the hunger is with a heaping mound of thinly sliced venison steak on slices of Texas toast, smothered in shredded sharp cheddar. With a side of freshly picked sugar snap peas and a side salad of freshly picked mixed greens.
Pretty much everything here is “from the farm”… mmmm.

Fathers Day Feast
Originally uploaded by fishpickdiver

Its been a while since we posted some of our culinary adventures on this site – but rest assured we are still eating well… just working harder than ever. This spring has been one of the busiest times of my life – so far. Between the garden (which now is in desperate need of weeding this weekend after all this rain), the new deck on the back of the house (very green initiative as we reused about 90-95% of the lumber from the old pool deck we tore down last year, the chickens, and all of the other realities of life – we have been BUSY.
But – that didn’t preclude us from enjoying a Fathers Day repast – including a garden herb damp rub – including some of my own smoked chipotles on a 3 stranded braided pork tenderloin… that was cooked over mesquite on the rotisserie.
Sides were some grilled potato wedges and a grilled medley of fresh veggies…

We took this picture the other night when we couldn’t take it anymore and needed to have a real – fresh – grilled burger… but it was rather cold (that’s the 21F in the picture) and VERY windy. So – we were attempting to prove, from the warmth of the house between burger flips – that we were in fact using the grill. The problem is – the wind was so strong – you can’t see the smoke!
Anyhow – the burgers landed on some grill up sourdough slices – and minus the fresh from the garden lettuce and tomato – they were EXCELLENT! Ohh – and one other great thing in this picture – it’s 5:30 – and still light out! Winter is drawing to a close!