Jerk chicken

This the seasons! it's 2016 and I still feel like I'm in 2015. Maybe because I still have tons of memories to share with a lot of you. ​

I want to share with you a simple and quick recipe to whip up for any occasion. Jerk Chicken! Never made it in my life. But after browsing a few recipes, this is what I whipped up at home with what I had.​

​Recipe​

• 18 pieces of chicken thigh (fat trimmed off as much as possible)​
• 1.5 full bundles of green onions​
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar​
• 1 tablespoon all spice​
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon​
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper​
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper​
• 8 cloves of garlic​
• 1 shallot​
• 4 Thai chilis (what I had at home. I would use serranos if I had some)​
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce​
• 1/4 cup (or so) of olive oil​

All items will be combined in a food processor. The oil will be drizzled in last to combine the ingredients together. Give it a quick taste for saltiness. If more salt is needed, just add a few pinches of kosher salt. The chicken itself will release a lot of fat, so you don't want the marinade to be too water.​

Place the chickens in a roasting pan and slather the marinade rubbing each chicken to make sure they have a coating. Wrap the pan with foil tightly, then preheat your oven to 350. You can let your chicken marinade overnight or with a few hours. I only let mine marinade for 30 minutes or so. ​

The chicken is place in the oven for 40 minutes, then the heat was cranked to 400 for another 15-20. The chicken was left to rest in the pan for an hour before I took it outside to give it a quick sear to caramelizes the chicken.​

Results:​

There you go! simple jerk chicken. I feel giving it a quick char is imperative because it really brings out the sweetness from the brown sugar and the crispy bits from the skin. Can't say no to that.

happy cooking. 

Happy Eggs - Huckleberry Cookies

I just want to start off by saying that I am a true fan of Happy Eggs. But, it really started with that one story of that one man who went mad and destroyed a large flock of nesters. It was a pretty sad, mad, story which you can find here by Bloomberg. I remembered that when I heard the story, it made me sad to think about these chickens cooped up and just grasping for their lives. It made me look at eggs differently. One, was the sudden spike in price. When all eggs are averaging around $5, you really start to look at them a bit differently. The prices has fallen since, but I've stuck with Happy Eggs since.

View fullsize

So what's the difference? There's caged, there's cage free, and then there's free range. I think this is something all of you should look into if you are serious about your eggs.

Caged - Well, this is pretty obvious. Caged eggs come from hens who live their ENTIRE lives in a wire cage that is so small that they can't even flap their wings. I can't even comprehend thinking about an animal stuck in a confined space for the rest of their lives. But... let's not open a can of worms and start talking about all other animals.

let's take one step at a time.

With caged eggs, a typical hen only has 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 square inches of space. Just think about your standard white piece of paper for a moment.

Now, California bans the producing and selling of eggs from battery caged hens. Hens are required to have enough room to turn around freely, lie down, and extend their wings. Is that wrong? Keep this in mind.

Caged Free Eggs - Here comes the fun marketing part. We see caged free eggs packaged all the time. But.. what does it mean? We believe it's good. I mean, even the packaging on these caged free eggs look happy. But, cage free eggs come from hens that are locked inside all their lives... they never go outside. Cage free birds have no outdoor access and spend their whole lives inside barns with only 10.5 x 16.5 inches of space. This angers me a bit. Because we've bought caged free eggs before assuming they were able to roam around. I guess I was ignorant.

But in lieu of the downside with some of these eggs, there are good businesses out there like Happy Eggs that does it right. Free Range Eggs - Happy egg hens have access to a total space of 8 acres, which is equivalent to 6 football fields. The hens get to roam outdoors everyday. And okay, before we start assuming that these poor hens are smooshed up outside! EACH individual pasture raised hen has access to 21.6 square ft a day. As it's a rotational pasture, pasture raised hens have daily access to 20% of the total 108 square ft available.

View fullsize

American Humane Certified. Free Range Eggs.

Oh and guess what? Besides having the whole 8 acres of pasture to roam among the beautiful trees, shade, sand pits and fresh air, they also have large protective barns overnight, freedom to choose where to roost and even their favorite nesting box.

If that doesn't do it for you, they even have a few pecking toys to keep them engaged.

So let's get into some Happy Eggs. Because I feel GREAT to use them. I've decided to make some cookies with these cute copper cutters I got from Marshall's. My very dear friends, Ben & Ricky, who recently got engaged, brought me back some Huckleberry jam from their trip to Montana. They also have a fabulous blog called the Visualante that you all need to check out.

Recipe:

• 3/4 cups of butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 Happy Egg YOLKS!!
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 & 3/4 cups of unbleached flour
• Huckleberry Preserves/Jam (or any preserves you would like)

It's pretty simple. Preheat your oven to 375. Whisk the softened butter and sugar together, followed by the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Next thing you need to do is mix in your flour and salt until the dough is formed. If the dough gets too soft, like all dough, stick it back in the fridge till it's easier to roll out. I cut the shapes out with my cookie cutter, make a small dent to fill the preserves, then pop it in my Breville convection oven for 10 minutes.

View fullsize

Buttery cookies with a tart preserve always made the knees go wobbly. I brought these to work and the crowd went crazy! These will be around during my New Years eve party.

I'm telling you, this is so easy to make and I didn't even need to take out my Kitchen Aid.

Stay tuned for more Happy Egg recipes to come! I have a few more things up my sleeve that I think you will enjoy :)

You might also like:

View fullsize

View fullsize