Chicken Feet Stew

This is me stepping out of the box with a recipe. Some folks like this. There is a recipe for everything, and people used to eat all the parts of the animals they raised or hunted, because this is what was available to them. All I can think about when I see chicken feet is ET. Hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:

1 lbs chicken feet
5 potatoes, cut in eights
4 onions, quartered
3 carrots, sliced
1 cup green beans
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut nail. Wash feet. Place in stockpot. Cover with water.

Add potatoes, onions, carrots, green beans, bay leaf, garlic, salt and pepper to season. Simmer until tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Southern Style Chicken and Dumplings

There are many kinds of good dumpling recipes (round, made from canned biscuits or pie crust). But the true Southern style dumpling is the flat dumpling that can be thick, thin, short, long, square, oblong or all of the above. They are not necessarily uniform, but oh boy are they delicious.

This recipe is the Old School, made-from-scratch method with my quick alternates out to the side in italic.

Ingredients:

1 whole 4 lb chicken, cleaned and lightly rubbed with salt (I use bone in chicken thighs or breast)
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 sm peeled sweet potato or carrot (I skip both of these, but they do add color)
1 clove garlic peeled (I use garlic powder or minced garlic)
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground white pepper (I like black pepper...lots of it)
1 bay leaf

For Dumplings:

2 cups all purpose flour (I use self-rising and skip the salt and baking powder)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup of milk.

Directions:

In a large pot combine the whole chicken, 3 quarts of water; and the onions, celery, sweet potato, garlic, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to low and simmer for about 2 hours until chick is very tender (falling off the bone). Remove chicken and drain well, setting the stock aside.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and discard. Set aside meat.

Strain the stock and add water if necessary to make 3 quarts.

For the dumplings, in a large bowl sift together flour, salt and baking powder, Stir in milk until just blended. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until firm. Cover and allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. (This resting period can be while you are deboning and removing the skin from the chicken)

Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/8 inch and cut into about 1 x 3 inch strips. Allow them to sit about 45 minutes so that when cooked, they do not puff but stay flat like noodles.

Bring the strained stock to a boil over high heat. Add the dumplings a few at a time, bringing the stock back to a boil after each addition. Reduce heat to low and cover pot. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken meat and serve.

Poorman's County Pancaked UnFrenched Toast (Fried Bread)

Ok.....so for those of us who grew up in the Country Life, there were foods that we ate that never seemed to reach the populous. This is one of my County Life dishes. This can be made with what you already have or the ingredients can be bought cheaply.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Slices of Texas toast, French bread, or any thick bread (as little or many as you want)
Butter
Powdered Sugar (or regular)
Cinnamon
Syrup

*Optional fresh or canned fruit

Directions:

I like to mix my cinnamon in my butter and let it set out to soften at room temperature.

Butter both sides of the bread with the cinnamon-butter and fry on medium heat in a skillet (I like cast iron).

 

Once this is browned to desired color, sprinkle on a little powdered sugar to make it purdy.

Arrange on a plate and add syrup.

Although I like mine with just the butter and syrup, an alternate option is to add a little fruit on top; strawberries, blueberries, blackberries (you get the picture).

You can even use canned pie filling. I always keep cans of the mixed fruit, blueberry or cherry pie filling on hand, just in case I need them. These can be purchased at the Dollar Tree for $1.

I also sometimes buy French bread or similar, at Wal-Mart on the “discounted about to expire” rack for 50 cents.

Pork Cake

Don't let this delicious recipe fool you because of the salt pork. This recipe uses salt pork instead of the oil normally used. Lots of moisture and flavor in this cake. No icing needed.

Think about making this in mini-loaf pans or big muffin tins. They make wonderful gifts!

Ingredients:

1 cup finely chopped salt pork
1 cup boiling water
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp ground cloves
3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Crease a 8-inch square pan. Place chopped salt pork in a large bowl. Pour in boiling water, then cool to room temperature.

Add baking soda to molasses. Stir until dissolved. Stir in molasses sugar raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves into salt pork. Stir in flour gradually until just blended. Pour into pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Persimmon Pudding

When this is made right, there is just nothing that can beat it. You don't want this too sweet, but you do want it packed with a lot of flavor. This is wonderful warm with a little ice cream or whipped cream on top, and a cup of coffee to wash it down.

You can freeze this and it taste even better the second time around. Yum Yum!

 

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, melted
2 cups persimmon pulp
2 cups evaporated milk
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. cloves
¼ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Beat eggs in a large mixing bow. Add sugar, persimmon pulp and milk. Combine all other dry ingredients and add to mixture. Stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into greased 8 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. This is a never fail and very good recipe.

Fried Salt Pork

I like to season with  fatback or salt pork, but I personally don't eat it this way.  My friends thinks the best breakfast (or any meal), consist of salt pork, fried potatoes and homemade biscuits!!

 

 

Select salt pork that has white fat, (if the fat has started yellowing it is rusty and does not have a good flavor). It can be streaked with lean or it can be fatback.

Ingredients:

Salt Pork, ¼ inch thick (allow 3-4 slices per person)

Water

Directions:

Arrange the slices in a iron frying pan and pour water to cover. Bring to boil, to remove the salt. Pour off the water; rearranging the slices and fry as is, or dip each slice in milk and dredge in corn meal or flour before frying. Fry until light brown and crisp

Quick Chicken Tetrazzini

Recipe calls for macaroni, but if you want to get fancy you can use the bowtie pasta. Make the recipe your own by customizing some of the ingredients. I like to use angel hair or regular spaghetti. I am not a lover of canned chicken, but I will buy a rotisserie chicken and use what I need for two or three different recipes. Be Creative!!!

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked macaroni
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
12 ounce can of chicken (I like to buy rotisserie chicken an use as needed)
2 cups of milk
1 cup mushrooms
¼ cup pimientos
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1 tsp salt

Directions:

Put alternate layers of macaroni (or spaghetti) and cheese in casserole. Combine chicken, mushrooms and pimientos. Make well in center of macaroni* and fill with chicken mixture. Melt butter, add flour, salt and milk. Pour over mixture and bake at 400 degrees until bubbles. Serves about 6.

*Instead of making a center and filling mixture in, I just spread mine over the casserole and then add the topping.

Crackling Corn Bread

This particular recipe came from my collection of Depression and WWII recipes. Notice that there are no eggs or milk used . When I make mine , the cornbread batter is made differently. You can use your favorite cornbread recipe and just add the crackling to it.

 

Crackling are small pieces of fried pork fat with the skin on. No refrigeration is needed, so depending what store you are at, they can be found near the meats, sometimes where the Mexican foods are, sometimes where the chips or bread is located. Ask an associate to help locate product.

Ingredients:

2 cups water ground corn meal
2 ½ tbs. Self rising flour
½ cups water or enough to make a soft batter

Directions:

Mix well and add 1 ½ cups crackling that are about the size of peas. Pour into hot fat in a baking pan. Bake in preheated oven 475 degrees until golden brown.