The Founding Farmers Cookbook 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink from the Restaurant Owned by American Family Farmers

Roasted Chicken Salad

 Roasted Turkey with Sage Gravy

Dutch Apple–Caramel Pie

 

 

 

 

Roasted Chicken Salad

Serves 4 to 6

 

Just like the airplane and the iPod, chicken salad is an American invention. Created in 1863 by Liam Gray at Town Meats market in Wakefield, Rhode Island, it’s a great way to reuse leftover roasted chicken. For maximum flavor, use the whole bird—white and dark meat. And for the best texture, pull the poultry apart—don’t chop it. We give our version a flicker of color and a little sweetness from golden raisins and jammy dried blueberries.

 

If you are serving this as a salad, we like to serve it on top of Bibb lettuce with added goodies, such as roasted golden beets, diced ripe avocado, and toasted almond slices. If you are serving this as a sandwich, we like to butter a hot dog roll on both sides, then toast it on both sides in a sauté pan over medium heat until golden and place a big scoop of the chicken salad inside.

 

1 pound roasted chicken meat, hand-pulled into pieces

1/3 cup golden raisins

2/3 cup diced fennel, diced to ¼ inch

¼ cup dried blueberries

1/3 cup finely sliced fresh chives

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh Italian parsley

2 tablespoons sliced fresh basil

Pinch of freshly cracked black pepper

1/3 cup sour cream

2/3 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons diced yellow onion

2½ teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch of ground white pepper

 

Place the chicken meat, raisins, fennel, blueberries, chives, parsley, basil, and black pepper in a medium bowl and mix together until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, onion, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper. Pour the dressing over the chicken salad and mix well.

 

 

Roasted Turkey with Sage Gravy

 

Serves 10 to 16

 

The turkey is the centerpiece for your table, and a touchstone to the holiday’s deep roots in American culture. You’ll get the best results if you work with a fresh bird sourced from your local butcher or poultry producer. If your bird is frozen, make sure to thaw it completely in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before using.

 

Turkey

 

1 (16- to 18-pound) fresh turkey, at room temperature

½ cup canola oil or softened butter

2 tablespoons Farmers Steak Seasoning (page 11)

1 cup water

 

Sage Gravy

(Makes 6 cups)

 

3 tablespoons canola oil

1½ cups diced yellow onions, diced to ¼ inch

²⁄³ cup diced carrots, diced to ¼ inch

¾ cup diced celery, diced to ¼ inch

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon dried sage

¼ cup unsalted butter

¾ cup all-purpose flour

5 cups turkey stock or Chicken Stock (page 8)

1 sprig fresh sage

2 teaspoons molasses

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

 

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Remove the bag of giblets from the cavity of the turkey and reserve the turkey neck for making the gravy. Rub the turkey all over with the canola oil and evenly season the outside and the inside cavity with the Farmers Steak Seasoning. Place the bird in a roasting pan with a roasting rack inside. Roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

 

Decrease the heat to 325°F. Add the reserved turkey neck to the roasting rack and pour the 1 cup water into the bottom of the pan. Roast for 45 minutes. Remove the neck from the pan and set aside. Continue to roast the turkey for 2½ to 3½ hours more (about 15 minutes per pound), or until a meat thermometer inserted into the inner thigh registers 165°F. Remove the turkey from the oven, transfer it to a large serving platter, and let it rest, loosely covered with aluminum foil, for at least 30 minutes before carving. Strain the pan drippings through a fine-mesh strainer into a fat separator and set aside to make the gravy.

 

Heat the oil in a large, shallow pan over high heat. Add the onions and sauté until they begin to color. Lower the heat to medium and continue to brown the onions for 15 to 20 minutes. Add the carrots and celery and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add the poultry seasoning and dried sage and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the butter, allow it to melt, and then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir, creating a roux, for about 8 minutes, or until the flour cooks out and emits a toasted fragrance. Stir in the turkey pan drippings and the stock, and add the roasted turkey neck and the fresh sage. Let the gravy simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove the turkey neck and sage, and stir in the molasses, salt, black pepper, and lemon juice.

 

If you prefer a smoother gravy, you can strain it through a fine-mesh strainer or a chinois. If you like some texture, transfer to a gravy boat and serve immediately with the carved turkey.

 

 

Dutch Apple–Caramel Pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

 

Filling

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

3 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

6 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

7 tablespoons granulated sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

 

Streusel Topping

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup cake flour

1 recipe Pie Dough (page 137), refrigerated

½ cup applesauce

5 teaspoons Caramel Sauce (page 23)

 

If they made a Mount Rushmore for American food icons, apple pie would be front and center in the granite lineup. To make our crowd-pleasing version of the classic, we use a blend of apples. Granny Smiths possess an unbeatable tartness and retain their shape in the oven. We like to pair them with McIntosh apples, but you can mix up the blend. Just remember that eating (dessert) apples aren’t generally good for baking, since they turn mealy in the high heat of the oven.

 

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl, tossing the apples to coat them evenly.

 

In a small bowl, combine the streusel ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon until the texture is crumbly.

 

When you are ready to assemble and bake the pie, preheat the oven to 325°F and place a rack in the lowest position. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin to ¼ inch thick. Line an ungreased pie pan with the dough. Fill the bottom of the pie shell one third of the way full with the filling, about 1¼ cups.

 

Spread half of the applesauce and half of the Caramel Sauce over the filling. Repeat with another layer of filling, applesauce, and Caramel Sauce. Top with the remaining one third of the filling.

 

Spread the streusel topping evenly over the entire surface of the pie.

 

Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before slicing.

 

Recipe from The Founding Farmers Cookbook by Nevin Martell, Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013