What a jerk! Chicken, that is

As I mentioned yesterday, I cooked some jerk chicken for the Canterbury students on Sunday night. I used a turn-of-the-century (2002) recipe from Gourmet (I so miss that magazine, but thank God for epicurious.com).

The word "jerk" comes from the Peruvian term for dried strips of meat charqui. Jerk in Jamaica refers to the seasoning (which varies, but always includes allspice, lime, sugar and habanero peppers), the method of preparing the meat (a daylong marinating, in which the meat is poked all over to let the marinade permeate it), and the cooking over fire (unfortunately, I don't have access to pimento wood, which adds extra flavor the Jamaican dishes).

 Given that it was a church dinner in Virginia, I felt that the spice may be too intense for the crowd. So I increased the amount of chicken, scallions, garlic, onion, lime, soy sauce and olive oil by 5, but kept the spices to the amounts shown below. The marinade tasted very hot, and I wondered if just 4 habaneros for 40 people still were too many. But the chicken cooked up to be very juicy and spicy, but not mouth-searing in the slightest, and the students seemed to enjoy it immensely.

Another note: I used our usual barbecued chicken technique to insure that the meat cooked through: I used only boneless, skinless thighs, and cooked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes before throwing them on the grill.

Jerk Chicken a la Gourmet 
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

For jerk marinade:
3 scallions, chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
4 to 5 fresh Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, stemmed and seeded
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons salt (I omitted this; soy sauce is quite salty)
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoons black pepper
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

 For chicken:
4 chicken breast halves with skin and bones (3 pounds), halved crosswise
2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken thighs and drumsticks

Accompaniment: papaya salsa (the papayas looked horrible and I couldn't locate canned, so I went without this) 

Instructions

Make marinade:
Blend all marinade ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Marinate and grill chicken:
Poke chicken with a two-tined fork all over. Divide chicken pieces and marinade between 2 sealable plastic bags. Seal bags, pressing out excess air, then turn bags over several times to distribute marinade. Put bags of chicken in a shallow pan and marinate, chilled, turning once or twice, 1 day.

Let chicken stand at room temperature 1 hour before cooking.

To cook chicken using a gas grill:
Preheat burners on high, then adjust heat to moderate. Cook chicken until well browned on all sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Adjust heat to low and cook chicken, covered with lid, until cooked through, about 25 minutes more.

To cook chicken over charcoal:
Open vents on bottom of grill and on lid. Light a large chimney of charcoal briquettes (about 100) and pour them evenly over 1 side of bottom rack (you will have a double or triple layer of charcoal). When charcoal turns grayish white and you can hold your hand 5 inches above rack for 3 to 4 seconds, sear chicken in batches on lightly oiled rack over coals until well browned on all sides, about 3 minutes per batch. Move chicken as seared to side of grill with no coals underneath, then cook, covered with lid, until cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes more.

Chicken processing slipping

Our chickens: Ruby Cheryl, Betty and Veronica

Considering the prevalence of chicken sold by parts in the grocery stores, it must be the rare person who cuts up a whole chicken these days. Yet whole chickens are by far the most economical, especially when they are on sale for 59 cents a pound. You get the parts you like, separate them yourself and freeze them in portions that you know you can use, and put the remainder in the stockpot with some carrots and celery, a bay leaf and onion and garlic if you like. It tastes better than any stock I've bought in a can or box.

I'm no math whiz, but here's a breakdown of costs, all this week's prices at Harris Teeter:
4 chickens @ $0.59 = approximately $12

If you bought the parts:
4 large whole chicken breasts @ $4.99 per pound = approximately $24
16 chicken wings = $1.50 (about a pound)
8 chicken thighs and legs @ $3 per pound = approximately $12
4 quarts chicken broth (using backs, necks etc.)  $2 quart = $8

Total: About $45

Savings: $33 (less what you put your labor at)


Notice I didn't price out the hearts, gizzards and liver. For one thing, three out of the four livers were a sickly yellow-orange, not the brown-burgundy of a healthy liver. And you only get one each of everything, at the most, so the amount is negligible.

And the liver isn't the only thing that wasn't right with this batch of chickens; one didn't have the oil gland removed from the tail. No big deal for me, since I wasn't roasting the chickens, but could have spoiled the dinner if I had popped it in the oven without noticing. Also no big deal was the number of pin feathers and broken shafts, since I like my skinless chicken. But seeing feathers on a piece of roasted chicken really puts me off.

A tale of two tails

The photo at right shows a tail with the oil gland on, right, and how it should appear with it removed, left.

Don't know how to cut up a chicken? A step-by-step guide can be found HERE.

Thigh high

What are you looking at? My thighs?

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are among the fastest cooking meats. True, they aren't as pretty as the breast, but they pack a small wallop of flavor that the whiter meat can't beat.

Chicken thighs with penne pasta and stewed tomatoes
Serves 2

Ingredients

1 can (15 ounce) stewed tomatoes

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1/4 cup Newman's Own Light Lime dressing
4 ounces dry penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 chopped onion

Grated Parmesan to taste

Instructions

Put the stewed tomatoes in a small saucepan and heat on low. Pound the thighs until they are an even thickness. Marinate with the lime dressing. Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Add pasta. Meanwhile,  heat the olive oil in a skillet big enough for the 2 thighs. When medium hot, add the thighs. Cook the chicken about 8 minutes, then turn. Add the onions and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the rest of the marinade and cook for 5 more minutes. After the pasta has cooked for 12 minutes or until al dente, drain and toss with a little olive oil and Parmesan. Drain the excess liquid from the tomatoes and serve the tomatoes, pasta and hot thighs and onions immediately. Grate extra Parmesan on the tomatoes to taste.

Chickens rule the roost

Whenever I see whole chickens on sale, I usually buy four.

The largest and plumpest I roast Zuni Cafe-style, which makes a pretty good dinner for three or four people.

The other three I cut up and divide thus: chicken wings (tips go into the stock pot); skinless chicken thighs (perfect for mole or gumbo); skinless whole breasts; livers, to be sautéed and then saved for Cajun boudin or dirty rice; and everything else goes into the stock pot.

To make a good rich stock, about 3 quarts from the trimmings, I season the pot with a little salt; peppercorns; a bay leaf; the middle of a celery stalk, with leaves; and a carrot or two; then cover with water. This is brought to almost a boil, then turned down low to simmer, usually overnight, or until the meat is close to falling off the bones. After cleanup from the Zuni chicken, I throw the drippings and whatever bones are left into the pot, too.

I usually drain the stock while it is still warm, but don't strain it through cheesecloth until I need to for certain recipes. I chill it and skim off the fat (I save the schmaltz for a while, in case there's some cookbook recipe that calls for it, but I usually end up pitching it, since I limit the amount of animal fat in my diet). I measure out the broth in several size containers: 1 cup, 1.5 cup, 2 cup and 3 cup; then I label and freeze.

Then comes the most time-consuming part: I pick out any choice meat that's left, which is usually about a quart bag full, and label it for a later chicken soup. That goes into the freezer, too, unless I'm making soup that day.

If you aren't taking out your garbage in the next couple of hours, put the remains in a bag and freeze it. Then dump the frozen bag in the garbage when you take it out.

I've tried to get my cat interested in the gizzards and hearts, but so far, no luck. I use a lot more of the chicken when I have a dog.