Chicken and Dumplings Roxie Waller Style

Chicken and Dumplings is a humble food that brings people together. No matter who you are, where you live or how you got here, a bowl of steaming salty broth with chunks of tender chicken floating on little rafts of parsley speckled dough will heal your woes.

Chicken and Dumplings is like a slow grinding blues song. First you just like it, then you can't help but get into it, and pretty soon all you can think about is wanting more.When I was growing up in Southern United States (in the 70s) "Integration and busing" was still new and struggling. I remember being told that many of the "Black" parents were mad because their kids were being made to go to my "White" school, instead of the school all their parents had gone to as children. It never occurred to me then how it must have felt to have integration only move in one direction.

I lived way out in the country on a dirt road beside my Grandparents' farm and next door to my other set of Grandparents. Both Grandmothers cooked a lot, their kitchens always steamed with bubbling pots of stew or canning jars filled with jam or tomatoes. There wasn't a lot of money in those homes, it wasn't anything like the movie "The Help", and when folks made food it was generally shared with a bunch of neighbors with no regard to much else than who needed it.I was lucky, the messages I got from my mom were about God's unconditional love and not so much of the cliches we hear about the South, now. My family is very emotional, my mom plays piano by ear (and can tear it up), and I heard a lot of gospel music. By the time I was out traveling on my own, I had a natural love for gutsy, soul-throbbing-with-just-a-touch-of-humor blues (oh, yeah.)This month my global buddies (we call ourselves the Let's Lunch bunch) are posting recipes that are inspired by music. To tell ya the truth, I can hardly listen to music when doing anything else because it just takes me over; I'm not kidding. I love all kinds of music and it was hard to pick just one, but eventually I always go back to my beginnings.Both my Grandmothers made Chicken and Dumplings, but my mom's mother (Roxie Waller) made hers just a little differently. Grandma Waller rolled out the dumplings instead of leaving them in clumps. As my mom will tell ya, my grandfather absolutely loved Roxie's food and would hardly ever eat anyone else's cooking. I can still hear him slurping up those dumpling noodles, and then sopping up the broth with a biscuit til the plate almost didn't need washing.

I guess when I mixed the feel I get from Chicken and Dumplings, the memories of the South, and how the food brought people together (even in the midst of poverty, tension and growing pains), it just felt like Jazzy Blues. Of course, this food can't help but make ya feel good, so it couldn't be sad blues. It had to be funny, and the song, "If I Can't Sell It", has always made me giggle out loud and grind my hips. If you can listen to it without moving, I think you should get your pulse checked.

I'll post the video, but if they have to take it down - here's the link, too:

If I Can't Sell It, I'm Gonna Sit On It, Cuz I Sure Ain't Giving It Away :D




RECIPE: Chicken and Dumplings Roxie Waller Style

1 (3-4 pound) Whole Chicken (farm raised preferred)
1 Carrot (chopped)
1 Celery Stalk (chopped)
1 Onion (chopped)
1 Bay leaf
salt/pepper
*optional - pinch of Red Pepper Flakes

(Dumplings)
1 cup Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon salt, pinch of pepper
1 Tablespoon Crisco (melted) or you can use Bacon Fat
1/3 cup Buttermilk
2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Parsley


1) Place whole chicken in a large pot with the chopped carrot, celery, onion and bay leaf. Cover completely with water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours til chicken is tender and fall off the bone good. (Make the dumplings while the chicken is cooking.)

2) Skim the broth, then remove the pot from the heat. Using a fork, remove the chicken meat from the bones and hold to the side in a dish.

3) Strain the broth and discard the vegetables, then return the broth and the chicken to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and optional red pepper flakes.

4) Bring to a simmer and place the dumplings into the pot, also. Cook at a low simmer for about 15-20 minutes, stir occasionally. Season, to taste and serve in bowls.

Recipe: Dumplings

1) In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.

2) In another bowl, whisk together the melted shortening (fat) and buttermilk.

3) Using a fork, combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and add the chopped parsley. Continue until mixed and starting to hold together. (If you need more moisture, add ice water just a Tablespoon at a time.)

4) Using your hands, press the dough together and remove to a lightly floured board. Knead for only about 5-6 times. Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into long pieces, about 1 inch by 2 inches or your preference. Hold until you add them to the Chicken broth.

Check out all these fun Music and Food posts from my Lets Lunch buddies around the world:

Cowgirl Chef's Tiger Cakes (and a really sexy song)

Monday Morning Cooking Club (Hawaiian treat)

HotCurries and Cold Beer - (tribute to her dad with a song)

Burnt Out Baker - (rock and roll in the house)

GeoFooding - (a very fun video about One Meatball)

Grongar Blog (You can Polka while the Kishke bakes )





More to be added - check back often :D

Cowboy Chili - Chunky Style

Nothing says party like a bowl of Cowboy Chili - Chunky Style. It's easy to make ahead for a crowd, but also makes a cozy solo bowl on a lap tray in front of your favorite movie. There are so many people, cities and states that claim to make the "Best Chili." For a brief time, a few years ago, I lived in Texas. I can tell you, Texas pride is alive and well. In fact, Texas is the only state that petitioned to have Chili be the state food, and won. There is a Terlingua song that includes the lyrics: If you know beans about chili, you know that chili has no beans. In Texas it's often called "A Bowl of Red".

However, I grew up in North Carolina where the best chili I ever had included many types of beans and three kinds of meat. Even the cut of the meat varied from city to city.Another style, called Cincinnati Chili, is mixed with warm spices including cloves and cocoa. It's often served over spaghetti or as a hotdog topping. When patrons order they say one of these:

Bowl: chili in a bowl
Two-way: Chili and spaghetti
Three-way: chili, spaghetti and cheese
Four-way: chili, spaghetti, cheese and onions
Five-way: chili, spaghetti, cheese, onions, and beans

The origins of chili have just as many varied claims, but most credit the cowboys and pioneers of Texas. As the case for a lot of stews, it probably began as a poor man's way of making the most of the meats, spices, herbs and dried products available. The chili recipe I've been making for years is a combination of my favorite bowls of chili across the United States and a recipe from a paperback book called "Cookery for Entertaining" by Marlene Sorosky.

I was given that book in North Carolina when I was in college and by the time I was married and had my first baby girl I had made almost every recipe in the book. The other day I saw it was selling on Amazon for $200.00. My copy is in pieces, held together with tape, and some recipes only legible to me and my memory. I've tweaked it a bit to fit my taste and to add some of the warm spices I love, including a little beer sometimes to keep it interesting.I hope you'll try it, and I know you'll love it. This is one of my most requested party foods. I highly recommend a nice slab of skillet corn bread to sop up the bottom of the bowl.

[Today's chili is one of the recipes included in our Let's Lunch bunch (a group of bloggers all over the world having a virtual lunch together.) So, you are in luck -- click on these other sites to see a whole world of Chili recipes and ideas, too. The recipe for my Cowboy Chili-Chunky Style can be found at the bottom of the page~]

Let's Lunch on Chili:

Zest Bakery -Charissa‘s Clean Out Refrigerator Night Cassoulet

Cowgirl Chef - Chicken Tinga Chili

Dreaming of Pots and Pans -Dave's Chili

Burnt-Out Baker - Vegetarian Chili

HapaMama - Chinese New Year Chili

GeoFooding - Hawaiian Chili

Spicebox Travels - Vegan Vaquero Chili

A Cook And Her Books - Full of Beans Chili

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan - Keema Chili

RECIPE: Cowboy Chili - Chunky Style
(makes about 8 servings)

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Onion, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, minced
2 lbs. Stew Beef, bite-size cubes
2 lbs. Sausage meat
1 can (28oz) Whole Tomatoes
1 can (6oz) Tomato paste
3 Tablespoons Chipotle Chili powder
2 Teaspoons Cumin
2 Teaspoons Dried Thyme
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
*optional* 4 oz. Dark Beer or Ale
1 can (15oz) Organic Baked Beans
1 can (15oz) Kidney Beans
1 can (15oz) Pinto Beans

1) In a deep pot, heat the oil on Medium. Add the onions and garlic, cooking just until soft.

2) Add the beef and sausage and cook until all pink is gone. Stir and break up sausage to cook evenly.

3) Pour the whole tomatoes into a bowl and hand crush them, then add them to the meat in the pot, along with tomato paste, chipotle powder, cumin, thyme, cocoa, salt, sugar, baked beans and beer (if using.)

4) Stir, cover the pot, and simmer on low for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally and add a little water if needed.

5) Stir in the kidney beans and pinto beans and continue to cook for about another 30 minutes. The beef should be very tender.

This tastes even better the next day after the flavors have combined in the refrigerator. This also freezes really well and can be reheated til bubbly hot on the stove, or in the oven at 350F.

Real Good Gumbo - Daring Cooks

Laissez les bons temps rouler (Cajun French for "Let the good times roll".) I like the attitude. Lately, maybe it's the changing of seasons or just watching a few people in my life go through some real life struggles, I really need that inspiration.


Our May hostess, Denise of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need from creole spices, homemade stock and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.
(Read as a loud and long Cajun yell) Wwoooo-Hooooo! Doesn't that feel good? Sometimes if I let myself exhale really loudly, like a Hollywood Yoga class, it really releases stress.

If you're a cook, you'll completely understand this: Working in the kitchen on a multi-layered stew with chopping and mixing and several steps to it can be relaxing. It's therapeutic to me. If you don't enjoy cooking, you've probably stopped reading just thinking about that insane remark.

Gumbo is one of those stews (if done somewhere near authentically) that has several layers of prep and cooking. It was this month's Daring Cook's challenge and the biggest challenge about it was finding the time to enjoy the process. Looking back at it, I feel like I exhaled really loudly. The best part was I also got to have an amazing dinner that my whole family absolutely loved. Go for it, laissez les bons temps rouler!

Words to know for Real Good Gumbo:

Roux (roo) - This forms the foundation for good flavor. It's made by heating fat (rendered chicken/duck fat or canola oil), then adding an equal amount of flour to the heated oil. Whisk on med. heat (about 15 minutes) to turn the roux into a dark caramel color full of flavor and natural thickening power. After it's a nice dark color, you add the onions (and change to a wooden spoon for stirring) and let them caramelize and darken the roux further.

Holy Trinity (not that one) - This is a mixture of chopped onions, celery, and green peppers. In Cajun cooking and a lot of mid-southern cooking, this combo forms a base of flavor for many stews, braises and soups. The preparation of classic Cajun/Creole dishes such étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya all start from the base of this holy trinity. In other cooking a similar mixture is used of chopped onions, celery and carrots and is called Mirepoix (meer pwah) from french cooking and Soffrito (so-Free-toe) in Italian.Okra - These delicately ridged and tapered green pods, sometimes called Ladies’ fingers, are a member of the mallow family and are bursting with tiny seeds as well as the glutinous compounds that make okra such a natural thickener for soups and gumbos. The smaller okra is more tender and sweet. I grew up with boiled okra (an acquired taste, I think) and fried okra (how can that not be great, right?) Filé powder (fee-lay) - In the 1800s, Choctaw Indians traveled in from communities on Lake Pontchartrain to sell this powder at the New Orleans French Market, along with bay leaves and handmade baskets. The Choctaws make filé by drying, then finely pounding, the leaves of the sassafras tree into a powder, then passing it through a hair sieve. The leaves, in the form of filéfilé was used to thicken the stew when okra was not available, but John Besh likes to use both. He cooks the okra in the gumbo and adds a couple dashes of filé, too, at the end. He also likes to pass filé at the table as a seasoning. The word comes from the French word filer, meaning, “to spin thread,” which is a warning not to add filé while the gumbo is still boiling, as it has a tendency to turn stringy.
**The recipe is as given by Daring Cooks, but I cut the recipe in half for a smaller yield and it works wonderfully with plenty for 5 people)

Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo
Minimally adapted from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh Serves 10-12

Ingredients

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) rendered chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) flour
2 large onions, diced
1 chicken (3 1⁄2 to 4 lbs.), cut into 10 pieces
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (1⁄2 oz) Basic Creole Spices (recipe follows), or store-bought Creole spice blend
2 pounds (2 kilograms) spicy smoked sausage, sliced 1⁄2 inch (15mm) thick 2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers (capsicum), seeded and diced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 quarts (3 liters) Basic Chicken Stock, or canned chicken stock
2 bay leaves
6 ounces (175 gm) andouille sausage, chopped
2 cups (480 ml) (320 gm) (11 oz) sliced fresh okra, 1⁄2 -inch (15mm) thick slices (or frozen, if fresh is not available)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
Salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Filé powder, to taste
Tabasco, to taste
4-6 cups (1 – 11⁄2 liters) (650 gm – 950 gm) cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice (recipe follows)

Directions:
1. Prepare homemade chicken stock, if using.
2. Prepare homemade Basic Creole Spices, if using (recipe below).
3. Season the chicken pieces with about 2 tablespoons of the Creole Spices while you prepare the vegetables.
4. Make sure all of your vegetables are cut, diced, chopped, minced and ready to go before beginning the roux. You must stand at the stove and stir the roux continuously to prevent it from burning.
5. In a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pan, heat the chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil – it will start to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate, and continue whisking until the roux becomes deep brown in color, about 15 minutes.
6. Add the onions. Switch to a wooden spoon and stir the onions into the roux. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue stirring until the roux becomes a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes.
7. Add the chicken to the pot; raise the heat to moderate, and cook, turning the pieces until slightly browned, about 10 minutes.
8. Add the sliced smoked sausage and stir for about a minute.
9. Add the celery, bell peppers, tomato, and garlic, and continue stirring for about 3 minutes.
10. Add the thyme, chicken stock, and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally.
11. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, skimming off the fat from the surface of the gumbo every so often.
12. Add the chopped andouille, okra, and Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper, several dashes of filé powder, and Tabasco, all to taste.
13. Simmer for another 45 minutes, continuing to skim the fat from the surface of the gumbo. Remove the bay leaves and serve in bowls over rice. Pass more filé powder at the table if desired.

Basic Creole Spices
From My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh Makes 1⁄2 cup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (30 ml) (33 gm) celery salt
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) sweet paprika
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (18 gm) coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (6 gm) freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) garlic powder
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) onion powder
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (4 gm) cayenne pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon (21⁄2 ml) (11⁄2 gm) ground allspice

Mix together all spices in a bowl. Transfer the spices to a clean container with a tight-fitting lid. Store up to six months.

Basic Louisiana White Rice
Adapted from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh Servings: About 4 cups

Ingredients

1 tablespoon (30 ml) (30 gm) (1 oz) chicken fat, extra-virgin olive oil, or butter
1 small onion, minced
11⁄2 cups (360 m) ((280 gm) (10 oz) Louisiana (or another long-grain white rice)
3 cups (750 ml) Basic Chicken Stock
1 bay leaf
1-2 pinches salt

Directions:
1. Put the fat, oil, or butter and the onions into a medium saucepan and sweat the onions over moderate heat until they are translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Pour the rice into the pan and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
4. Add the bay leaf and salt.
5. Cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 18 minutes.
6. Remove the pan from the heat, fluff the rice with a fork, and serve.

Authentic Cassoulet - Daring Cooks

I went on a culinary journey without even leaving my kitchen. I took 4 days to create an authentic Duck Confit, Pork Belly, Sausage Cassoulet (rhymes with Hoo-Ray!) I didn't spend every hour of those four days just cooking this, of course. In fact, I just did a little each day while cooking dinner or other food. At the end of the week - Voila, I had a giant pot of comforting Cassoulet for the weekend. For me, it was part of the monthly food blogging challenge called Daring Cooks. A chosen host submits a technique, recipe, cultural aspect of cooking and it is meant to encourage us brave cooks to stretch and grow (and this month was no exception.) Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

For you, I hope it encourages you to try something new also. This Cassoulet experience was particularly positive because all along the way we were creating separate dishes that could be a welcome addition to a culinary arsenal on their own:

Duck Confit
Duck Fat (incredible for french fries or potato casseroles)
White Northern Beans (cooked with Pork Back and herbs)
Sauteed Italian Sausages with Onions and Garlic Cassoulet Since making this Cassoulet felt like a little journey, I thought I'd give you the recipe like a travel journal. I've listed things as I did them each day. You can use it to follow along when you make this, or create your own way that matches your lifestyle. At the end, I'll include the recipe as given, also. My only regret is that I can't add Click-n-Sniff to this posting because the smells of browning duck, pork, sausages, onions, legumes and herbs along the way were like a daily aromatic amuse bouche for the whole family and had them excited about the weekend bounty they ultimately devoured.

Steps: Day 1-

1) I bought a whole duck, broke it down into leg/thighs, breasts, wings, carcass and fat trimmings.
2) Liberally rubbed Sea Salt all over the leg/thighs and covered with plastic on a plate and refrigerated over night.
3) Trimmed the 2 breasts and held in fridge for another use.
4) Saved carcass and wings for Duck Stock
5) Placed all fat into a deep sided skillet and rendered it for duck fat, cooled it and held in refrigerator.

Day 2 -

1) Placed the leg/thighs into a baking dish, nestled in a few twigs of thyme and rosemary and a couple cloves of garlic, then covered in melted duck fat.
2) Cooked in the oven 375F for 1 hour.
3) In a deep pot, placed 3 cups of dried Northern White beans and covered with water. I placed those in refrigerator for overnight. Day 3-

1) Drained beans and put them in a large pot with a bouquet garni (a tied selection of parsley and thyme), a bay leaf, a handful of pork rind and about 1 lb pork belly.
2) Heated the bean, etc. to a boil, then reduced to a simmer for 30 minutes, added a little salt/pepper, stirred things up and simmered for another 30 minutes til the beans were tender.
3) Removed the onions and herbs and threw those away. Removed the Pork Belly: cooled, wrapped and held in the refrigerator. Drained the beans: cooled and held the beans and the water separately for later. Removed the pork rind for using when browning the sausages.
4) In a skillet on Med/High, I heated a few ounces of duck fat til very hot and added the sausages to the pan. I browned the sausages, removed and held those on a paper plate while browning the onions, garlic and pork rind from the beans, in the same hot duck fat.
5) In a blender, I added the browned onions, garlic and another tablespoon of duck fat and pureed until smooth. 6) In a large iron pot I put it all together. I started with a bottom layer of slab bacon, latticed together. I added beans, then layered with Sausage (all along the way adding a few spoons of the puree.) I added more beans, then the Pork Belly...more beans, then the Duck Confit, and ended with beans.
The last step was to pour the reserved bean liquid into the pot, just covering the top layer of beans.
I put the whole pot into a preheated oven on 400F for one hour, then reduced the heat to 250F for 1/2 hour. I removed it, let it cool and refrigerated it overnight so all those individual meals would combine their flavors into one giant savory snuggly for my insides.

Day 4 - Cook and Eat Day :D

By now, everyone in the family knew what we were having for dinner, could say "cassoulet" and even helped set the dishes out; talk about excitement.

I preheated the oven to 375F and cooked the Cassoulet for one hour, reduced the temp to 200F and let it simmer for 1/2 hour.
I wish I had the time to tell you how it tasted.......JUST KIDDING, I mean don't you think you can almost taste it yourself by now? There was a warm hardy full-flavored meat in every bite. The sausage had a tiny bit of spice and heat, the duck had that fall apart texture with a little saltiness, the pork belly was so tender and almost sweet, and it was held together with the creamy white beans and pureed onions. Oh good Lord...oh good, Lord. We had two bowls each, and I had earlier scooped out a small casserole for freezing. When I can leave our son with something so good for dinner on the weekend, it makes for a guilt-free date night for my husband and I.
If you start this on a weekend, you could cut this process in half, I think. Or you could do a little each night like I did. I very much like recipes that contain recipes like this one. Here's the recipe as given to me, (from the travel channel Anthony Bourdain ), which I cut in half. Let me know if you've ever made something like this, or if you try one. Thank you for stopping by to read. Hope I made you hungry. :D

Brunswick Stew

My "Farming" grandma made a thick southern soup called "Brunswick Stew" in a giant cast iron belly pot on an open flame in the side yard. The side yard was next to the Salt House, across from the "lit'l hay loft" and near the Well-House where she also stored about 2 years worth of grown-and-canned green beans, corn, tomatoes, squash and who knows what else. Historically, Brunswick Stew contained squirrel, and rabbit and many fresh vegetables. Mine has one of those three: fresh vegetables.

Brunswick Stew
(w/gribenes garnish)
The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

As many times as I have eaten this stew, topped biscuits with this stew, and helped stir this stew - I had never made this stew myself. I was more than thrilled to have it as a Daring Cooks challenge recipe for this month. I made enough to feed a Southern Baptist Homecoming, but it freezes really well and may even taste better for the time to marinade. Yes, there are a lot of ingredients, but you can take a short cut if you use frozen fresh already cut veggies. Don't use packaged meats, though. The deep complex flavors that come from browning your meats and building on the tasty bits they create are very important. I'm one of my biggest fans of my own cooking (yeah, I'll say it), but I'd still pass up my own stew for a little restaurant in Durham, NC that I've been going to since I was "this high to a grasshopper".

Bullocks Barbecue and Brunswick Stew


Tommy Bullock and his whole family have been serving folks since his dad opened this restaurant in 1952. I think some of the staff have been there since then, too. When I visit home, I NEVER miss having my bowl of Brunswick Stew with Cole Slaw and multiple baskets of the best Cornbread Hushpuppies ever created. This is a place where Iced Tea means sweetened Iced Tea and you'd have to tell them if ya want it any other way. The waitresses and waiters are not folks passing through on their way to an acting career, this IS their career and they serve you proudly. Along the walls are pictures of many "celebrity types" who have enjoyed the food at Bullocks during various functions, charity events and filming. When I was a teenager I dreamed of having my acting photo up on that wall, too.

The food and the authentic people are why they come, and why they return over and over. The Barbecue is cooked long and slow outside and you can order it sliced or pulled. Bullocks opens at lunch and closes by 8pm and never opens on Sunday or Monday. When you're good, you can call it the way it works for you and your family. They're almost European in that way, but it stops there. This is Southern America down the line: casual, excellent quality, inexpensive, family friendly, cash only, mints and toothpicks on the counter when you pay out. There is always a line, but I've never felt rushed once I sat down. If you're ever near it, try it; You will love it. Until then, making your own will give you an amazing feeling of creating something healthy and rich with history.

RECIPE: From “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Serves about 12

1/4 lb slab bacon, rough diced
2 Serrano chiles, stems trimmed, sliced, seeded, flattened
1lb pork butt, cut into large chunks (original recipe called for rabbit)
3 lbs chicken thighs cut in half,skinned, and most of the fat removed (original recipe called for whole chicken cut up)
1 Tablespoon sea salt for seasoning, plus extra to taste
3 quarts Chicken Stock
2 Bay leaves
2 large celery stalks
2lbs potatoes peeled, rough diced
1 ½ cups carrots (about 5 small carrots), chopped
3 ½ cups onion (about 4 medium onions) chopped
2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob (about 4 ears)
3 cups lima beans, preferably fresh (1 ¼ lbs) or defrosted frozen
1 35oz can whole, peeled tomatoes, drained
¼ cup red wine vinegar
Juice of 2 lemons
Tabasco sauce to taste

1-In the largest stockpot you have, preferably a 10-12 qt or even a Dutch Oven if you’re lucky enough to have one, fry the bacon over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the chiles. Toast the chiles until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute tops. Remove to bowl with the bacon.

2- Season liberally both sides of the rabbit (pork) and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the rabbit pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and chiles, add more bacon fat if needed, or olive oil, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Remember not to crowd your pieces, especially if you have a narrow bottomed pot. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon, chiles and rabbit. Set it aside.

3- Add 2 cups of your chicken broth or stock, if you prefer, to the pan and basically deglaze the4 pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark color and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, rabbit, bacon, chiles and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil/high simmer, over medium/high heat. Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. The stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or rabbit floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the chiles. Taste the stock, according to the recipe, it “should taste like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had”.

4- With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and rabbit pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. Remove the bay leaf, celery, chiles, bacon and discard. After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones. Add in your carrots, and stir gently, allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes, or until the carrots have started to soften.

5- Add in your onion, butterbeans, corn and tomatoes. Crush the tomato, then add them to the pot. Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly, and onions, corn and butterbeans are tender. Remove from heat and add in vinegar, lemon juice, stir to blend in well. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.

6 You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors meld more and makes the overall stew even better. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.

*This also freezes well, just label and cook to boiling before serving.*

Gribenes (Chicken Skin; baked crisp)

Spread the chicken skins out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Salt, pepper and a dash of Chipotle powder. Bake at 250F for 2-3 hours until crispy.

Quote from Husband (who has eaten at Bullocks with me): "Yeah, uh huh, this is better than Bullocks." And that's why we're still married :D