Rabbit and Mushroom Stew

  

I'll be honest. I didn't grow up eating rabbit, and as an adult have had plenty of it that didn't do a thing for me. This, though... THIS is heaven in a bowl, and made a believer out of me. This is a great dish for a slow Sunday afternoon when you want to try something a little out of the ordinary.

The way to keep this recipe (relatively) simple and (extraordinarily) delicious is to have a few key ingredients on hand - chicken schmaltz (recipe here) and chicken stock (recipe here, scroll to the bottom) being the most important. These two items live in my refrigerator or freezer year 'round, and I use them in just about everything. We also buy a big jug of dried mushrooms from Costco and keep it on hand - it's the perfect flavor for this recipe. 

This recipe works with either a stewer rabbit or a fryer. Stewers are bigger and will have more meat available relative to the bones. Fryers are easier to come by. Use whatever you can get your hands on - you're looking for about 4-5 lbs of rabbit. More won't hurt.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 oz dried mixed mushrooms
• 2 large heads of garlic
• 1 T olive oil
• 4-5 lbs rabbit
• Salt
• 4 c chicken stock (if you don't have home made, use Swanson's Low Sodium)
• Optional:  One chicken or rabbit liver, 1 1/2 T sour cream
• 1 1/2 lbs mixed fresh mushrooms
• 4 T chicken schmaltz (butter if you don't have it)
• 3 large shallots, chopped
• 1 c sherry or white wine
• 1 T fresh thyme, or 2 t dried
• 1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped
• 2 T fresh parsley

 

Preheat oven to 375-degrees.

Slice off the top third of the heads of garlic and drizzle the olive oil inside. Wrap the heads individually in aluminum foil and put them in the oven. Roast for 45-minutes to an hour, until the cloves are soft and brown. Set aside to cool.

While the garlic is cooking, cut the rabbit into serving sized pieces. If you've not cut up a rabbit before, here's a great video to show you how.  Save the ribs, neck and hips for the stock. Pat dry, sprinkle the pieces with salt and set aside.

Put the rabbit hips, neck and ribs in a small stock pot with the chicken stock, bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a slow simmer. Put it on the back burner.

Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 c boiling water, set aside.

Optional (but you really want to do this) - mince the liver very fine, and then use a small bowl and a whisk to vigorously mix the liver and sour cream together. Use a rubber spatula to push the mixture through a fine sieve. Put the resulting pink cream in the refrigerator for later.

Chop the tough stem ends off of the fresh mushrooms. Slice the caps and remaining stems. Drain the rehydrated dried mushrooms (save the liquid) and chop.  

Heat a dutch oven over high heat for a minute. Add all mushrooms to the pot, stirring constantly until the mushrooms release their water. Reduce heat to medium high, keep stirring to bring up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Lightly salt. When the mushroom liquid is largely gone, remove them from the pot and set aside.

Melt the chicken schmaltz in the pot. Reduce heat to medium and add the rabbit to the pot, browning them a few pieces at a time and removing them when they are brown. Don't crowd the pot, and don't rush this step.  

While rabbit is browning, pour the stock through a fine strainer to separate out the bones, and pour the mushroom liquid through the strainer into the same bowl to remove mushroom crumbs. Squeeze the garlic cloves into the stock mixture and whisk it together. Set aside.

Remove rabbit from pot. Add a little more schmaltz if needed.  Stir in shallots, again scraping browned bits from the bottom of the pot.  Deglaze with the sherry once the shallots are wilted and let the sherry reduce by half. Stir in the stock.

Add thyme, mushrooms, rabbit, and parsnips to the pot, bring it to a bare simmer, and let it cook gently for 90 minutes, or until the meat is falling from the bone. Taste for salt and turn off the heat. Stir in the parsley.

If you're opting to use the liver mixture (and I hope you are), stir it in right at the last minute once the pot stops bubbling.  It will add thickness and a lot of flavor to the dish. If you can't manage the liver, you can go half-way by using just the sour cream. Be sure and don't boil this stew once you've added the liver mixture, it will curdle and you will be sad.

Serve with a big green salad, crusty bread and wine.

 

Quick-Roasted Chicken with Mustard and Garlic

 

 This is a super quick, super delicious recipe by chef Jacques Pepin that is fantastic as-is, AND is easily modified for those interested in a Whole 30 recipe option.  What's more, the leftovers are absolutely divine on a green, leafy salad for lunch the following day.

INGREDIENTS

• Kennedy Ranch spatchcocked chicken, thawed
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 T Dijon mustard
• 2 T extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1 t Tabasco
• 1 t herbs de Provence
• 1/2 t salt
• Bottle dry white wine

1.  Preheat oven or grill to 450-degrees.

2.  Rinse the chicken and pat it dry with paper towels.  Place it breast side down in a cast iron skillet.  With a knife, cut the meat about 1/2 way through at the joints between legs and thighs, and again between the wings and breasts.  This will help the chicken roast more quickly.

3.  Thoroughly mix the garlic, mustard, EVOO, soy sauce, tabasco, herbs, salt, and 2 T of the white wine in a small bowl.  Pour a glass of the remaining wine for yourself.  ;)

4.  Spread half of the sauce on the chicken, then flip it over in the skillet and spread the rest of the sauce on the skin side of the bird.

5.  Set the skillet over high heat and cook for 5 minutes until sauce and meat starts to brown.  Move the skillet to the oven or grill - if you're using the grill, turn off the flame on one side and cook over indirect heat with the lid on.  Roast for about 30 minutes until skin is brown and thigh meat is at about 160-degrees.  Remove from the oven or grill, cover and let rest about 5 minutes before serving.  Enjoy with the rest of the white wine and a leafy green salad.

Note:  To modify for Whole 30, replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos, and the 2T of white wine in the recipe with apple cider vinegar.  

Quick, easy dinner ideas

Inspiration for using up what you have in the house.

Bottom of the Refrigerator Stew

• 1 lb Kennedy Ranch ground beef
• 2 onions, diced
• Several cloves garlic, minced
• Schmaltz or olive oil
• Kosher salt, pepper, herb of choice
• Leftover vegetables
• Can stewed tomatoes

Put a pound of burger in the microwave to defrost. Saute a diced onion and a couple cloves of garlic in chicken fat or olive oil in a cast iron pan.  Crumble burger into the pan and brown. Add some kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and oregano.

Dice whatever other leftover vegetables you have in the fridge and put them in the pan with the burger. Frozen vegetables are fine too. Cover and let vegetables cook.

When vegetables are soft, add a small can of stewed tomatoes. Let it cook to reduce. Taste for spices, add more spice if you'd like. Serve with a big salad and some good bread to complete the meal.


Fragrant Beef and Rice

• 1 lb Kennedy Ranch ground beef
• Small onion and a few cloves garlic, diced
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper
• Pint tomato sauce
• Shredded mozzarella
• Toasted pine nuts
• Cooked rice or riced cauliflower

Heat a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet. Add a small yellow onion, diced, with a pinch of salt. Cook until soft but not brown.  Add a couple of minced cloves of garlic, cook another 30 seconds. Add one lb ground beef, cinnamon, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Brown the beef, stirring to mix. Add a 14-oz can of tomato sauce, stirring in and cooking to reduce slightly, tasting to see if more salt, pepper or cinnamon is needed. Let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and a sprinkling of pine nuts, put under the broiler to brown.  Serve over rice with a nice salad on the side.  For Whole 30 compliance substitute riced cauliflower for rice.


Easy Lemon Chicken

• Kennedy Ranch Pick O' the Chick (1/2 chicken cut up)
• Olive oil
• 3 T minced garlic
• 1/3 c dry white wine
• Whole lemon, juiced and zested
• Whole lemon, sliced
• 1 1/2 t dried oregano
• 1/2 t dried thyme
• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Warm 1/4c olive oil in a saucepan. Add minced garlic and let brown slightly. Remove from heat, and add dry white wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, dried oregano, dried thyme, and 1 t salt. Pour into 9" x 13" baking dish.

Place chicken pieces in baking dish, brush with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Slice lemon into wedges and tuck among the pieces.  

Bake 30-40 minutes until done. If you want the skin a bit more brown, put the chicken under the broiler for a minute or two.  

Cover the pan tightly and let rest while you make a salad. Serve with pan juices, salad and new potatoes pan-roasted in olive oil on the side.

For Whole 30 compliance substitute a mild, light vinegar (rice vinegar, white vinegar) for the wine. Substitute roasted root vegetables (carrots, garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, sweet potatoes) for new potatoes.

Pollo ala Diavola con Olive

 

This recipe comes from Kennedy Ranch evangelist Karl Marlowe, who found it in an old magazine in a doctor's office one day.  It's become his family's favorite way of preparing Kennedy Ranch chicken.  Karl cooks this in a cast iron pan over a wood-fired grill, and grills fresh veggies on the side.

INGREDIENTS

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 small whole chickens, 3.5-4 lbs each
• 2 T Dijon mustard
• 2 T fresh ground black pepper
• 2 T fresh marjoram, oregano or sage, finely chopped
• 1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 t red pepper flakes
• coarse sea salt
• 1 c good olives, pitted
• 1 c dry white wine

Position rack in upper third of oven, heat to 425-degrees.  Lightly grease 1 large roasting pan or 2 baking dishes with oil.  With poultry shears, remove backbones from chickens and put them skin side up into pan.  (Click here for a video on how to remove the backbone from a chicken, also known as spatchcocking.)

In a small bowl, mis together mustard, black pepper, herbs and red pepper flakes.  Spread mixture over chickens, distributing it evenly, season with salt.  Drizzle each chicken with 1 teaspoon oil.

Bake chickens for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle olives over chicken, add wine to pan and continue baking until skin is golden and chicken is cooked through, about 30-35 minutes more.

Transfer pan to a wire rack, tent with tin foil and let chickens rest for five minutes, spooning juices over the top.  Serve with juices.

Perfect Oven Roasted Chicken

 

This is the easy, fail-safe way to roast Kennedy Ranch chicken, whether whole or cut up. The skin comes out super-crisp, the meat moist, flavorful and tender. Best of all it's super-simple.  

Completely defrost a Kennedy Ranch chicken or chicken parts package, or use fresh.

Preheat oven to 400-degrees.

Combine:

3T fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
1T kosher salt
1 1/2 t pepper

Gently loosen the bird's skin away from the flesh, starting in the breast area and working down to the legs and thighs.

Rub the rosemary mixture into the flesh under the skin.  

Sprinkle the skin with additional fresh ground pepper and kosher salt.

Put a sliced onion into the body cavity, along with some additional sprigs of rosemary.

Put rack into 13" x 9" x 2" baking pan, and put chicken (or chicken pieces) onto the rack. Insert meat thermometer into chicken's thigh, being very careful not to touch the bone with the thermometer placement.

Bake until internal temperature measured in thigh is 157-degrees.  Breast meat temperature will be somewhat higher. Time needed will vary based on whether you're baking a whole chicken or chicken parts.

Remove from oven, cover and let rest until temperature rises to 165 degrees or so, about 10 minutes.


Notes:

BE SURE and save the rendered chicken fat from the pan!  Pour it into a fat separator and remove all juice from the fat, strain the fat through cheesecloth or a chinois if necessary to remove any impurities, and store in the refrigerator or freezer.  ANY juice or other impurities will cause it to go rancid very quickly, but if you're conscientious about it the fat will keep in the refrigerator for months.  It's the perfect cooking fat and the secret ingredient of great chefs around the world.

Same with the carcass and/or bones. Save them and use them to make bone broth. There is a good bone broth recipe in the One Chicken Four Meals link.

Oven temperature matters! I made this in an inadequate electric stove in a vacation rental, and the skin didn't crisp up. We have a gas stove at home, with a cast iron griddle kept in the bottom to reflect heat up from the bottom of the oven. We've found it to be the perfect way to get even oven temperatures.

London Broil

 

 

I'm not sure why people have problems making London Broil be awesome, but it's a cut we really love around here.  Grill it until it's no more than medium-rare, slice it thin across the grain (like you would a flank steak), and voila!  Beefy deliciousness.

This recipe and photo comes from our friends the Marlowes, Kennedy Ranch evangelists and all-around exceptional people. It originated at Cooks Country, with some modifications from the folks at Spicy Southern Kitchen.  It works equally well for flank steak.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 London Broil, should be about 1 1/2 inches thick
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Using a sharp knife, cut a 1/2-inch crosshatch pattern, 1/4-inch deep, on both sides of steak.
2. Place in a 1 gallon ziptop bag.
3. Place remaining ingredients, EXCEPT black pepper and paprika, in a blender.
4. Process for 30 seconds and pour into ziptop bag with steak. Turn to coat steak and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.
5. Turn all burners on a gas grill to high. Cover and let heat for 15 minutes.
6. Mix together black pepper and paprika.
7. Remove steak from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Season with pepper/paprika mixture.
8. Place London Broil on grill. Grill for 1 minute and then flip over. Continue to flip every minute until temperature reaches 120 degrees for rare or 125 degrees for medium rare. Don't cook past medium rare.  Total time grilling should be 5-9 minutes.
9. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing.  Slice beef thin and across the grain.

Instant Pot Coq au Vin

 

Coq au vin sounds fancy - and it's a great meal for company - but it's basically comfort food, and it's easy enough to make for everyday.  This recipe is based on the classic Julia Child recipe, reworked a tad for the Instant Pot and using Kennedy Ranch chicken.

Ingredients:

• 1 Kennedy Ranch Pick O' the Chick (breast, thigh, leg, wing)
• 1 1/2 c red wine - burgundy is the classic, but choose something you really like.  We like an old vine zin or merlot
• 1 c chicken stock (use homemade if you have it, if not use Swanson's Low Sodium)
• 3 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2" squares
• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced very thin
• 2 large carrots, sliced into discs
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (if you're doing this in the summer, replace this with a ripe heirloom tomato, diced)
• 4 sprigs worth of fresh thyme leaves
• 8 oz white mushrooms, sliced
• 8 oz pearl onions, peeled

Instructions:

With a chef's knife or cleaver, chop breast into three pieces.  Use chef's knife to separate thigh into three pieces, leg into two pieces, wing into two pieces.  Placed pieced chicken in a bowl, pour over wine and chicken stock, and set it aside to marinate.

Slice medium onion, carrots and mushrooms, clean pearl onions, mince garlic, strip thyme leaves from stems.  Open your tomato paste.

Cut bacon into 1/2" or so squares. 

Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry.  Save marinade.

Turn Instant Pot on to "saute", add bacon to render fat.  Stir it occasionally. When it's crispy, remove it from the Instant Pot and set aside.

Add chicken to Instant Pot, skin side down.  You will have to do this in two, maybe three batches.  Flip the chicken to get a good brown on both sides, and remove it from the pot.

Once all the chicken is browned and removed, turn off the Instant Pot, use some oven mitts to take out inner liner and pour off the fat into a heat proof container.  I use a glass measuring cup, keeps it simple.  

Return the inner liner to the Instant Pot.  Add about 3 T of the fat back in, turn it on to heat and then add the sliced onions and carrots.  Stir them to brown.  Add garlic and brown for about a minute.  Push the veggies aside and add the tomato paste.  Stir it until it softens, darkens and gets fragrant.  Add your reserved marinade and stir up the brown bits from the bottom.  Add chicken to the pot as well as about 4 teaspoons of the thyme leaves.  Cover loosely to help contain splatter, and let the pot saute for about 20 minutes.

While the pot is cooking, pour another tablespoon of your reserved fat into a small saute pan.  Heat it and saute your mushrooms until they are reduced in size, dark and tender.  Turn off heat and stir in your reserved bacon pieces.

After chicken has cooked for 20 minutes, stir in the pearl onions, cover loosely and cook until the onions are tender, 10-15 minutes or so.

Remove lid.  Taste and add salt and pepper to sauce if needed.  Pour bacon and mushrooms over the top of the chicken, sprinkle with the rest of your thyme leaves.  

Serve with good smashed potatoes and a nice green salad.

NOTE:  Julia Child's recipe adds a step at the end where you thicken the sauce with a butter/flour mixture.  I've not considered it necessary as the Instant Pot reduces the sauce during cooking, thickening it.  If you feel the sauce needs to be thickened, mix 2T of butter with 2T of flour in a small bowl, remove the chicken from the pot at the end, and stir in the flour/butter mixture until the sauce thickens.