How It All Started

Bob Phillips

The title of this blog was inspired by one of my Spanish professor's at Miami University of Ohio, Dr. Robert Phillips, who died in the e...

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

More Jam Chicken

Perhaps because we had enjoyed the sriracha hot jam chicken so much just a fortnight ago, I bought another roasting chicken -- this one organic and free-range -- during pre-blizzard food shopping yesterday. I was prepared to repeat the make-shift "recipe" I had used before, but true to the spirit of this project, Pam found a nueva receta in one of our oldest cookbooks. Clarification: the book is old, having been printed as I graduated from high school, but it is new to us, a thrifty find librarian Pam made on the free-to-good-home bookshelf in our university library.

On page 314 of the 1981 ring-bound edition of The New Cook Book from Better Home & Gardens, she found "Chicken with Currant Glaze." My first reaction was to think about the small remnant of a package of currants in our cupboard, but this was quickly made moot by the second line of the ingredients list: "1/3 cup red currant or raspberry jelly." Remembering that I had also purchased a nice local raspberry jam, I knew we had a winner for a hearty dinner I could prepare between bouts of blizzard shoveling.

Again using the upright roaster, I put Canadian whiskey in the well this time, and then prepared the chicken (with a simple rub of olive oil and a dusting of salt and black pepper. I roasted it for just over an hour, until it reached an internal temperature of 165F. A sign of changing standards is that the book calls for a temperature of 185F, which we now know as "dry" and which explains a lot of over-cooked poultry in our pasts.

At that point, I whisked together in a saucepan the ingredients for a proper sauce: the jam, 2 T lemon juice, 1 T butter, a dash of cinnamon, 1 T water and 2 t cornstarch. Pam kept mentioning that this book was for novice cooks, and I should have paid attention to one of its beginner tips. As I should know by now, the cornstarch works best when mixed with water and then added. I could not whisk out the clumps that were formed. I did make a nice, thick sauce, though, and passed it through a sieve before brushing it on.

Baking for about 15 minutes more at a moderate 350F, the glaze got just a bit crispy. The result of the cooking method and the selection of humanely-raised chicken was an exceptionally succulent meal. It paired well with the mashed potatoes I refried during those final 15 minutes and with the Malbec we selected.

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