Amish Barbecue Chicken Recipe Reminder

I'm running out of food...on purpose. In just under six weeks, we'll be moving out of our house, putting everything in storage for a month, and living here and there among our church family. In the middle of August we'll be moving into our new place, but until then, cooking and living are going to be an adventure.

So getting a meal together is beginning to look interesting around here. I often spend time browsing through my recipes to see what I can make with the ingredients I have on hand. Because by the middle of July, I want an empty freezer and refrigerator!

In my browsing, I came across this post, and I had to share it. Not only for the recipe (which I'll be making tonight for supper,) but because Uncle Wayne and Aunt Nancy celebrated their 60th anniversary over the weekend.

So here's a great summer recipe rerun:

Amish Barbecue Chicken

Everyone should have an Uncle Wayne.

This picture is an oldie! This is Uncle Wayne and my brother in 1959.

Uncle Wayne joined our extended family when he married my dad's sister 55 years ago. According to Aunt Nancy, I welcomed him into my life with all the unconditional love a two-year-old can give.

But Uncle Wayne brought more to the family than his mechanical abilities and love of John Deere tractors - he brought his Mennonite family's chicken recipe!

In northern Indiana - actually, in all the Amish communities - when it comes to recipes, Amish and Mennonite roots are pretty interchangeable. In fact, until the late 1600's, there were only the Mennonites. Then Jacob Amman had some disagreements with the Mennonite leadership, one thing led to another, and by the early 1700's there were two different denominations.

But that doesn't change the fact that the two groups have the same Swiss/German heritage.

All that is to explain how my Mennonite uncle brought an Amish recipe to the family.

Uncle Wayne in 2010

Another thing about this barbecue recipe is that it isn't tomato-based. It's a sweet/sour combination that comes straight from my German forebears. Think about it - sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), rote kraut (red cabbage), pickled beets, red beet eggs - all have that sweet/sour flavor. It's even an old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that a meal isn't complete unless the table includes seven sweets and seven sours!

I don't think a written copy of Uncle Wayne's recipe exists. I'm sure he keeps it locked inside his head. :) But I found a few recipes on the internet, and then fussed and changed and deleted and added until this combination tasted as much like Uncle Wayne's as I can get. Maybe he'll stop by the cafe today and let us know how close I came!

Amish Barbecue Chicken

Ingredients for the sauce:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 Tablespoons olive oil or butter

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all these ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil (you may want to open a window - it gets pretty strong!). Boil for a couple minutes, and then set the sauce aside to cool a little.

The Chicken:

 I used boneless chicken breasts, cut in half from top to bottom (making two thinner slices of chicken). You can also use chicken quarters, or even a whole chicken, but keep in mind that those will need to be marinated longer than the breasts, and will take longer to cook.

Place your chicken pieces in a glass dish, pour the sauce over them, and make sure all sides of the pieces come into contact with the sauce. Marinate the chicken (in the fridge) for several hours, or overnight. While it's marinating, turn the chicken occasionally to make sure it all gets sauced.

Here's where you know I'm not really following Uncle Wayne's recipe. There should be multiple pans of chicken quarters covered in gallons of sauce - enough to feed a large extended family plus the neighbors. And I wouldn't be cooking it on some sissy gas grill, either. The real grill to use is a 55-gallon drum cut in half, propped up on legs (made in your barn, by the way), and with hardware cloth or something similar for the grate. Oh - and don't forget a ton of charcoal! You've got a lot of chicken to cook in Amish Country!

Sigh. I miss living close enough to attend those family reunions!

Here in the Black Hills, our family isn't quite as extensive. Back to fixing supper!

Maggie-Cat came to watch the proceedings as I started the grill.

She was soon joined by Thatcher and Wynter...of course. :)

When you cut the chicken breasts in half, they don't take long to cook. I usually plan on about 5 minutes per side. Baste the pieces liberally with the sauce while they cook. Don't worry - this recipe doesn't burn as easily as tomato-based sauces.

Thatcher and Maggie-Cat kept a close eye on me. Just in case - you know - I might drop one of those chicken thingies on the deck.

Until....

What was that noise?

Uh-oh, an afternoon thunderstorm is rolling in over the Hills! That chicken better get done quick!

Whew! We made it back into the house before the first raindrops fell!

And yes, the chicken was as good as it looks!

* * * * * * * *

And now, back to the future.

I loved seeing the pictures of the dogs with Maggie-Cat in this post! The house is very quiet without them. But Maggie still hangs around while I'm cooking, and thunderstorms still have her running for cover!

Is your grill ready for another season of delicious meals? Or have you already been grilling for weeks?

I can't believe that we were still dealing with snow a few weeks ago!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-six years.

Wintertime Bean Soup

This is a rerun post, but it is so perfect for this week. Bean soup is a staple at our house for these cold winter evenings. There's nothing like that homey-salty-warming aroma as the soup cooks in the crock pot all day long!

Another reason why this recipe is appropriate for this week is that the long-awaited release of "Hannah's Choice" is imminent!

You can order Hannah's Choice here (BarnesandNoble.com) or
here (Amazon.com)

I love this series, The Journey to Pleasant Prairie. It was born out of a quest to understand why my family was no longer Amish, and that quest opened a lot of doors and will provide fodder for many stories to come!

So as we celebrate the pending release (January 19th!), settle back and enjoy this post from a few years ago:

The western view from our house at 3 pm. Nearly sunset.

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” 
― Edith Sitwell

It is the turn of the year. The days are short, the evenings dark and long.

In our part of the world, the sun rises in the southeast, skims the rooftops of the houses to our south, and sets behind the Hills in the southwest. 

The mid-afternoon light throws long shadows as we explore the shore of Sylvan Lake - the summer playground deserted this time of year.

By 5:00, Orion starts his journey across the southern sky and the shades are drawn against the cold night outside.

This is the time for soup and homemade bread - food that warms the belly and the spirit.

Today's soup is bean soup. Not a fancy dish, but nothing tastes better on a cold winter night.

I have no recipe for this soup - it would be like asking for a recipe for scrambled eggs! It's been a wintertime staple in my family since long before I was born.

The main ingredient is beans. 

I always use Navy Beans, or small white beans, but you can use your favorite.

Now don't turn up your nose at the lowly bean! Just check out this nutritional powerhouse:

Beans are a good source of

1) Protein

2) Complex carbohydrates

3) Fiber - both soluble and insoluble

4) Calcium

5) Potassium

6) Folate (a B vitamin)

It's easy to prepare the beans for cooking. Start the night before by soaking two cups of beans in about a gallon of water mixed with two tablespoons vinegar. If you have hard water (water with a lot of minerals in it), use filtered or distilled water for soaking and cooking your beans.

Why the vinegar? It helps reduce that gassy side effect beans can have.

The next morning, drain and rinse the beans thoroughly. Now they're ready to use.

Beans take a long time to cook and they absorb a lot of water, so give yourself plenty of time. I always use my slow cooker, but you can also cook them on top of the stove over low heat (be sure to stir them occasionally). Either way, check the beans every couple hours to make sure they haven't cooked dry.

I use broth instead of water to cook my bean soup - it adds flavor as well as nutrition. Today I'm using ham broth and chicken broth (about six cups for two cups of dry beans), but you can also use vegetable broth, leftover water from boiling potatoes, or whatever you might have on hand.

Always add onions to your soup, again for flavor and nutrition, but from there on the soup is very versatile.

We have leftover ham from Christmas in the refrigerator, so I diced up about a cup of that and added it in. You can also add carrots or potatoes (or both). Some people add in mashed potatoes.

Let the soup cook for a good 10 to 12 hours in the slow cooker - maybe four to six hours on the stove.

Taste your soup before adding salt and pepper - if you've used ham or ham broth, you'll probably have enough salt already.

If you add salt, wait until the very end of cooking to put it in. (Salt keeps the fiber in the beans from breaking down while cooking.) 

Serve your soup with fruit or veggies, and lots of crackers.

My husband likes these little gems - he calls them "fabulous crackers" - but I like regular saltines.

Remember I said this soup has been a family staple for years? While doing some research for my next book, I found out that for the 18th century Amish in Pennsylvania (my grandparents six and seven generations ago...), bean soup was a Sunday tradition.

The Amish in those days didn't drive buggies, or wagons, or carriages to church. They walked.

It could be a six mile walk to the house where the Sabbath Meeting was being held, and before the families would start the long walk home in the afternoon, they were given a meal - something simple, warm, filling and cheap. Bean soup.

I can just imagine a log home filled to the brim with Amish families, some of them still grieving loved ones they had lost on the long journey across the Atlantic in ships called the "Charming Nancy" and "Love and Unity". Old men with gray beards, women in their bonnets and capes, children with cheeks rosy from the cold outside and the heat inside the house...and all day long smelling the fragrance from the big kettle of bean soup simmering on the hearth.

And you thought you had a hard time concentrating on the sermon!

Sherry Gore's Cooking and Such Magazine

This was a no cooking week.

Zero. Zilch. Nothin'.

It was Vacation Bible School week. If you've ever been involved with VBS, you know it's exhausting, exhilarating, hot and wonderful all at the same time.

And if you've ever been a VBS director, you know why I haven't seen the inside of my kitchen for more days than I like to think about!

But I did get my copy of "Cooking and Such" magazine in the mail!

Published quarterly, "Cooking and Such: adventures in Plain Living," is one of Sherry Gore's many creative outlets. Each issue is chock-full of recipes, stories, quotes, tidbits and beautiful photographs - all having to do with Plain Living (i.e., Amish, Mennonite, etc.)

This summer's issue has some intriguing recipes that I'll try if I ever get back into the kitchen :)

Things like German Potato Pancakes, Tasty Bacon Cheese Fries, Blueberry Watermelon Salad, and - my favorite - Maple Bacon Whoopie Pies. (I can hardly wait to try those!)

Each one of these magazines is a keeper. The magazine's mission is "to provide wholesome, Christian reading as we celebrate God's wondrous gifts of family, food, farming and culture."

For more about Sherry, the magazine, and subscription information, go to her website, http://www.sherrygore.com/


Now I know I wasn't the only one playing AWOL from my kitchen last week! Let us know what you were doing...did you go to San Antonio for the RWA conference? Or a trip to visit family? Or were you doing the same-old-same-old?

I'll make a batch of those Maple Bacon Whoopie Pies, and we'll chat!

Amish Barbecue Chicken Recipe Reminder

Everyone should have an Uncle Wayne.

This picture is an oldie! This is Uncle Wayne and my brother in 1959.

Uncle Wayne joined our extended family when he married my dad's sister 55 years ago. According to Aunt Nancy, I welcomed him into my life with all the unconditional love a two-year-old can give.

But Uncle Wayne brought more to the family than his mechanical abilities and love of John Deere tractors - he brought his Mennonite family's chicken recipe!

In northern Indiana - actually, in all the Amish communities - when it comes to recipes, Amish and Mennonite roots are pretty interchangeable. In fact, until the late 1600's, there were only the Mennonites. Then Jacob Amman had some disagreements with the Mennonite leadership, one thing led to another, and by the early 1700's there were two different denominations.

But that doesn't change the fact that the two groups have the same Swiss/German heritage.

All that is to explain how my Mennonite uncle brought an Amish recipe to the family.

Uncle Wayne in 2010

Another thing about this barbecue recipe is that it isn't tomato-based. It's a sweet/sour combination that comes straight from my German forebears. Think about it - sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), rote kraut (red cabbage), pickled beets, red beet eggs - all have that sweet/sour flavor. It's even an old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that a meal isn't complete unless the table includes seven sweets and seven sours!

I don't think a written copy of Uncle Wayne's recipe exists. I'm sure he keeps it locked inside his head. :) But I found a few recipes on the internet, and then fussed and changed and deleted and added until this combination tasted as much like Uncle Wayne's as I can get. Maybe he'll stop by the cafe today and let us know how close I came!

Amish Barbecue Chicken

Ingredients for the sauce:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 Tablespoons olive oil or butter

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all these ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil (you may want to open a window - it gets pretty strong!). Boil for a couple minutes, and then set the sauce aside to cool a little.

The Chicken:

 I used boneless chicken breasts, cut in half from top to bottom (making two thinner slices of chicken). You can also use chicken quarters, or even a whole chicken, but keep in mind that those will need to be marinated longer than the breasts, and will take longer to cook.

Place your chicken pieces in a glass dish, pour the sauce over them, and make sure all sides of the pieces come into contact with the sauce. Marinate the chicken (in the fridge) for several hours, or overnight. While it's marinating, turn the chicken occasionally to make sure it all gets sauced.

Here's where you know I'm not really following Uncle Wayne's recipe. There should be multiple pans of chicken quarters covered in gallons of sauce - enough to feed a large extended family plus the neighbors. And I wouldn't be cooking it on some sissy gas grill, either. The real grill to use is a 55-gallon drum cut in half, propped up on legs (made in your barn, by the way), and with hardware cloth or something similar for the grate. Oh - and don't forget a ton of charcoal! You've got a lot of chicken to cook in Amish Country!

Sigh. I miss living close enough to attend those family reunions!

Here in the Black Hills, our family isn't quite as extensive. Back to fixing supper!

Maggie-Cat came to watch the proceedings as I started the grill.

She was soon joined by Thatcher and Wynter...of course. :)

When you cut the chicken breasts in half, they don't take long to cook. I usually plan on about 5 minutes per side. Baste the pieces liberally with the sauce while they cook. Don't worry - this recipe doesn't burn as easily as tomato-based sauces.

Thatcher and Maggie-Cat kept a close eye on me. Just in case - you know - I might drop one of those chicken thingies on the deck.

Until....

What was that noise?

Uh-oh, an afternoon thunderstorm is rolling in over the Hills! That chicken better get done quick!

Whew! We made it back into the house before the first raindrops fell!

And yes, the chicken was as good as it looks!

Visiting Amish Country!

Hi everyone!

Jan here, finally back from my week-long trip east to visit parents and in-laws.

And yes, I did squeeze in a couple days of research, too!

This is the headstone of my 4th great-grandfather, Christian Plank. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1793 and died in LaGrange County, Indiana in 1881. It was important to find his grave because he's the one whose story I'm basing my next book series on.

This is the area where he lived and raised his family. It's called Pretty Prairie. Isn't that the greatest name?

One of the fun things about looking for Christian Plank was that my Dad came along - the family historian - and he got to learn a few things he didn't know, either!

(How many times do you get to teach your Dad something?)

In all that driving around in northern Indiana, I still managed to fit in a visit to my favorite store: E & S Sales in Shipshewana, Indiana. 

Notice the buggy parking on the left side of the building!

Shipshewana rivals Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Holmes County, Ohio as an Amish tourist destination…

(By the way, that’s a destination where tourists go to see Amish, not a destination for Amish people who want to be tourists. They go to all the same tourist places the rest of us do.)

…except that Shipshewana is smaller. More manageable. And there are still stores at the edge of town where the locals shop. 

 (We managed to find some pie, and some Chicken 'N' Noodles...)

Since my Dad is a local, he told me about E & S Sales several years ago, and now it’s a regular stop whenever we’re in the area.

The Shipshewana area - in fact most of eastern Elkhart and LaGrange Counties in northern Indiana – has been home to the Amish since 1841, when the first four families from Somerset County, Pennsylvania came to the area to establish a new community. Other Amish families followed (Christian Plank and his family arrived around 1850), and now the area is the third largest Amish settlement in the world, after Holmes County and Lancaster County.

The Amish prefer to be farmers, but when families grow and there are a limited number of acres of farmland, people either have to leave the community to go where land is available, or find another kind of work. That’s what the Eash family did a generation or so ago.

They started selling goods in their front yard along State Road 5, a half mile south of Shipshewana. They were in a good location, and people liked the furniture and other things they made, so they were doing pretty well. They’re still there at that location: Eash Sales.

But as the next generation came along, someone decided to get into the bulk food business, and E & S Sales was born. They built a pole barn next to the original location, and started selling re-packaged bulk foods. They take the huge amounts of flour, sugar, salt, spices, candy, cereal, noodles, etc. and break it down into family sized packages and re-sell the goods at a phenomenal price. 

As the business grew, they started carrying seconds, overstocks and Amish-made foods – still at rock bottom prices. 

On my first visit there, I bought 150 pounds of wheat, and now I’m addicted.

It’s my stock-up store. And I live 1000 miles away :(

We go every six months or so – whenever we’re in the area. This time I focused on spices. Because the owners of E & S buy in bulk, they sell at those prices. I bought all these spices for what I would have spent on a few small containers at the grocery store. 

I’ll put them in my freezer and replenish my smaller containers when I need to.

I’m not sure I’ll ever have to buy spices again…

And, by the way, the next generation of Eash’s has started another business right next to E & S – Ben’s Bakery. Don’t get me started on that one!