Eating the Favorites

The Turkey Day holiday came and went this last week here in the U.S. and, for many of us, that involved hanging out and eating a lot of food with family. We likely each have our own traditions for the event, what we eat and what we do and where we go, but there are some favorites that have to always be on the menu. For my wife and I, we did our family gathering earlier in the month, just to get it out of the way, which meant we could do a little something for ourselves on our days off and just… relax. It was great.

But since we did our own bit of cooking for the day, here’s a sampling of our items with recipes you can use if you want to try them out for yourself.

Brining Your Chicken

Although turkey is the traditional meat served at Thanksgiving, I tend to find it to be a less than delicious bird. In the wrong hands it can be dry and flavorless, and while I have cooked and served it and gotten it to be pretty good, I find that even the best turkey is inferior to a good chicken. For two people, like the holiday I just had, a turkey is also way too big. One chicken is far better for a small group, and two chickens is better for a large family.

For my birds, the first thing I like to do is put them in a large container and “brine” them. Now, a traditional brine is a combination of water, salt, sugar, and seasoning, but I do things a bit different: as I noted over in my Fry-Up special, I like to pickle brine. I take my bird, set it in the container, and pour over it the juice from a bottle of pickles (I really like Klausen’s so that’s the bottle I recommend) and then I season the top of the bird that’s exposed out of the juice. I like a combination of black pepper, garlic powder, Old Bay, and dill, although if there are seasonings you prefer you can, of course, use those. You’re going to brine for two days, flipping the bird over and reseasoning once during the process.

After two days, the bird is ready to cook. Throw it into a baking safe dish, bird and juice and all, and set the dish in a preheated oven set to 350. You’re going to cook for about two hours or so, give or take a few minutes. I take my bird out a couple of times during the process, basting it and checking how it’s cooking. Two hours is about right, but that depends on the size of the bird. After about two hours the top skin will be nice and crispy so if the bird isn’t ready yet (cutting into it to check if the meat is fully cooked) you will want to put a piece of foil loosely over the top to prevent the top skin from burning.

Once the bird is cooked through and ready, pull it out and set it on a plate to let it rest for five to ten minutes. This lets the fluids inside test and prevents it all from leaking out when you cut the bird up, preventing it from getting too dry. Once rested, it’s ready to chop up as you like and serve.

But don’t pour out the chicken stock you just made, all that tasty fluid from the baking process. We’re about to use it:

Cornbread Stuffing

During the last 20 minutes or so of your bird cooking up you’ll want to get to work on your stuffing. I like to make cornbread stuffing, from scratch, in part so I can precisely control the flavor but also because it’s hard to find good gluten free stuffing mixes (and my wife is gluten intolerant). Thankfully, with gluten free flour at hand, cornbread is easy to make. If you want to go this route, all you need to do is buy some corn meal from the store and follow the recipe on the back of the package to make a cornbread loaf (or corn muffins, as you like).

For two people I only needed about a quarter of a loaf of bread, so I only made that much, quartering down the recipe to work for my needs. Obviously for larger groups you’ll need more, and if you just like cornbread and want extras, go for the whole loaf. I will note, though, that I tend to cut back the amount of sugar in the loaf for my stuffing, since I don’t need it too sweet in this preparation, and I’ll also throw a bunch of extra seasoning (black pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and dill) in before I cook the loaf, making for a very tasty, seasoned cornbread.

Once the cornbread is all cooked, let it cool while we work on the veggies. You could use fresh veggies, and I have in the past, but if you want stuff done quickly I would recommend a small bag of frozen mixed veg. Open and throw into a pot with a bit of oil, cover with a lid, and steam (stirring regularly) until the veggies are hot and tender. Now we’re ready to put it all together.

Take your loaf of bread, however much you’re using of it, and cut it up into small cubes. Throw these cubes into the pot with your veggies, then add a couple of ladles of your chicken stock from the baking dish and pour it into the bread and veggie mix. Stir all of it together, and then cook until hot. Taste, season, and serve.

Chicken (and Pickle) Gravy

Now it’s time to use up the rest of that cooking stock. It’s good and tasty and you’re going to want gravy for your bird, stuffing, and anything else you’re serving that sounds great with gravy (mashed potatoes, for instance, although I didn’t serve those at this year’s meal). And hey, making gravy is easy.

To start, pour the stock into a small pot and set it at medium heat to get it up to a boil. Once it’s close, combine a couple of teaspoons (or so) of cornstarch with a bit of water (enough to wet it and stir it into a slurry). Once the stock is up and at a low boil, slowly pour the cornstarch solution into the stock, stirring constantly as you do. If you have enough solution in there, the stock will thicken into a gravy. If it doesn’t, make more cornstarch solution and slowly pour it in, a little at a time, until your gravy reaches the right consistency.

And with those items done, it’s time to move on to the rest of the sides.

Deviled Eggs

A few hours before I started in on the chicken and the hot dishes of the meal, I had to prepare a couple of cold items. The first was my deviled eggs, which I had to cook and then properly cook before I could make them. Deviled eggs, of course, are hard boiled egged, peeled and then cut in half, with their yolks turned into a taste mixture that’s then put back into the cooked whites of the eggs. And to get to that point we have to properly boil the eggs.

My process involves putting however many eggs I’m gonna devil into a pot of cold water, with enough water in to fully cover the eggs. I set this pot on a burner on high and let it get to a rolling boil. Then I turn the temperature down to medium and let my eggs cook for no more than ten minutes. Once cooked, I strained out the eggs from the water, and then put the eggs into a cold bowl with ice water. I let them sit for 30 minutes, pour off the water, put in a fresh batch of ice water, and let them sit for another 30 minutes. Only then do I get to peeling.

As a heads up, not all eggs are good for peeling. I find that the cheapest white eggs are awful and the shells tend to pick and pull and tear the soft eggy flesh below. Instead you’ll likely want to use something a little more expensive, like a farm fresh brown egg or, my personal favorite, Eggland’s Best. Yes, these are more expensive, but they’re good eggs, and for hard boiling the shells come off so easily.

Once the eggs are peeled, quickly rinse them in a little water bath before setting them aside. We’ll want to cut each of them in half, lengthwise, and then scoop their yolks out into a bowl. In that bowl with the yolks we’ll add mayonnaise (for a dozen eggs, approximately an 1/8 cup), mustard (a tablespoon), horseradish (a 1/2 teaspoon), lemon juice (a solid squeeze), and relish (a tablespoon). Give all of this a stir, mashing up the yolks into a fine paste, and then we’ll want to season. I have my reliable standbys or black pepper, garlic powder, salt, and dill, but you’re obviously allowed to go with what you like as well. Stir it all up and lets get to putting the yolks back in the eggs.

There are two ways you can do this. There’s the pretty way, which involves putting the yolk mixture into a piping bag of some kind (like a sandwich bag with a corner cut off) and squeezing the mixture into the eggs in a lovely spiral pattern. Or there’s the lazy way, with a teaspoon, scooping it up and plopping it into the eggs. Unless I’m doing these for a fancy part, I’m a plopper. It’s easier. And they taste good either way, so go with what you like.

Plop, sprinkle with paprika (if you like) and serve.

Potato Salad

Potato salad is, honestly, pretty easy, which is likely the reason you see it at so many barbeques. The nice thing about it for a holiday like this, though, is that you can prep it early and leave it in the fridge for serving later, requiring one less thing to keep an eye on during the mad dash to the finish of your cook. And all you gotta do is boil some potatoes and throw in some sauce.

We begin with the potatoes, rising and cubing a small bag of petite potatoes. Throw these in a pot of water, full enough to at least cover the cubes, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer until the potato cubes are tender enough you can stab them with a fork, but not so tender they fall apart and mash. Remove from the heat, drain into a colander, and rinse with cold water, stirring the cubes a few times to get all their hot sides, cooling the veggies down. Pour the potatoes out onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, spreading evenly, and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Once the potato cubes are cool to the touch, we can make them into a salad. Put the cubes into a big bowl. Dice up the celery and green onion and throw it into the bowl. Then we’ll squirt in mayonnaise (about 1/4 cup), mustard (2 tablespoons), and horseradish (1 teaspoon). We’ll add our seasoning, such as black pepper, Old Bay, garlic powder, onion powder, and a little salt, along with whatever else you’d like, and then gently stir the whole mixture together. Taste, verify flavor is good, and then cool in the fridge until it’s time to serve.

Sauteed Brussel Sprouts

Finally, we should have a green veggie with all of this. My wife likes brussel sprouts, and while they aren’t my favorite, I went with these this time. Normally I’d serve chopped up asparagus or fresh green beans, and honestly their preparation would be about the same as what I did for the brussels. In a pot, veggies are veggies.

First step is to get the sprouts ready for cooking. Rinse them, and then chop off their little root butts, also removing the top leaves from each little sprout head to make them all nice and very clean. At this point you can also quarter them if you want littler bites of sprouts and/or just want them to cook quickly. I didn’t this time and the only real effect it had was larger bites that took longer to cook.

Once your sprouts are ready, throw them in a pot with a bit of oil (a tablespoon or two). Set on medium and cover the pot to let the sprouts steam. While they cook you may need to add a bit of moisture, so have a little cup of water handy and drizzle a little in from time to time if the sprouts seem to want to stick. Once the sprouts are steaming and getting soft, season to taste. Salt and black pepper at a minimum, but you can add other tasty flavors you like as well. Cook until tender and then serve.

The After Meals

And with that the meal was done and we were set to roll. But then we had leftovers and the best part of Thanksgiving leftovers, in my opinion, is the sandwiches you can make after. The next day I had a delightful chicken, cheddar, tomato melt that was fantastic. I mayoed the outside of two slices of bread, coating edge to edge, because when I make melts and grilled cheeses I prefer mayo over butter or margarine. On the inside of the slices I put a little dijon mustard and horseradish, spreading the flavor around to make a nice, thin coating.

Setting the first slice of bread, mayo side down, in a cool pan, turn the burner on to medium. While the burner gets warm, set down your melt layers. An edge-to-edge layer of cheddar, cold chunks of your roast chicken, diced up small, and thin slices of tomato. One more layer of cheese goes on top, and then the top slice of bread.

Let the sandwich cook until the bottom layer is lightly toasted (you might have to check once or twice to see how it’s doing). When toasted, gently but quickly flip the sandwich so that the contents don’t spill out (this is a skill that comes with practice and, even now, sometimes my sandwich defies me), and then cook on the other side. Flip once or twice more until the sandwich is deep brown on both sides, and then serve.

Apple Berry Cobbler

And finally, dessert, which I happened to make the next day because I forgot the day of the meal and then was too full to eat anything else. I like to make apple berry cobbler because I find the flavor combo to be delicious, but this year I added in something I haven’t done before: cranberries. I love cranberry juice but I’d never used whole, fresh cranberries before. They are tart and crunchy and when thrown into this cobble they helped to bring the sweetness down and make the whole dish sign. I would absolutely use them again.

First step is to prepare the fruit. Wash all the fruits and then set aside the blueberries and raspberries. Cut the apple into quarters, remove the core, and then finely chop the apple up into small pieces. Put in a bowl with the blueberries and raspberries. Next, chop up the cranberries to get into smaller pieces and then throw into the bowl with the other fruits. Next, we add in the sugar, flour, and melted butter, along with a solid dusting of cinnamon and a light sprinkling of nutmeg. Squirt in some lemon juice after to get a little acid citrus flavor in the mix. Stir all this together and the plop it all into a baking dish, spreading out evenly.

For the soft, bready top I use pancake batter made straight from a box. Yes, I could make it from scratch, and I have, but I find the results are about as good as a Bisquick or King Arthur’s mixes. I mix up a 1/4 batch of the batter, but I also tend to add in a bit of lemon juice and a sprinkling of brown sugar into the mix because there’s nothing that can’t be solved with more brown sugar. Mix it all up and then drizzle it on top of the fruit mix in the pan.

Set the baking pan into an oven preheated to 350 and cook for at least 30 minutes until the soft topper has cooked through and turned a golden brown and the syrupy fruit mix is starting to bubble on the sides and carmelize. Allow to cool and then serve, maybe with ice cream on top for A LA MOOOOOODE!