Special Christmas Chicken and Rice Pilaf


Special Christmas Chicken

24 chicken thighs

Skin the thighs, put them in a 6-8 quart pot, season with bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic salt.  Cover with water and simmer for 60-90 minutes until cooked - when a fork poked into the thickest part of the meat comes out easily.  Using a large slotted spoon, transfer the thighs to a large, folded brown paper bag lying on the counter to absorb liquid and grease.  Chill the cooking water to make skimming the fat easy the next day.  After fat is skimmed off, heat the remaining gel-liquid, strain several times, then chill to use later in recipes calling for chicken broth.  I did all this a couple days ago.  After I removed all the remaining fat and bones, I broke the meat up a little and put it into a 5 quart pot, then froze it.  You can make it ahead in this way, or do it in two consecutive days, refrigerating rather than freezing the meat.

2T butter
½ lg. sweet onion
1 lg. purple shallot
12-16oz. fresh mushrooms

½ bunch kale
⅔c roasted red peppers

Saute' the first group of aromatic ingredients, in a 3 quart pot, until the onion and shallot are translucent.  Cut the rib out of the kale then slice the leaves in thin ribbons.  Chop the red peppers into little cubes.  Add these to the pot.  As this cooks, put some of the chicken broth (below) into the pot to keep everything from sticking.  Cover and simmer on low heat 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large glass bowl, stir together all but the last ingredient, in group below.  When combined, pour into the pot with the aromatic ingredients.  Stir and heat.  If this is too thin, add the cornstarch 'slurry' to thicken it.  Bring to a simmer.  

⅔c sour cream
1c half and half
2 packages dry onion soup
1t ground Italian seasoning
1-2t good quality lemon pepper
1 can cream of mushroom soup
15oz. jar sun dried tomato Alfredo
½c capers - drained and rinsed well - optional
3c of the homemade jelled chicken broth
1-2T cornstarch dissolved in cold water*

Pour the sauce over the chicken in the 5 quart pot, combine carefully and refrigerate until just before serving.  To serve, put pot on low-medium heat, cover and stir occasionally once everything is bubbling, so it doesn't stick to the bottom.  This chicken and sauce mixture would be a perfect filling for chicken pot pies!  Just add some lightly cooked frozen peas and carrots and pour into a puff pastry shell, covered with another layer of puff pastry.  Mmmm!


Christmas Rice Pilaf
¼c butter
¾c pine nuts
½ lg. sweet onion
1½c chopped celery
4oz. chopped mushrooms
½ med. purple cipollini onion
3c mixed rice (wild, brown, red and barley)

4½c chicken broth and water

Stir and saute' the first group of chopped-sliced ingredients together in a big (5-8 quart) pot.  When the onion scent is filling your kitchen and the grain mix is starts to snap and brown, you can add the liquid.  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30-60 minutes, until all the grains are cooked.  Before all the liquid is absorbed, taste it to see if you need to add seasonings.  Other than what was in the chicken broth, I added about a tablespoon of Better Than Bullion-Vegetable flavor.  That was all that was needed.  Put this into a big glass casserole container.  If you make the rice ahead, stir and taste it before heating to make sure it's not too dry.  You may need to stir in more seasoned liquid.  I'll be serving the chicken and rice with Joann's Danish Cabbage for our Christmas Dinner this year. 💝~Merry Christmas Everyone~💝 . . . Lin

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