Oven Herb Chicken, Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 1962

As promised I have a recipe this week!  This one comes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book circa 1962.  My copy was my mother's, probably a wedding or shower gift.

It's the same one displayed in Betty and Henry's kitchen in a Mad Men episode.  Lookee here:

It's between the spice rack and the window.

I chose this recipe because it was easy.  We all need an easy quick dinner sometimes, right?  This recipe isn't what I consider "from scratch" but I made it as close to healthy as I could given the time I had.  Here are the ingredients:

I found organic onion soup mix (but not onion salad dressing mix) and the ingredients in the package are pretty basic.  No chemicals I couldn't pronounce but the bread crumbs made up for it.  (I've tried homemade bread crumbs made from homemade bread but my family just doesn't like it as much.)  And that stick of butter.  At least it's organic...

Here it is the way I did it:

1- 3 lbs chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 pkg onion soup mix

1 stick butter

1t paprika plus more for sprinkling

1/2 to 3/4C seasoned bread crumbs

Melt the butter in a shallow bowl.  Stir in onion soup mix and 1t paprika.  Pour bread crumbs into another shallow bowl or plate.  Dip chicken pieces one at a time in the butter mixture.  Be sure each piece gets some seasoning- it tends to drift to the bottom.  Then immediately press each piece into the bread crumbs and place on a greased baking dish or jelly roll pan skin side up.  When all the chicken is on the pan  sprinkle each piece lightly with more paprika. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.  Check and top loosely with foil if the chicken is too brown.  Bake another 15 minutes or until cooked thru.  

Yummmmers!!  This was a hit all the way around.  Moist and flavorful.  (A stick of butter will do that...)  I had intended to make rice along with the green beans but as you know sometimes life gets in the way.  I had some salad remnants in the fridge so it worked out.  

I highly recommend this recipe.  You could easily make your own onion soup mix (There are recipes on line but I've never tried one.) and make your own bread crumbs to make it more "from scratch".  This will add some steps though.  You could also remove the skin from the chicken pieces to eliminate some calories and fat.  

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend and official start of summer!

Sarah 

No Recipe recipe: Throw A Chicken in the oven!

Real food shouldn't be that complicated, right?  But sometimes it just is.   Jobs, kids, housework, errands, and life in general can get in the way.  Not to mention our culture's elevated expectations of a home cooked dinner.  (Thanks, restaurants.)

When I read my vintage magazines and cookbooks I always notice how simple the meals sound.  Yes, there are some organ meats on occasion and Jello makes an appearance in both sweet and savory forms, but most recipes are for busy families who want a nutritious meal.  (Isn't that what we want today too?)  Real food was a given.  That's all there was until about the 50's.  I also note how little detail was given in the instructions.  The reader is assumed to have some basic cooking knowledge, even those written for the new bride.  Tracie McMillan elaborates on this point in her book, The American Way  of Eating.  See my review here.  Better yet pick up a copy and read it for yourself!  (I don't personally know Tracie- just really loved her book.)

So what does a quasi-foodie mom make for dinner on soccer/rehearsal night (Both my daughters are into theater.  Two different shows at two different locations with two different schedules.  My car is three years old and has almost 50K miles!) when there's also a Target run on the agenda?  She throws a chicken in the oven!

Check out the video on You Tube!

The details:

1 Whole chicken with the organ sack removed from the body cavity
3-4T Olive oil
A mixture of herbs:  Garlic, Savory, Rosemary, Thyme (Others that are good are Sage, Parsley, Oregano, Basil, or Paprika.  Any combination is good, assuming you like the herb.)
Salt and Pepper
An onion if you have it
A lemon if you have it
1/2C White wine if you have it

Preheat the oven to either 350 or 300.  See note below*.

Mix all of the herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Coat chicken with olive oil.  Rub the entire bird with the herb mixture.  Pour the wine over the chicken.  Squeeze the lemon over the chicken.  Put a few onion and squeezed lemon quarters in the cavity.  Sprinkle the herb mixture in there too.

Add any veggies you want.  (Potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, Brussels spouts are good.  See my Vegetable post for more details.)    Coat with olive oil and sprinkle with the herb mixture if you have any left or just use salt and pepper.

Cover the chicken with tin foil.  Cook for 1 hour at 350.  Uncover and cook for another 20 minutes to brown the top.  You can speed up the browning by raising the temp to 425.

That's it!  YUMMMMMM.

That note* about the oven temp.  If you are making this ahead or aren't going to be home (and feel comfortable leaving the oven on a low temp) set the oven to 300.  You'll need to cook the chicken for at least 90 minutes.  If you are concerned use a meat thermometer to check for doneness when you get home.  If I remember correctly the temp in the thigh should be 165.  (I think my meat thermometer is buried in the backyard of my old house.  Long story.  There were lots of neighborhood kids over one snow day and it's been missing ever since.)  Your meat thermometer will have the correct temps for many kinds of meat marked on the dial.

Total prep time can be five minutes, once you make this a few times.  Tonight I made it while my son got his snack and found his uniform.  (It was all ready for him!)  My oldest daughter came home 10 minutes before me and raised the oven temp and took off the foil so it was really ready to hit the table within minutes of walking in the door.  Nice!

Enjoy,
Sarah

No Recipe- recipe: Chicken Soup

Chicken broth/soup is one of those staples that is the basis for many meals.  It's easy to make (with a little time and planning) and freezes well so it's ready to go for all those recipes that call for store bought chicken broth.

Here's what you need:

Simply put the chicken and/or bones in a large pot (I used my favorite LeCreuset-mustard yellow oval.  I kinda feel bad for the blue round pots.  They're the workhorses of my kitchen.  The yellow oval is only for big time cooking so it's not stained beyond my scrubbing capabilities and the cover isn't dinged.), cover with water -about 2-3 inches over the chicken,  add 1T vinegar, roughly chopped onion, carrots, celery, and parsnips.  Simmer on the stove, covered, over a low heat for at least 4 hours.  Here's look at the simmering soup:

Once the soup has been simmering for 4-5 hours (Or longer- it only gets better with time!) Let it cool and either refrigerate (Covered in the cooled pot.) overnight or strain.  To strain take a large mixing bowl and put a large colander inside. Using tongs take the solids out of the soup a little at a time and put into the colander to drain.  Periodically mash the solids with a large spoon to squeeze out all the yummy broth.  Toss the solids removing the meat first if you want it for chicken salad or to put back into the soup.  Pour the broth in the bowl back into the pot.  This sounds more complicated than it really is. I made a video showing how I do all this but I'm not sure what happened to it.  That's what happens when your child's cell phone dies and he/she is bored because you're all at the eye doctor.  Anyway...

Skim the broth with a fine mesh hand held strainer or use a fine mesh strainer over the bowl.  The idea is to remove all the little floaties so the broth is "clean".  (Of course it's clean but you know what I mean.)  Using a hand held strainer dip it in the broth and pull thru collecting what you can.  Dump the gunk and rinse the strainer occasionally with clean water so you don't make more work for yourself.  If you're using a strainer over the bowl use a ladle to move the broth from the pot to the strainer.  Either method takes time.  And patience.  But it's totally worth it if you're like me and a bit freaked out by unidentified soup floaties.  

If you've refrigerated the broth overnight remove the solid fat that's hardened on the top with a spoon before straining.  If you're straining first it's a good idea to put the soup into the fridge (Again, covered in the pot if it will fit in your fridge.) for at least an hour afterwards so you can easily remove some of the fat before you dig in.  It's ok to have some fat but I find overly fatty soup to have a slimy feeling.  This is one reason why I prefer my homemade floatie-free soup to most restaurants' offerings!

Here's the "clean" broth.  (Notice it's a bit cloudy?  Impatient me let it simmer too high.  Again.  Sigh... But it still tasted great!)  It's ready to freeze if you want.  

When you plan to use the broth reheat on the stove over a low heat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I also like to add my pot herbs.  If you're interested in trying them yourself you can buy them here.

Now you can add veggies, noodles, rice, matzo balls,  dumplings, shredded cooked chicken, or anything that sounds good.  If adding veggies cook them in the pot over a low heat or toss in leftover cooked veggies.  If making noodles or rice cook first according to the package directions and then add to the broth.

As I said in the intro this freezes very well.  I usually put some in small 1-2 cup containers to use when making rice and other recipes.  The rest I save for soup night in a really big container.  What kind of containers?  I use my glass or ceramic bowls, casseroles, or little vintage refrigerator dishes if they're not already in use.  I worry about the plastic so I only use those when I'm out of the others.

I hope you and your family like it as much as we do!

Sarah

Chicken Marengo, Everywoman's March 1955

I'd never heard of this magazine before but I now have a bunch of them.  (Apparently Mrs. Katz Cohn was a fan.)  Luckily on page 3 of this issue is a letter from the publisher explaining why the magazine is less expensive than most women's magazines of the day.  Everywoman's magazine was a publication sold in grocery stores only.  It wasn't sponsored by the grocery stores, just distributed directly from the publisher with no middle man.  Thus the price was only 5¢ versus the standard 25¢ to 35¢ for traditionally distributed magazines.  Family Circle started out this way too but is now published and distributed thru a magazine publisher.

So on to our Chicken Marengo.  First before I forget- this went very well with white rice.  You need something to sop up all the delicious juices.  Yummy bread would work too.  I served sautéed spinach as our vegetable.

Here's the original recipe:

I didn't change much except the onion situation.  12 small whole onions weren't to be found in my grocery store.  It's that whole onion sizing thing again.  Also I didn't add the green pepper and tomato at the end.  Tomatoes are awful this time of year and hubby detests green pepper.

Here's my version:

1 chicken, cut in 8 pieces
1 large white onion, sliced thinly
1-8oz package of sliced mushrooms
Rind of l lemon, juice from 1/2 of the lemon (It was a really big lemon and needed to save the other half for my son- he has a sore throat.)
1-11.5 oz Can tomato juice
1/2C Flour with salt and pepper to taste
6T Olive oil
1-1/2t Salt
1/2t Pepper
1/2t Thyme

First heat half of the oil in a large skillet.  Sauté the onions until translucent.  Remove from the pan.  Add the rest of the oil to the pan.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour and place skin side in the hot pan.  Turn each piece occasionally so that it browns all over.

While the chicken browns zest the lemon and juice half of it or the whole thing if your lemon is small.  My lemon was about 4 inches long.  This big:

It was organic too.  Go figure!

Then pour the tomato juice, salt, pepper, and thyme into the bowl with the lemon juice and rind.  (I used a large measuring cup.)  Mix well.  Once the chicken is all nice and brown put the onions and mushrooms into the pan.  Pour the lemon-tomato mixture.  Jostle the chicken around so the juice gets mixed in well with the veggies.  Cover and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes or until chicken is done.  Serve with rice.  (Yay!  I didn't forget!!)

Everyone liked this dinner for the most part.  Hubby had seconds.  (Jackpot!!)  My Little Miss Sweet 16 ate the chicken mixed with the rice when I cut it off the bone for her.  (Big surprise.)  My middle daughter said she liked the rice plain (what?) and my son, who's throat was very sore, said it was worth the pain of swallowing.  If this isn't a positive endorsement I don't know what is!!

Enjoy!

Chicken and Rice, Family Circle February 1955

This recipe is called "Arroz Con Pollo" in the February 1955 issue of Family Circle.  It literally means "rice with chicken" in Spanish.  The popular dish is so much a part of the culture that most Latin countries have their own version.  Since this recipe is so Americanized I opted to just call it Chicken with Rice.  (Why switch the order?  There's clearly more chicken than rice in the recipe.  I assume the Latin versions have more rice as the traditional Latin diet is more grained based.  Here in America we're all about protein, aren't we?  Not sure that's a good thing.)

This dish takes a few steps (and a good can opener) but it's easy enough for a weeknight.  With a little planning I could do the bulk of the prep it in the afternoon and do the rest in between schlepping kids to and fro.  It was nice comfort food on a lazy Sunday.

Here is the original recipe.  It starts in the lower left column and continues on the upper right.

Here's what I did:

• 1 Chicken, cut in 8 pieces
• 2T Olive oil (Original recipe called for 1/4C.  2T is plenty.)
• 1C Raw white rice
• 1C Chopped onion
• 2 Cloves garlic, minced
• 1-14.5oz Can of green beans
• 2-14.5oz Cans of diced tomatoes
• 1-6oz Can of chopped mushrooms (I didn't use the whole jar- aimed for 4 ounces)
• 1-4oz Jar of diced pimientos (What are pimientos?  Click here to find out!  I know them from the pimiento cheese of my Texas childhood but had no idea they were actually peppers.  Go figure.)
• 2T Dried parsley
• 1.5t Salt (Or salt to taste.  It depends on how salty your canned veggies are.)
• Dash of pepper
• .5t Chicken bullion granules

Warm 1T olive oil in a large skillet over a medium high heat.  Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.  Add the chicken and turn to brown on all sides.  Place the browned chicken in a large baking dish.  Preheat oven to 350.

Add the remaining 1T of olive oil to the skillet.  Add rice and sauté over a medium low heat scraping brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add onions and garlic.  Sauté for about 10 minutes until soft.

(Hold the phone!  This is where it gets really vintage...)

Drain liquid from the can of green beans into a measuring cup.  Add water to make 1 cup total.  Pour in skillet with rice mixture.

(...Explanation:  Reserving the water in canned veggies or the cooking water from steamed fresh veggies was just what people did as a matter of course back in the day.  Somewhere along the line we stopped saving this nutrient dense water to use in soups or other dishes and it just went down the drain.  When I read this in Michael Pollan's book Food Rules I promised to start a veggie water jar in the fridge.  Never happened.)

Stir into the skillet:  green beans, tomatoes with liquid, mushrooms with liquid, pimientos, parsley, salt, pepper and bullion granules.  Bring to a boil.  Spoon over the chicken in the baking dish.  Cover and bake for 50 minutes.  Uncover, dig out the chicken, rest it on top of the rice and bake for another 10 minutes.

Voila!  This is what you get:

Chicken, rice and veggies all in one dish.  How easy!  We had fruit on the table to round out the meal.

When I first saw this recipe I was concerned about all the canned veggies.  I mean fresh is best, right?  And then next comes frozen?  For goodness sake my mother was a back to the Earth hippie vegetarian in a housewife's clothing!  How can I make a meal based on canned vegetables?  Then I thought about what my doctor told me once.  When determining what is better nutritionally you have to look at the whole picture.  What else is available?  How much time do you have?  What do you like?  So if you're going to try to make this meal with fresh veggies (adding in time for the cleaning, trimming, chopping, and steaming) but end up with a house full of screaming hungry kids and a grumpy hubby who gives up and orders a pizza then the canned veggies are better.  My wise friend Janet agreed and I proceeded sans guilt.

The result-  I don't know if it was the extra salt and pepper I used before browning the chicken or my brilliant idea to add the chicken bullion granules but hubby said IT HAD FLAVOR!  (Cue the angels.)  The kids loved it too.  I cut the chicken off the bone for the bone phobic of my brood and they ate it right up.  I thought it was delicious.  The leftovers were yummy the next day and the rice didn't get mushy as I thought it might.  Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

This is the beautiful Family Circle magazine cover.  I love it!

See George Washington?  Back then he didn't have to share his birthday by honoring all the presidents!  

I hope your family loves this dish as much as we did!

Sarah

Chicken Paella- FAIL! (UPDATED for reader Aileen!!!)

So the recipe I mentioned last time was this- Chicken Paella from the December 1955 issue of Women's Day.  It had so much promise.  It looked like it would be warm, comforting, and delicious.  But alas I was wrong...

Here's the hot mess:

Yum, hu?  I had to put the veggies on the plate so it didn't look totally depressing!

The Family's reaction:

Hubby- "It needs more flavor..."  Adds salt and Tabasco.  "It's ok I guess."  When asked if I should make it again he politely asked me not to.
DD15- Ok first a little background.  This one is a somewhat picky eater.  She also hasn't learned to cut her chicken herself or at least acts like it.  (Not sure how she functions when her mommy isn't around.  I'm afraid to ask.)  So the fact that this dish included bone in chicken didn't bode well from the start.  She took a bite of the rice and asked how to eat the chicken.  I rolled my eyes at Hubby, who was trying not to laugh.  Then she complained it was fatty. I don't need to continue with the details but suffice it to say Little Miss had a few carrots, said she was full, and went up to her room.
DD13-  Ate more than her brother and sister but claims she didn't like the meal.  I think she was thwarted by peer pressure.  She thanked me for dinner, something she usually does so she looks like "the good one"- an old family joke, but tonight I took her words to heart regardless of their sincerity.
DS9- My dear son, despite his advanced palate, has the same chicken cutting phobia as his oldest sister.    (Apparently removing the shell off king crab legs is ok but cutting chicken off the bone is just too much.)  He ate a bite of the rice and said it was good.  Then looked at the chicken and said it looked confusing. (What have I done to these children???)  He then finished the rice, had a few carrots, and asked what else was for dinner.  Can you guess the answer?????????????  Sigh...
The Pooch- He would have LOVED it.  But he has an allergy to chicken.  I kid you not.

But there's always a silver lining isn't there?  I'm thinking I can rework the recipe to only make the Spanish rice! (I've been looking for a good Spanish rice recipe for Taco night.  It's harder than you think.)  Also I got a manicure today.  This is a silver lining in and of itself, right?  And I didn't hack off a chunk of the freshly applied polish like I usually do when chopping onions.  Victory!

Happy New Year!

Sarah

Update starts here.   One of my readers, Aileen, asked if I would post this recipe as it sounded similar to one she used to make.  So, Aileen, here you go!

The recipe continued.

If I were to try it again I'd use more saffron and a way bigger pot!

Here's how much Saffron I used.  And it wasn't enough.

This was the pot I used.  Not too pretty...

Let me know how it goes!