BELLY WARMER BUTTER CHICKEN

Our packet of Butter Chicken Spice Blend makes cooking your own butter chicken at home easy! Chef Aaron Clyne (author of Travel, Eat, Repeat: A Culinary Nomad Journal) created the following recipe:

BUTTER CHICKEN SAUCE:


2 TBSP grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
2/3 pack of Carrick Hill Farms Butter Chicken Spice Rub
1 TBSP salt
1 TSP white sugar
3 TBSP Butter
4TBSP Heavy Cream
500mL Chicken Stock

  1. In sauce pot, over medium high heat, sauté ginger, garlic and onion in 2 BBSP of butter. Add tomatoes, Butter Chicken Spice Rub and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes.
  2. Add chicken stock, salt and sugar and bring mix to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and continue simmering until onions are soft (about 15 minutes).
  3. Purée mix with an emulsion blender or blender. Add cream and 1 TBSP butter. Adjust seasoning to taste.

CHICKEN:


1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1/3 pack Carrick Hill Farms Butter Chicken Spice Rub
3 TSP Salt
5 TBSP plain yogurt
1 L Butter Chicken Sauce

  1. Marinate chicken pieces in yogurt, butter chicken spice rub and salt for 1-12 hours in refrigerator.
  2. In a pot over medium high heat, sear marinated chicken pieces for 4-5 minutes.
  3. Reduce heat and add butter chicken sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until chicken pieces have reached an internal temperature of 165F, about 20 minutes. Serve with rice and naan.

Turkey Cooking Tips

ROASTING YOUR TURKEY

Set your oven to 325F. Find your MEAT THERMOMETER.

Put half an onion, half a lemon, rosemary (or herbs of your choice) into the turkey cavity.

Rub butter or oil all over the exterior of the turkey. Apply generous salt and pepper to the skin.

Use a meat thermometer.
Plan for your turkey to cook faster than a commercially raised turkey. Our Bronze Orlopp turkeys have eaten diets containing lots of fresh vegetation, spent time in the sunshine and exercised quite a bit by expressing their natural behaviours. These factors all contribute to the flavour, juiciness and cooking time difference with our turkeys.

Your turkey is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165F degrees.  We can cook an 18 lb Thanksgiving turkey in a little over 3 hours (~ 10 mins/lb). Every bird and every oven is a bit different. Did we mention to USE A MEAT THERMOMETER?

IMG_0395

Other suggestions:
Prepare your stuffing outside of your turkey.
Roast your turkey uncovered.
Don’t risk personal injury flipping a turkey (especially a large one) during the roasting process.

Wyndham House Donations

 

This holiday season we will be donating some of our pasture raised chickens to Wyndham House in Guelph.  Would you like to help us increase the number of donated chickens?

Sponsor a Carrick Hill Farms chicken for Wyndham House! 

For the last 40 years Wyndham House has been synonymous with serving homeless youth. While the pathways into homelessness are complex, a way off the streets is clear. Wyndham House provides youth with housing and educational alternatives, social supports and programming that supports a successful transition into adulthood.

Contact Laurie or Quinn at Carrick Hill Farms by December 15th if you would like to participate or for more information.  

Wyndham House will issue you a tax receipt for the monetary value of your chicken donation.  

 

Guelph Pastured Chicken Pick Up

Whole, frozen pasture raised chickens $5.25/lb

Downtown Guelph Pick Up Sunday, December 6th 1-4pm

Our pasture raised chickens taste amazing! Raised outside with fresh air, sunshine and lots of fresh greens to eat. No antibiotics, no hormones, no GMO’s, no pesticides sprayed on our farm, no chemical additives or preservatives at processing. 100% real chicken!

Call or email to place your order and confirm pickup location.

 

 

Chicken CSA 2015!

How our CSA works:

Receive a season of pastured, whole, frozen chickens for $5.25/lb.  Send payment of $500 and draw on your CSA account with us over the season.  Your $500 will reserve you approx 18-22 chickens available between June and Oct.  Chickens average 4-6lbs each.  Select either Guelph or On Farm pick up option.

Guelph CSA Dates:

June 23 & 26
July 14 & July 17
July 28 & 31
Aug 18 & 21
Sept 1 & 4
Sept 15 & 18
Oct 6 & 9

3:30-7:00pm at Ignatius Farm.

Guelph Pastured Chicken Orders

Pastured broiler chickens for sale!

Meet us at the Ignatius Farm CSA pick up in Guelph between 3:30-7:00pm:

June 23 & 26
July 14 & 17 & 28 & 31
Aug 18 & 21
Sept 1 & 4 & 15 & 18
Oct 6 & 9
Whole, frozen chickens average 4-6lbs and cost $5.50/lb.  Limited quantities available.

Our CSA program offers chicken at $5.25/lb and reserves you $500 of chicken for the season (approx 18-22 whole chickens).  CSA members may also request custom butchering options.  We only have a few CSA spots left for Guelph delivery.
Our pastured chickens eat diets containing NO hormones, antibiotics, steroids or GMO’s. We do not use sprays or pesticides on our fields. No additives, fillers or preservatives added.  It’s all part of our Farmosophy!

Turkey Cooking Tips

BRINING

To brine, or not to brine…your Bronze Orlopp turkey will be juicy and flavourful either way, but if you want to take the extra time to brine your turkey here is how we do it:

2 cups quality kosher salt
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 lemon
1 bay leaf
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
8 L of water
1 cooler/bucket large enough to fully submerge your turkey

Dissolve salt and sugar over stovetop in 4 cups of hot water. Cool this solution and add the rest of the ingredients, including the remaining water, into your cooler/bucket and submerge the turkey. Add additional water if required to fully submerge the bird.

Brine your turkey for 6-12 hours.

Brining

Remove turkey from brining solution and RINSE it well to prepare for roasting.

ROASTING

Set your oven to 325F. Find your MEAT THERMOMETER.

Put half an onion, half a lemon, rosemary (or herbs of your choice) into the turkey cavity.

Rub butter (or oil if you are interested in a Paleo diet version) all over the exterior of the turkey. Apply pepper to the skin.

Use a meat thermometer.
Plan for your turkey to cook faster than a commercially raised turkey. Our Bronze Orlopp turkeys have eaten diets containing lots of fresh vegetation, spent time in the sunshine and exercised quite a bit by expressing their natural behaviours. These factors all contribute to the flavour, juiciness and cooking time difference with our turkeys.

Your turkey is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165F degrees. Last year, our 18 lb Thanksgiving turkey cooked in a little over 3 hours (~ 10 mins/lb). Every bird and every oven is a bit different. Did we mention to USE A MEAT THERMOMETER?

IMG_0395

Other suggestions:
Prepare your stuffing outside of your turkey.
Roast your turkey uncovered.
Don’t risk personal injury flipping a turkey (especially a large one) during the roasting process.

Turkey Cooking resources:

If you like video tutorials, here is Gordon Ramsay preparing a Christmas turkey in a slightly more intimate way by using a butter mixture under the skin of the bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5PFXhdfVT8

Shannon Hayes, author of The Grassfed Gourmet & Long Way on a Little has some good tips at:
http://www.shannonhayes.org/pastured-turkey-cooking-tips-2/

The ‘pasture’ of pasture raised chickens

IMG_0280

The hay has been cut on the field where our first batch of pastured chickens were raised. As we moved the chicken mobiles across the field, they left their manure behind to fertilize the ground. In these pictures, you can see the bright green colour of the new pasture growth where the chickens had been.

There are so many synergies with this method of raising birds. The chickens are always on fresh pasture, moved frequently to leave their droppings behind. This greatly reduces incidences of disease and means we don’t have to use antibiotics in our flocks. The field receives the benefit of fertilization from the chicken manure. Our chickens eat a lot of greens since they have fresh choice of pasture every day. This changes the nutritional composition of the chicken meat. Pastured chicken has been found to contain less cholesterol, better omega 3 to omega 6 ratios, increased conjugated linoleic acids and there is no room for debate on the amazing taste!