Chicken Bone Broth in the Crock Pot

Start to an amazing Bone Broth

I've recently been fascinated with learning all I can about food for its health benefits not just for how tasty it is. In my search I've been experimenting with home fermentation. I have mastered a mean sauerkraut (both a Japanese one as well as a traditional one), I've made some pretty great kimchi.  I have delved into making medicinal pickled garlic, today I'll be making some medicinal oils, and one of the families all times favorites is what is now become a weekly ritual of bone broth.  Not only is it really tasty, either by itself, with an egg stirred into it, used as a stock for risotto, soups, or added to any cooking where you would traditionally use chicken/beef broth. But the health benefits are plentiful.

Bone broth is an excellent source of minerals and is known to boost the immune system and it helps improve digestion.  The broth itself is high in calcium, magnesium, amino acids and phosphorus which is great for bone and tooth health.  Bone broth has a high collagen content which supports joints, hair, skin and nails.  In cases of stomach bugs or vomiting, bone broth works to calm the stomach and can help shorten the illness.  

You can make bone broth from bones of chicken, lamb, fish, turkey, beef...etc.  Add in some vegetables, herbs of your choice and you have an amazing immune boosting liquid.  You can add egg shells, which are also rich in minerals and the egg membranes have nutrients that are supportive for joint health.

One thing I love about this is every time I make it it turns out differently depending on what I have in the house to add to it. We have only made chicken bone broth at this point because it's easy to find an organic whole chicken to start the broth. Although I am determined to find myself some organic grass fed beef bones so that I can make a beef bone broth, but as I said the chicken is easy.  We typically each drink a glass or so a day just heated up.  One of our favorite ways to use the broth (other than in cooking) is heat up some soup and whisk in an egg until cooked (similar to an egg-drop soup).

I buy the whole chicken, we roast it for dinner, eat all the meat and all the bones (and giblets) become the base for the broth.

Here's what you need:
2 lbs or more bones, although at this point I've only ever used 1 chicken carcass and it's turned out really good (they need to be high quality, organic/grass fed animal/wild caught fish)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (this is crucial as it helps draw more of the mineral content out of the bone)
Salt/Pepper to taste
*chicken feet, optional (for extra gelatin)

Here's what else you can add:
**The great thing about this is this can now become your "compost" (if you don't typically compost this is a great place to put all your vegetable scraps). Throughout the week as you cut up onions, vegetables, cook with eggs you can put all the scraps and egg shells into a Ziploc and store in the freezer to use when you're ready to make your bone broth.  The options are endless depending on what your family eats.

Here's just a run down of my typical bone broth
1 onion (no need to peel, just cut in quarters put peel, roots and all in broth)
4-5 carrots (rinse and chop roughly)
4-5 stalks of celery including leaves (can use base of celery too)
3 garlic cloves (just crushed, skin and peel left on)
3 roughly chopped green onions including root
2 ends of fennel heads and tops
1 shallot (cut in half, peel and all)
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp sea salt

Here's ideas of other things to add:
Egg shells
Broccoli stalks
Carrot tops & peels (if you happen to peel your carrots)

Here's how to cook it:
Add bones to pot
Cover with water (about an inch above bones)
Add Apple Cider Vinegar and let sit for 20-30 minutes
Now add all your vegetables/herbs/garlic and salt
Cook on low for 24 hours (for poultry)
Cook on low for 48 hours (for beef)
Cook on low for 8  hours (for fish)
When done, strain (with cheesecloth or a very fine strainer) and store in fridge for 5 days or in the freezer.
During the first few hours of simmering you may need to remove the impurities that float on the surface (although I've never had a problem with this), throw this part away. Usually check every 20 minutes for the first 2 hours.

Now don't be concerned if once you put your bone broth in the fridge that it becomes jello like, as that's a good sign. That's a sign of high gelatin content, feel free to scrape that off and use the gelatin for roasting vegetables, or other cooking uses.

Natchitoches (Louisiana Meat Pie)

Natchitoches, pronounced "Nack-uh-dish" is a meat pie that originated in the city of the same name near the Texas border in Louisiana. I was determined to mix up our dinner menu this week after being stuck in a rut for a little bit, and found this recipe and it sounded good. The original recipe did call for the meat pies to be deep fried but we don't typically fry things so we opted to bake them instead.

It's a simple recipe and one of the great things is you can make all the ingredients and freeze them to be served later.

Filling for Natchitoches

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped fine

1 green bell pepper, minced

6 scallions, minced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth

Mix all ingredients and set aside until dough is ready.

Dough

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tablespoons butter (or vegetable shortening)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 large egg lightly beaten

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in stand alone mixer (or food processor if yours is big enough). 

Add butter/shortening and mix until it resembles coarse cornmeal.

Add broth and egg until dough just comes together

Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and knead until dough forms smooth ball (about 20 seconds)

At this point you can refrigerate the dough if wanted, or work with it immediately

You can choose to make individual meat pies or a large one. 

Roll dough out and place meat filling in middle. 

Seal meat pies and make sure to cut slits in the top before placing in the oven

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

***You can make them and then wrap in foil and place in freezer before cooking to be eaten later. 

Coconut Drip Cake

Some call this a "drip cake," a "poke cake," "tres leches." I call this cake the most amazing cake I've ever eaten. Seeing that our wedding cake was coconut I've dreamed of a good coconut cake since my wedding 14 years ago and sadly haven't come close. That was until yesterday. I was a little hesitant when I made this cake for a few reasons but the main reason I like a moist, but not soggy cake. I hate eating cake and ice cream together because the ice cream melts and ruins the texture of the cake. So when I read this recipe although all the ingredients together sounded delectable it would really depend on the final product to see if the texture was too mushy.  It wasn't, instead it was the most moist, delicious, coconut cloud on a plate.  This is only the second time I've used cake flour and I will say I can never go back to All Purpose flour for my cakes or cupcakes, the cake flour really does make such a difference. I also will never use vanilla extract again now that I've found vanilla bean paste, it is the experience of actual vanilla beans without having to buy and scrape my own vanilla beans.

Cake
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk

Topping
1/2 can condensed milk
1/2 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Generous handful of unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350
Grease a 9X9 cake pan
Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In bowl of stand mixer beat butter and sugar at medium speed until pale and fluffy
Beat in vanilla
Add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping the down the bowl after each addition
At low speed beat in buttermilk until just combined
Add flour mixture in three batches mixing until each addition is just incorporated
Spread batter evenly in pan and tap on counter to eliminate air bubbles
Bake 35-40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean
Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes
Use a fork to puncture all over the surface of the cake
Combine condensed milk & coconut milk and pour all over cake
Let cake cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours
Using whisk attachment on a stand mixer, gently whip up cream, sugar and vanilla bean paste
Spread over cake and cover with a sprinkling of shredded coconut.
***The original recipe was double this, so 4 cups + 2 tablespoons cake four, 1 full can condensed milk, 1 full can coconut milk, etc. However seeing that there was only a few of us to serve I didn't want a ton of cake. If I was taking this to a party I would definitely double this recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

Today I have hard time believing Fall is coming, the heat outside feels like walking into a furnace when you open the door. Ok, that is a little dramatic seeing that where I live people would laugh that I think it's hot. It's 91 and 10:30am, with 41% humidity, this is about as hot as we get but to us it is HOT.  This has been such a mild summer I've had a hard time not thinking that Fall has already arrived, today has reassured me that it's still summer. At the beginning of this week when I was menu planning though the weather was still very Fall like and I found one of my favorite recipes that I realized I haven't shared. So here it is:

Crust
(you may think making your own crust isn't worth the time or hassle, but trust me it's easy and definitely worth it)
2 Cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
6 T cold water
Combine flour, salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Add water until ball is created (may need more water).
Put in fridge for 4 hours (I don't always do this step, if you forget to put in fridge I typically just put in fridge while I make the filling and it works well.)

Filling
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt & pepper
1 tbsp garlic
1 onion chopped
3 cups chicken broth
1 lb chicken
Carrots
Celery
Potatoes
1 bag frozen peas

Melt 1/2 cup butter, blend in flour, salt, pepper, onion and garlic
Stir in chicken broth, stir until thickened
Turn burner to medium
Add chicken, cook for 5 minutes
Stir in carrots, celery, potatoes, cook for 5 minutes
Add peas (I don't typically add a whole bag, just eyeball how much I want), cook for 2 minutes
Mix well.

Roll out pie crust on a floured surface and place in a greased pan (making sure to save some to use as a cover)
Pour filling into crust and cover with remaining crust.
Cut slits in crust
Bake @ 400 for 30 minutes or until crust is brown and filling is bubbly.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding w/Whiskey Hard Sauce

Now I'm not typically a bread pudding fan, to be honest I don't think I've had a single one I've liked. Well that was until I was at a friends house and had the most amazing bread pudding of my life. I went back for seconds (well actually I went back for fourths) it was that good. I found my friend who was hosting the party and asked her for the recipe. I then found out the "secret" to the amazing bread pudding and I'm about to share it with you...are you ready???  Make sure you're sitting down because this secret is a doozy, here it goes, the secret to the most amazing bread pudding you've ever had...Hot Dog Buns!!!! No joke. Seriously. Hot Dog Buns. You will never look at a hot dog bun the same way again, and you will never never never want bread pudding any other way.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding - (Keep Refrigerated)

12 oz. White Chocolate (chips or chunks cut in pieces).
10-12 Hot Dog Buns cut in approx. 1" sections
1 cup granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
½ t cinnamon
1 Pinch of Nutmeg
7 Egg Yolks
2 whole Eggs
6 cups Heavy cream, ½ & ½ or Whole Milk (depending on how rich you want it to taste, I
recommend heavy cream)


Put all cream/milk into a pot on the stove.
Stir in sugar, vanilla & nutmeg.
Combine whole eggs and egg yolks in a bowl, and whip till bright yellow and slightly frothy.
Add cream mixture and whip vigorously.
Add white chocolate.
Cut hot dog buns into 1” pieces. Arrange cut hot dog buns in a greased 9 x 12 baking dish.
Pour the milk mixture over buns.
Move and push buns in the baking dish to be sure all buns are saturated with liquid.
Push down on the top of the buns to bring any excess liquid to the top.  If there is no excess of
liquid, add milk or cream to allow a small amount of liquid to surface.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 mins. at 350.
Uncover and bake another 15 minutes (or until pudding is set).
Test with a toothpick in the middle of the dish to make sure that pudding is done, checking often until toothpick comes out clean.


Whiskey Hard Sauce  - (Keep Refrigerated Makes 1 ½ cups)

1 C Cream
½ C Sugar
¼ t vanilla
2 oz. Brandy or Whiskey
1 t cornstarch.

Heat cream just until it starts to simmer.  Simmer until slightly thickened. (about 1 minute)
Add sugar, stir until dissolved.  Add vanilla.
Mix cornstarch with brandy until dissolved.  Take cream off the heat and stir in cornstarch
mixture.  Stir until dissolved and then reheat stirring constantly until thickened.
Cool to desired temperature before serving.

Mango, Avocado, Black Bean Chop Chop Salad

I can feel it...can you? Summer is coming. This past Friday it was a 82 and beautiful and just made me crave those summer days. We ate dinner outside and I could picture swimming in the ocean, coming home after spending all day at the beach and eating something light and refreshing. Sipping a glass of wine and eating salad a delicious salad.  Today of course is raining and summer feels so far away, now this is coming from someone who lives where it's typically 70 and sunny so I'm not definitely complaining, I'm just dreaming of what this summer has in store. 

Mango, Avocado, Black Bean Chop Chop Salad
1 1/2 cup mango, chopped (I used frozen because it was easy)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can black beans rinsed
1 avocado, cut into chunks
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1 cup chicken, cooked & chopped
Juice from 2 limes
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup cilantro
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve over lettuce. 
*I actually made everything (excluding the avocado and tomatoes) this morning and it's in the fridge marinating to get extra flavor, the kids and I have tasted it a few times (hey a chef has to taste their food to make sure it's good) and I can say I'm super excited for dinner. 

Shepherd's Pie

Oh how I love a good Shepherd's Pie, but I usually find the recipes over involved or time consuming neither of which I have the patience or time for. I finally found a recipe that is quick easy and most of all delicious.

Shepherd's Pie

For the potatoes:
4-6 medium potatoes
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt & pepper

For the meat filling:
1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 tbsp garlic
Your favorite veggies (I use 1 cup of frozen 4 pack of corn, green beans, carrots and peas)
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 water
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary

Turn on oven 400 degrees
Place diced potatoes in water and bring to boil, cook until tender
While potatoes are cooking, heat skillet add olive oil, chopped onion and garlic.
Add ground beef to brown.
Sprinkle meat with flour and toss to coat. Cook for another minute
Stir in the tomato paste, water, Worcestershire, rosemary & thyme. Combine well and simmer fro 7-10 minutes until sauce thickens slightly.
Add veggies (I really love a frozen organic foursome that I use so I add 1/2 the bag.) Cook until desired doneness
When potatoes are done cooking add butter and cream and mash until smooth
Spray baking pan with non stick spray, pour in meat & veggie mixture. Top with potatoes, make sure to use a spatula and smooth potatoes all the way to the edges this helps create a seal and prevents the mixture from bubbling out too much.
Place baking dish on cookie sheet and bake in middle rack @ 400 for 1 hour 

Cilantro Potato Salad

Summer time is coming, which means BBQ, cook outs and spending time outside. Here's a new potato recipe to try. I'm not one for potato salad, actually I don't really like potatoes typically at all but this potato salad was amazing. Not to mention they were fresh grown potatoes picked straight from our backyard yesterday morning. Actually all of the ingredients (except the mayonnaise) were from our backyard garden, even the garlic & green onions was from our backyard.

Cilantro Potato Salad
1 1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
3/4 cup cilantro leaves chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
2 lbs small new potatoes, cooked
1/3 cup finely chopped green onion

In a bowl stir together mayonnaise, cilantro, green onion, garlic & salt. Add potatoes and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Crock Pot Lasagna

I was hesitant about this one, would the noodles get soggy? Would it taste like a good lasagna, cause I love a good lasagna. I was pleasantly surprised! I made a homemade sauce but you can always use a jar of your own favorite sauce.

Crock Pot Lasagna

1 26oz box/can strained tomatoes (we're a huge fan of Pomi)
chopped onion
2 tsp garlic
1 lb ground beef
1/3 cup basil
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup parmesean
15 oz container ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella
1 whole egg
lasagna noodles, uncooked

In large skillet ground beef and onion, add garlic.
Pour in strained tomatoes (or jar of sauce). I wanted a bolognese type sauce so this is where I added the heavy whipping cream (can be omitted) 1/4 cup parmesan, and 1/4 cup basil. Let simmer for 5 minutes
Mix ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan, egg and remaining basil.
Spray crock pot with non stick spray
Pour in 1 cup of sauce, place noodles on top (break into pieces to make fit if necessary), layer cheese. Continue until last layer is sauce.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours (depends on temperature of your crock pot, mine was done at 3 1/2, then I turned on to warm.
Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and let cook an additional 10 minutes until melted.
Serve

Crock Pot Ham Bone Soup

The question of what to do with leftover ham bone, there is so much good flavor and meat leftover on that bone you don't want any of it to go to waste. After Easter dinner, I started trying to come up with the perfect recipe for the ham bone. Seeing how much I love my crock pot it all just made sense to put together a soup that included the ham bone. Looking at our bone we assumed we'd eaten just about all the meat, boy were we wrong. After sitting in the crock pot for 7 hours we were shocked to see how much meat we still had.

Crock Pot Ham Bone Soup
1 ham bone with some leftover meat (ours was frozen)
1 onion diced
1 can crushed/diced tomatoes
1 can beans, drained & rinsed (we used great northern bean, kidney will be good to)
3 potatoes, cubed
1 bell pepper (we used yellow)
4 carrots chopped
4 celery stalks chopped
4 cups chicken stock
2 tsp garlic

Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours.
The ham bone itself has so much flavor there is no need to add any additional spices.