Pulled Chicken with Apple Butter and Cider Vinegar
Spicy Pork Shoulder with Tomato Jam and Red Wine Vinegar
Brisket with Cherry Jam and Malt Vinegar
Sauerkraut Soup
Pickled Beet Borscht
Pork Tenderloin with Chutney Pan Sauce
Apricot-Glazed Whole Roast Chicken
Glazed Mini Turkey Meat Loaves
Jam-Lacquered Chicken Wings
Pickle-Brined Chicken Tenders
Glazed Ham
Kielbasa, Potato, and Sauerkraut Skillet
Brown Rice, Bean, and Salsa Casserole
SALSA-BRAISED CHICKEN
SERVES 6 TO 8
This chicken is one of my weeknight lifesavers. It is the thing I make when I’m low on both inspiration and time. The first night, I keep the chicken chunky and serve it over brown rice with whatever green vegetable needs to be eaten. The second night, I shred the meat and turn it into tacos. If there’s anything left on night three, I add some black beans, sautéed peppers, and frozen corn and call it chicken chili.
4 pounds/1.8 kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cups/480 ml salsa
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Combine the chicken thighs, salsa, and salt in a large, covered saucepan or Dutch oven. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a low simmer. Lower the heat to low and cook until the chicken is quite tender, 45 to 50 minutes.
Remove the lid and cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes to thicken the liquid, as needed.
Serve over rice, tucked into tortillas, or pull the meat and use it in enchiladas.
Note: This chicken can also be made in a slow cooker or electric pressure cooker. Cook for 5 to 6 hours on low in the slow cooker or for 30 minutes on high pressure with a natural pressure release in the electric pressure cooker. The only downside to these techniques is that they produce a thinner sauce, but you can always reduce it later to thicken.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Tomato salsa, salsa verde, and even peach or mango salsa all work beautifully here.
SWEET-AND-SOUR BEEF SHORT RIBS
SERVES 4 TO 6 WITH SIDES
These short ribs are a great dinner party dish, if you’re hosting a gathering of meat eaters. They are best cooked a day ahead and slowly reheated in the braising liquid just before serving. The overnight rest in the fridge allows the flavors to marry and gives you the opportunity to remove the excess fat that will inevitably gather on top. We like them best ladled over polenta and with a side of garlicky sautéed kale.
2 tablespoons neutral oil
3½ to 4 pounds/1.6 to 1.8 kg boneless beef short ribs
Salt
2 leeks, trimmed, halved, and chopped, and washed well to remove grit
1 large yellow onion, cut into thin half-moons
¾ cup/180 ml water, divided, plus more as needed
2 medium-size carrots, grated
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
2 cups/480 ml jam
1 cup/240 ml pomegranate vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 325°F/163°C.
In a large, oven-safe braising pan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Pat the short ribs dry and salt generously. When the oil begins to shimmer, place the short ribs in the pan and brown on all sides. Work in 2 batches if your pot isn’t big enough to accommodate the meat in a single layer at once.
When all the ribs are browned, transfer them to a plate and set them aside.
Add the leeks and onion to the pan along with ¼ cup/60 ml of the water. If the aromatics are browning too quickly, add a little more water. Cook, stirring regularly. Any meat or food stuck to the bottom of the pan can be scraped off and incorporated during this stage. Add the carrots, garlic, and thyme and stir to combine.
Add the jam, vinegar, pepper, and the remaining ½ cup/120 ml of water and stir. Nestle the browned short ribs back into the pot, making sure that they’re mostly covered with the liquid and veg. Cover the pot and place it in the oven.
Braise the short ribs for 2½ to 3 hours, or until the meat is very tender. When the meat is done, remove the pan from the oven. If the braising liquid has gotten too concentrated during the cooking process, add a bit of water to thin it out. Serve warm.
Note: If you can’t find pomegranate vinegar, it’s fine to use red or white wine vinegar in its place.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Cherry, plum, or nectarine work best here.
Jam and Vinegar Braises
I almost always have a small stash of imperfect jam in my pantry. These are the jars that have perhaps darkened or faded, or are too firm or never set up at all. They were test batches, attempts at new fruit combinations, or they got lost in my chaotic storage situation and sat just a little too long to be eaten with yogurt or shared with others. They’re still entirely edible and perfectly safe; they’re just not appealing as is.
I hate throwing the contents of these lesser jars away. Over the years, I have come up with a method for using them that is both easy and makes for some really fine eating. I pull down one of the trusty slow cookers from my collection and put in about 3 pounds of seasoned meat—chicken thighs, pork butt, brisket, or lamb shoulder are all good options. I combine the contents of a half-pint jar of jam with the same amount of vinegar—the variety depends on what I’m making, but I commonly turn to apple cider—and pour it over the meat. If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll add some pressed garlic or minced onion, but often I default to a shake of garlic powder and a palmful of dehydrated onion flakes. Then it’s just a matter of setting the slow cooker on LOW and allowing it to do its thing for 4 to 8 hours. The cooking times will always vary, depending on the power of your slow cooker, its size, how tough the meat is, and how high the cooker is filled, so be watchful and use your good judgment. You will often find instructions on the Internet about how a Dutch oven in a low oven can be substituted for a slow cooker, but in the case of these recipes, I don’t recommend it. In my trials, I found that no matter how low the oven, the jam got too deeply caramelized before the meat was cooked through.
I invite you to take this basic idea and make it your own. For those of you who like more specifics, here are a trio of sure-fire combinations on this theme.
PULLED CHICKEN WITH APPLE BUTTER AND CIDER VINEGAR
SERVES 4 TO 5
This chicken is good made into sandwiches, stirred into chili, or heaped onto a pile of sautéed cabbage and kale.
3 pounds/1.4 kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup/240 ml apple butter
1 cup/240 ml cider vinegar
Trim away any large bits of fat from the chicken. Stir the onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Layer the chicken and the seasoning mixture in your slow cooker. A 4-quart/3.8 L slow cooker is the perfect size for this recipe.
Spoon the apple butter into a bowl or measuring cup. If your jar is now empty, refill the jar with the vinegar, cap tightly, and shake until all the apple butter bits have come off the walls of the jar. If your jar isn’t yet empty, just add the vinegar to the apple butter and whisk to combine. Pour the apple butter slurry over the chicken.
Put a lid on the slow cooker and set it to cook on low. Allow the chicken to cook for at least 4 hours and up to 8.
If the sauce seems too thin for your tastes, remove the lid of the slow cooker and increase the heat to HIGH for 30 minutes. Before serving, use a pair of tongs to work the chicken into shreds.
SPICY PORK SHOULDER WITH TOMATO JAM AND RED WINE VINEGAR
SERVES 8 TO 10
This pork is the perfect centerpiece for a big taco party. Buy a heap of corn tortillas and ask your friends to bring t
he toppings!
7 to 8 pound/3.2 to 3.6 kg pork shoulder
2 cups/480 ml tomato jam
2 cups/480 ml red wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Place the pork shoulder in a slow cooker that holds at least 6 quarts/5.7 L. Spoon the jam into a bowl or measuring cup. If your jar is now empty, refill the jar with the vinegar, cap tightly, and shake until all the bits have come off the walls of the jar. If your jam jar isn’t yet empty, pour the vinegar directly in with the jam. Add the garlic, jalapeño, salt, and red pepper flakes and stir. Pour the jam slurry over the pork.
Cover the slow cooker and set it to cook on LOW. Braise the pork for at least 6 hours and up to 12, depending entirely on the toughness of the original cut of pork. Baste the top of the meat if it looks as if it’s drying out.
When you’re happy with the texture of the pork, use a pair of tongs to remove it from the juices. Let it cool just until you can handle the meat without burning yourself. Remove the big hunks of fat and shred the meat.
At this point, I like to refrigerate the meat and sauce separately, though you can also serve it immediately. If you do make it the day before you want to serve, remove the containers holding the meat and the sauce from the fridge. Remove the fat cap, which is typically quite substantial, from the sauce. Pour the sauce into a pan large enough to eventually hold the meat and purée it with an immersion blender. Bring the sauce to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium-high and continue to cook until the sauce has reduced by about half and is quite thick. Lower the heat to medium-low and return the meat to the sauce. Heat at a very low simmer until the meat is warmed through.
Once everyone has eaten their fill, consider packing up a portion for the freezer.
I never regret having a stash of pulled pork in the deep freeze for those nights when I can’t manage to cook from scratch. It also makes a fine addition to homemade chili.
BRISKET WITH CHERRY JAM AND MALT VINEGAR
SERVES 8 TO 10
It is a bit more trouble to brown the brisket and onions before cooking, but the resulting flavor is well worth the effort. I also love that the finished brisket walks the line between traditional Jewish fare and the smoked barbecue briskets in my sister’s adopted city of Austin, Texas.
4 to 5 pounds/1.6 to 2.3 kg beef brisket
Fine sea salt
1 tablespoon neutral oil
2 large onions, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
1½ cups/360 ml cherry jam
1½ cups/360 ml malt vinegar
Pat the brisket dry with paper towels. Season it generously with salt. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. When it shimmers, place the brisket in the pan, fat-side down. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until that side of the brisket has browned nicely. Flip the meat so that the other side can also brown. Once the brisket is browned on all sides, place it in a slow cooker.
Pour the onions into the hot sauté pan and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often. You want them to brown, soften, and reduce in volume by at least a third.
While the onions cook, pour the jam into a bowl or measuring cup. If the jar is now empty, fill it with the vinegar, cap tightly, and shake until all the cherry jam bits have come off the walls of the jar. If there’s still some jam in the jar, add the vinegar directly to the jam in the bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the jam slurry over the beef. Once the onions are nicely cooked, add them to the slow cooker.
Put a lid on the slow cooker and set it to cook on low. Braise the beef for at least 6 hours and up to 8, basting the top of the meat occasionally.
When the meat is quite tender, remove the brisket from the slow cooker, leaving the sauce and onions behind. Place the beef on a large plate or rimmed cutting board and scrape off and discard the gelatinous fat cap.
To serve immediately, cut the brisket across the grain and top with the juices and onions from the slow cooker. For a more refined presentation, leave the meat intact, wrap it in foil, and refrigerate it separately from the sauce.
The next day, remove the containers holding the meat and the sauce from the fridge. Remove any congealed fat from the sauce. Pour in the sauce into a pan large enough to eventually hold the meat and purée it with an immersion blender. Bring the sauce to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium-high and continue to cook until it has reduced by about one third and is quite thick.
While the sauce reduces, cut the brisket into slices of about 1 inch/2.5 cm thick. Once you like the consistency of the sauce, lower the heat to low and nestle the slices of brisket into the sauce. Heat at a very low simmer until the meat is warmed through. This brisket is ridiculously good alongside slices of the Skillet-Size Potato Pancake (here).
SAUERKRAUT SOUP
SERVES 6 TO 8
This soup is a great way to make use of really ripe sauerkraut. Perhaps you have a jar that got lost in the back of the fridge, or you simply let a batch ferment a little longer than you normally do. If it’s too strong to eat on toast or alongside scrambled eggs, let it work its magic on a pot of soup. I like to eat this in the dead of winter, with a slice or two of toasted sturdy rye bread.
8 ounces/225 g thick-cut bacon
1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
2 large carrots, cubed
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 quarts/1.9 L cold water
1 pound/450 g Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch/2.5 cm cubes
2 cups/480 ml Basic Sauerkraut (here)
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh dill (optional)
Place a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Place the bacon strips in the pan and cook until the bacon is quite crisp and has rendered its fat. If your soup pot isn’t big enough for all the bacon to cook at once, work in batches. Use tongs to remove the bacon from the pan and let it drain on a paper towel–lined plate. Pour off most of the bacon fat from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons behind.
Add the onion and carrots to the pot and cook, stirring regularly, until the onions are browned and the carrots have softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until it is just fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the water to the soup pot and stir well. Use a flat wooden spatula to work up any bits of browned onion that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Finally, add the chopped potatoes to the pot. Place a lid on the pot, lower the heat to medium, and let the soup simmer until the potatoes are tender, 18 to 22 minutes. Once the potatoes are tender, add the sauerkraut, salt, black pepper, and dill, if using, and stir to combine.
Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Serve hot, garnished with the reserved bacon.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Simple sauerkraut works best here. If you’re using a commercial variety that’s packaged in brine, make sure to drain it well before measuring and adding it to the soup.
PICKLED BEET BORSCHT
SERVES 6 TO 8
Most people assume that beets are the defining element of borscht, but it’s actually the bright, acid, near-sour flavor that is the essential qualifier. I’ve opted for a puréed version here that makes use of a full pint of pickled beets for flavor, color, and texture. Served with a very traditional dollop of sour cream, a bowl makes for a hearty, filling lunch or dinner.
1 tablespoon neutral oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2½ pounds/1.1 kg beets, peeled and chopped
1 large russet potato, peeled and chopped
2 medium-size carrots, peeled and chopped
2 quarts/1.9 L stock or water
1 pint/480 ml pickled beets, drained, rinsed, and diced, brine reserved
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling<
br />
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Sour cream, for garnish
Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the onion. Cook, stirring regularly, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the onion is fragrant and begins to pick up some color. Add the garlic, beets, potato, carrots, and stock. Stir to combine.
Bring the liquid to a simmer. Once you see it begin to bubble, put a lid on the pot and lower the heat to medium. Cook, covered, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the beets are tender. They’re the densest vegetable in this recipe, so they will take the longest to soften.
While the soup cooks, prepare the garnish. Place the pickled beets in a small bowl with the chives and drizzle them with the olive oil. Stir to integrate.
When the soup vegetables are soft, remove the pot from the heat. Using an immersion blender, carefully purée the soup until smooth. Add ½ cup/120 ml of the reserved pickled beet brine, the salt, and the pepper. Taste and add more salt or pickle brine, as necessary. Don’t be shy with the salt; those root vegetables can take a generous amount.
Serve each bowl topped with sour cream and the pickled beet mixture as garnish.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Pickled beets. Homemade, store-bought, or even quick pickled will work just fine.
PORK TENDERLOIN WITH CHUTNEY PAN SAUCE
The Food in Jars Kitchen Page 8
