First of all we'd like to thank all of our loyal customers for supporting the farm and sharing so many great food stories! We have loved hearing about your family feasts and are honored to have been a part of them.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner here on the farm. We cooked up two heritage turkeys and the majority of the side dishes were made from ingredients either grown on the farm or locally. What a wonderful sense of accomplishment it is to reap the rewards of this beutiful harvest.
Now onto chicken. We raised quite a few chickens this season so the freezers are stocked and we will continue to have frozen chickens for sale through the winter. Since we raised so many, we have the luxury of enjoying one of these delectable birds once a week or so. After eating the meat we always make a stock with the carcass that we either use right away or freeze. Often times we add some chicken feet to the stock pot which adds a layer of delicious gelatin purpoted to be excellent for our joint health.
Lately I've been trying to branch out from my typical roast chicken which is always great but getting a bit boring for me to prepare. I recalled once making a fricassee which the family (including the little ones) absolutely loved. So I searched for a fricassee recipe that would be sure to incorporate at least some veggies other than onion. I came across a recipe for fricassee with artichokes and fennel and had to try it. The recipe comes to us from Martha Stewart but I changed it up a bit not only to make it a little less messy but a little less time consuming as well.
First you take a whole chicken and cut it into ten or so pieces making sure to save the carcass for stock. Brown the pieces on all sides in a bit of oil of your choice (I used olive and sunflower oils plus a smidge of ghee). Slice a red onion and a fennel bulb and add to pan. Add one 15 ounce can of artichoke hearts minus the water and one cup of chicken stock. Add salt and pepper put the top on and let simmer on the stovetop for about 30 minutes, check frequently. After the liquid has cooked down take the top off and let it cook down some more until it produces a creamy sauce. Serve immediately, garnish with fennel fronds (and save the rest of the fennel stalks and fronds to add to your stock for a delicious, robust flavor).
Our kids loved this meal and what I thought would be enough for us to eat for lunch the following day was gobbled up that night! If you try the recipe let us know how it goes...we hope you like it as much as we did!
Caitlin
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