Amish Chicken Thighs/Mushrooms/Green Beans Sautéed in Cast Iron Pan

I love cast iron pan cooking and am thrilled it is experiencing a true renaissance. I received several cast iron frying pans in 1970 for a wedding gift and have been cooking with them on and off ever since. There is something special about the way food tastes when cooked in these pans. And I know I am not ingesting any plastic coatings while using them.

Home cooked food simmering in the pan on the stove top. YUM!

I added a Lodge cast iron dutch oven to my collection a few years ago and this had become my most used pan. I can cook anything in the deep bottom pan and I use the top as a griddle. I bought my two-piece set at Cracker Barrel and paid around $50.00. You can find out more about this company that works out of South Pittsburg, Tennessee by going to their website at https://www.lodgemfg.com It’s also fun to scout out old cast iron pans at sales and shops and bring them back to usable condition.

If you like the history of places and people the way I do you will find the history of the Lodge Company and foundry intriguing too. Find that here: https://www.lodgemfg.com/about-us/about-us.asp

Our current favorite meal is Amish chicken thighs cooked in our deep cast iron pan. This is a recipe I have developed over the years through trial and error and I change it out depending on what fresh vegetables I have on hand in the fridge or growing in the garden.

Because we do not eat our own chickens (I can’t eat my pets!) I have been buying the Amish grown chickens in the grocery store. I vary between baking a whole chicken in the winter months, grilling chicken breasts or stove top simmering some tender dark meat thighs.

When I make the thighs on the stove top I start out by simmering onions, peppers, and fresh from the garden green snap beans. While those are simmering in the cast iron pan, I prepare the meat and make up some water and flour gravy. After the onions have turned translucent I lightly braised the meat. After the meat is lightly browned I add a small amount of organic chicken broth to keep the meat from sticking. Some days I add cut up carrots, grape tomatoes halves, zucchini slices or whatever vegetables I have on hand from the garden. I also added ground pepper, my home-grown dried and crushed basil, caraway seeds and a tiny sprinkle of pink mineral salt. This time I had some wonderful organic Portobello mushrooms buttons in the fridge so I added slices of them for the last 10-15 minutes of the cooking process.

Today I served this chicken dish with cooked potatoes (my husband loves his potatoes with butter!) and sliced and marinated fresh tomatoes. I passed on the potatoes and still I felt fully satisfied.

Chicken, beans and mushroom w/tomatoes and basil and potatoes with butter!

Enjoy this tasty meal on us!

Small House homesteader and amateur cook, Donna

 

Sautéed Amish Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms

1. Brush on olive oil in cast iron pan.
2. Add one small onions sliced into rings
3. Add fresh sliced red peppers to taste
4. Add one cup of fresh cut up green snap beans
5. Cook the beans and onions until the onions are translucent.
6. Add chicken thighs (fat cut off)
7. Lightly sautee both sides of the thighs to brown them and seal in the juice
8. Add fresh ground pepper, caraway seeds, crushed basil or any herbs of your choice.
9. Feel free to add carrots, zucchini, summer squash or tomatoes if you like.
10. Add 1/3 cup of chicken broth (or water) to keep chicken from sticking. Gently pry up chicken pieces as you turn them.
11. Make up light gravy using water and flour and add to the pan.
12. Continue to sauté for about 30 minutes or until both the chicken and vegetables are cooked through and tender.

Add the sliced mushrooms approximately 10 to 15 minutes before you plant to serve this dish.

 

Alaskan Salmon For Our New Year’s Eve Dinner

My goal for our NYE dinner celebration is real food, cooked simply, that tastes great!

I had planned on driving to Detroit over NYE to see some extended family, but an unexpected death in that part of the state changed our plans.

My plate just as I was sitting down to eat.

We talked about going to Mothers Trust in Ganges for a NYE spiritually based program but when a call from my cousin’s came though telling me about a once-a year-early New Year morning breakfast I knew that was where I wanted to be. At age 64, there are so few of us left that anything involving family becomes a priority for me.

Rye rolls, yummy!

So my thoughts turned instead to cooking a special NYE dinner for Gene and I. We considered buying a lobster, fresh shrimp or wild caught salmon. The salmon won the vote. There is only one place to buy wild caught salmon in our area and we shopped there yesterday and bought one pound of Alaskan grown salmon for $11.99 a pound. We bought just one pound – this is a rare treat for us.

Our menu includes the salmon baked under a mustard/peach glaze that I like so well, rye rolls and a vegetable (maybe broccoli but as yet to be determined.) YUM!

Last year we ate out and were very disappointed by the lack of quality of the food so we are eating in this year!

My Simple Mustard/Peach Glazed Salmon

Mix ½ Gray Poupon Mustard with peach jam or preserves (the amount of each depends on how much fish you are cooking) For one pound of fish I mixed up about ¼ cup of each.

 Our salmon baked and ready to plate.

Using a glass baking dish, I put in the salmon meat side up/skin side down and spread on the mixed glaze. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon. Serve hot.

Dessert is a fresh pineapple!

Happy new year from the homestead!

Small House homesteader, Donna