A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (23 page)

BARBECUED CHICKEN

MAKES
4
SERVINGS

Strictly speaking, this isn’t barbecue. It’s chicken baked under bastings of spicy tomato sauce. Throughout the South, however, it’s called barbecued chicken or oven-barbecued chicken and it’s as delicious as it is easy. As recipes go, this one’s modern—mid to late twentieth century. Note:
If the chicken breasts are unusually large, as they so often are these days, halve them crosswise.

One 3-to 3½-pound broiler-fryer, cut up for frying (see Note on Chapter 3)

2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

¾ cup tomato ketchup

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon firmly packed light brown sugar

¼ to ½ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce (depending on how “hot” you like things)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 375° F.
  
• 2.
  Arrange the pieces of chicken skin side up on a rack in a large, shallow roasting pan so that they do not touch one another. Slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
  
• 3.
  Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small, heavy saucepan over moderate heat, add the onion, and sauté for about 5 minutes or until golden. Mix in all remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until the flavors mellow.
  
• 4.
  Remove the chicken from the oven, turn the pieces skin side down, and baste with about half of the hot tomato sauce. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn the pieces skin side up, baste with the remaining sauce, and bake 15 minutes more.
  
• 5.
  Raise the oven temperature to 425° F. and bake the chicken for 10 minutes or until tipped with brown.
  
• 6.
  Serve at once with coleslaw and, if you like, with potato salad as well.
  

PECAN-CRUSTED OVEN-FRIED CHICKEN

MAKES
6
SERVINGS

Judging from my collection of southern community cookbooks, this recipe seems to have surfaced in the early 1960s because that’s when variations of pecan-crusted chicken began popping up in their pages. I suspect (but can’t prove) that this recipe evolved from one that I helped create back when I was an assistant food editor at
The Ladies’ Home Journal
in New York. We called it Chicken Imperial and it consisted of a mix of soft white bread crumbs, grated Parmesan, minced parsley, crushed garlic, salt, and pepper that was patted onto butter-dipped chicken. Note:
The fastest way to grind the pecans is in a food processor, but to keep them from reducing to paste, alternately churn and pulse until the nuts are about the texture of kosher salt. Forty years ago when pecan-crusted chicken first became popular, cooks would have used commercially grated Parmesan cheese. I find it both sawdusty and salty, so I use only freshly grated Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano now that it’s widely available. I urge you to do the same.
Tip:
Easier on the purse and better than prepackaged Parmesan: Wisconsin or Argentinian Parmesan. Buy it by the chunk and grate it yourself.

One 3½-to 4-pound broiler-fryer, cut up for frying (if the breasts are overly large as so many are these days, halve each crosswise)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 large garlic clove, thinly slivered

1½ cups finely ground pecans (see Note and Tip at left)

1 cup fine dry bread crumbs (unflavored)

¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (see Note above)

1 teaspoon crumbled dried leaf thyme

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 350° F. Wash the chicken parts in cool water, pat dry on paper toweling, and set aside.
  
• 2.
  Place the butter and slivered garlic in a small, heavy saucepan and set over low heat until the butter melts.
  Tip:
  I often melt the butter in a 2-quart ovenproof glass measure in the microwave oven: 6 to 8 minutes on
  DEFROST
  should do it. Then I add the garlic.
  
• 3.
  Combine the ground pecans, bread crumbs, grated Parmesan, thyme, salt, and pepper in a shallow roasting pan (not too large). Dip each piece of chicken into the melted garlic butter, then coat thickly with the pecan mixture and arrange in a large shallow roasting pan so that the pieces do not touch one another. Drizzle any remaining garlic butter over the chicken.
  
• 4.
  Slide uncovered onto the middle oven rack and oven-fry for 1 to 1¼ hours or until richly browned and no traces of pink remain in the chicken. As the chicken cooks, baste occasionally with the pan drippings.
  
• 5.
  Serve hot or at room temperature. I even like this chicken straight out of the refrigerator. Accompany with a tossed salad of crisp greens or, to be authentically southern, with Sweet Slaw.
  

JTF’S CHICKEN AND ARTICHOKE CASSEROLE

MAKES
6
SERVINGS

For years the fiction editor of
The Ladies’ Home Journal
,
my best friend, Jean Todd Freeman, like so many southern women of a certain age and social standing, insisted that she couldn’t cook. Not true. JTF, as we called her because that’s the way she signed her memos, was in fact an excellent cook and this particular recipe was her dinner-party staple. We lived around the corner from one another in New York’s West Village; traveled about Europe together; then after Jean returned home to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, shunpiked through the Deep South. Jean was the perfect traveling companion—witty, easygoing, deeply knowledgeable about her corner of the South, and eager to share bits of gossip, legend, and lore (always the storyteller). She introduced me to New Orleans years ago in addition to points north and west; and later to Jackson, Vicksburg, Natchez, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as well as to the Mississippi and Alabama gulf coasts, and the Florida Panhandle. Jean was the insider, I the tourist, and she made each jaunt memorable. Note:
If the chicken breasts are unduly large, halve them crosswise so that all pieces of chicken will be done at the same time.

¾ cup unsifted all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons sweet paprika

1¼ teaspoons salt

¾ teaspoon black pepper

One 3½-to 4-pound broiler-fryer, cut up for frying

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound medium mushrooms, stemmed, wiped clean, and sliced about ¼ inch thick

1 cup chicken broth

¼ cup dry vermouth or dry white wine or if using canned artichoke hearts, dry sherry or port

Three 4-ounce jars marinated artichoke hearts, well drained, or one 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, well drained and halved if large

2½ cups converted or long-grain rice, cooked by package directions

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 375° F.
  
• 2.
  Shake the flour, paprika, salt, and pepper in a large plastic zipper bag to combine. Now dredge the chicken by shaking a few pieces at a time in the dredging mixture; tap off the excess. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the dredging mixture; you’ll use it to thicken the sauce.
  
• 3.
  Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a large, heavy skillet over moderately high heat for about 2 minutes or until ripples appear on the skillet bottom. Add the chicken in batches, placing skin side down. Brown for 3 to 4 minutes on the first side, 2 to 3 on the flip side—you want a crisp golden crust. As the chicken browns, lift to several thicknesses of paper toweling to drain.
  
• 4.
  Pour all drippings from the skillet, then spoon 2 tablespoons of them back in. Reduce the
  heat under the skillet to moderate, add the mushrooms, and sauté, scraping up the browned bits on the skillet bottom, for 8 to 10 minutes or until the mushrooms release their juices and these evaporate.
  
• 5.
  Sprinkle the 3 tablespoons reserved dredging mixture over the mushrooms and stir well. Add the chicken broth and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes or until thickened. Add the vermouth and simmer uncovered for
  2 minutes or just long enough for flavors to meld.
  
• 6.
  Arrange the browned chicken skin side up in an ungreased shallow 4-quart casserole or baking dish. Tuck the artichokes in here and there, then pour the hot mushroom sauce evenly over all, lifting the occasional piece of chicken so that it runs underneath. Cover the casserole snugly with foil.
  
• 7.
  Slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for 20 minutes more or until the chicken is done.
  
• 8.
  To serve, bed the rice on a large heated platter, then arrange the chicken and artichokes on top, and pour the mushroom gravy over all. Or do as JTF always did: Serve at table directly from the casserole and spoon the rice alongside. As she said, “Fewer dishes to wash.”
  

COUNTRY CAPTAIN

MAKES
10
TO
12
SERVINGS

Whenever my mother gave a dinner party, this was the recipe she chose because it served an army and could be made ahead of time and frozen. If memory serves, she got the recipe from Elizabeth Harrelson, the elegant southern lady who was married to Colonel Harrelson, for many years the chancellor at North Carolina State. Where did Country Captain originate? There are many theories, the most widely accepted being that during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, a sea captain making a port of call at Savannah traded the recipe for this mild chicken curry for a free night’s lodging in town. Though Country Captain has long been a southern favorite, it did not become well known elsewhere until the 1930s, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, receiving physical therapy in Warm Springs, Georgia, was served Country Captain by a local hostess. The dish quickly became a Roosevelt favorite, word of it spread, and thus FDR inadvertently put Country Captain on the culinary map of America. Today cutting-edge chefs offer their own versions of it, but for me, none is better than the one I grew up with. My mother always used an old hen that had gone off laying to make Country Captain, but they are hard to come by these days unless you raise your own chickens. Note:
To toast slivered almonds, spread the nuts in a pie tin, set uncovered in a preheated 350° F. oven, and leave until the color of pale caramel—8 to 10 minutes; stir the nuts occasionally as they toast.

One 6-to 6½-pound ready-to-cook roasting chicken or, if you can get it, an old hen, stripped of as much fat as possible (freeze the giblets to use another time)

4 cups water

4 tablespoons fat (skimmed from the kettle liquid) or 4 tablespoons bacon drippings or vegetable oil

3 large green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

3 large yellow onions, peeled and coarsely chopped

½ cup coarsely chopped parsley

1½ teaspoons curry powder (or more to taste)

1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled

½ teaspoon black pepper
¹
/
₈
teaspoon ground hot red pepper (cayenne)

¹
/
₈
teaspoon ground cloves

Three 14.5-ounce cans crushed tomatoes, with their liquid

3 cups kettle liquid (in which chicken steamed)

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup dried currants

3½ cups converted rice, cooked by package directions

1½ cups lightly toasted slivered almonds (see Note at left)

• 1.
  Place the chicken on a rack in a large, heavy kettle and pour in the water. Bring to a simmer, adjust the heat so that the water bubbles gently, cover, and steam the chicken for 1½ to 2 hours or until the leg moves easily in the hip joint.
  
• 2.
  Remove the chicken from the kettle; also pour the kettle liquid into a medium-size heatproof bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to proceed. Cool the chicken until easy to handle, then remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and cut the light and dark meat into 2-to 3-inch pieces. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  
• 3.
  Spoon the 4 tablespoons fat into the kettle (if there is insufficient fat, round out the measure
  with bacon drippings or vegetable oil). Heat 1 minute over moderate heat, add the bell peppers, onions, parsley, curry powder, thyme, black pepper, cayenne, and cloves and cook, stirring now and then, until the peppers and onions are nicely softened but not brown—12 to 15 minutes.
  
• 4.
  Add the tomatoes, 3 cups of the reserved kettle liquid, the salt, and the Worcestershire sauce, and simmer uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors meld.
  
• 5.
  Add the reserved chicken and dried currants and simmer uncovered 30 to 35 minutes longer until the flavors mellow and the currants plump. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed. Also add another ½ to 1 cup of the kettle liquid if the Country Captain seems thick and dry (it should not be soupy; there should be still enough liquid to soak down into the rice).
  
• 6.
  To serve, bed the rice on a heated, very large, deep platter, ladle the Country Captain on top, and scatter with almonds. Or, if you prefer, plate each portion separately.
  

INGLIS FLETCHER’S COUNTRY CAPTAIN

MAKES
8
SERVINGS

Altogether different from the Country Captain that precedes, this one, attributed to bestselling historical novelist Inglis Fletcher, contains chicken breasts only. These are browned in a skillet, then baked in a lightly curried tomato sauce. Known as “Carolina’s Chronicler,” Illinois-born Inglis Fletcher settled near Edenton, North Carolina, and wrote a twelve-volume series of novels spanning some 200 years (1585 to 1789) of Tidewater Carolina history. At her most prolific between 1942 and 1964 but now largely forgotten, Fletcher deserves to be rediscovered because she was a stickler for accuracy. It’s said that she spent one year researching each novel and a second year writing it. The recipe here is adapted from one that appeared in
Pass the Plate,
a fund-raiser published by the Churchwomen and Friends of Christ Episcopal Church in New Bern.

½ cup unsifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

4 whole chicken breasts, halved (3½ to 4 pounds)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

4 teaspoons curry powder

One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes with their liquid (do not use tomatoes packed in sauce)

½ cup dried currants

¹
/
₃
cup coarsely chopped parsley

½ teaspoon crumbled leaf thyme

½ teaspoon ground mace

2 cups long-grain rice, cooked by package directions

¾ cup lightly toasted slivered almonds (8 to 10 minutes in a 350° F. oven)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 275° F.
  
• 2.
  Combine the flour, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the pepper in a large plastic zipper bag, then dredge the chicken breasts, two at a time, by shaking in the seasoned flour.
  
• 3.
  Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a very large, heavy skillet over moderately high heat for 2 minutes, then arrange the chicken breasts skin side down in the skillet and brown 6 to 8 minutes on each side. Transfer to paper toweling to drain.
  
• 4.
  Spoon the remaining 1 tablespoon oil into the skillet and set over moderate heat for 1 minute. Add the onions, green and red bell peppers, garlic, and curry powder and sauté for about 10 minutes or until limp and golden, stirring often; do not brown. Add the tomatoes and their liquid, the currants, parsley, thyme, mace, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, breaking up large clumps of tomato.
  
• 5.
  Arrange the chicken breasts one layer deep in an ungreased shallow 3-quart casserole, spoon the hot skillet mixture over all, and cover with aluminum foil.
  
• 6.
  Bake the casserole on the middle oven shelf for 45 to 50 minutes or until the chicken is fork-tender.
  
• 7.
  To serve, bed the rice on a heated large, deep platter, arrange the chicken on top, pour the tomato sauce over and around the chicken, then sprinkle with the toasted almonds.
  

CHICKEN JAMBALAYA

MAKES
6
SERVINGS

I’ve spent considerable time in Louisiana, most of it in Cajun Country west of New Orleans or in the lesser-known parishes to the north and west. Driving over one spring from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I paused for several days in St. Francisville. Once called the town “two miles long and two yards wide,” St. Francisville is blessed with a remarkable number of historic landmarks and outlying plantations, among them Oakley, where John J. Audubon lived and worked in 1821. Located in “British Louisiana,” St. Francisville fronts the Mississippi—the dividing line between the Anglo parishes lying east of the great river and “French Louisiana” to the south and west. This is not to say that the cooking of “British Louisiana” is bland; this jambalaya easily proves otherwise. It’s adapted from a recipe that appears in
Plantation Country,
a fund-raiser published by the Women’s Service League of St. Francisville. As for the origin of the word
jambalaya,
see The Language of Southern Food.

3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

One 3¼-to 3½-pound broiler-fryer, cut up for frying

¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste

½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste 6 ounces andouille sausage or chorizo, diced

1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped

2 large celery ribs, coarsely chopped

1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1½ cups converted rice

2½ to 3 cups chicken stock or broth (about)

• 1.
  Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large, heavy kettle over moderately high heat for 2 minutes or until ripples appear on the kettle bottom. Brown the chicken in two or three batches, allowing 3 to 5 minutes per batch, seasoning with salt and pepper as the pieces brown, and adding another tablespoon of oil if needed. Drain the browned chicken on paper toweling.
  
• 2.
  Add the remaining oil to the kettle along with the andouille and brown for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes or until limp and golden.
  
• 3.
  Mix in the rice, then return the chicken to the kettle and push down into the rice mixture. Add 2½ cups of the chicken stock and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Adjust the heat so the stock bubbles gently, cover, and cook for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the chicken is tender and the rice has absorbed all the liquid.
  Note:
  If the jambalaya seems dry before the chicken is done, add a little additional chicken stock.
  Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.
  
• 4.
  Dish up and serve with a tartly dressed salad of crisp greens.
  

A Southerner talks music.

—
MARK TWAIN
,
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI

FAMILY REUNION BRUNSWICK STEW

MAKES
20
TO
25
SERVINGS