Category: Dinner Recipes

Flank Steak with Horseradish Sauce

This flank steak recipe, with a brown sugar marinade, is pretty much a Saturday night staple at The Farm. And paired with the horseradish sauce, it’s just the best!

If you’ve stayed at The Farm, then maybe you’ve heard my dad, Jim, say in a serious voice, “I’ve been up since early this morning and cooking all day long.” You’ll see him smile a little then and dart his eyes toward my mom Helen, who is now pounding the bread dough into the counter a little harder than need be. I think he does it just to get a rise out of her, but when it comes to this dish, my dad does pitch in with grilling and slicing. 

This steak is the best when grilled, which is the reason Jim volunteered for the job. He likes cooking outside. There is also a trick to slicing it right, so he’s also in charge of that. This recipe is the only one we all have a part in. Helen gets the meat ready. Jim grills and cuts it, and after he cuts it, I pick up the slices and place them in the serving dish.  

Why this Cut of Beef?

Helen uses this cut of beef based on a recommendation from her food salesman. She needed something that was like a round roast but could be made for anywhere from 4 to 50 people. The salesman recommended flank steak. It’s the best parts of a steak combined with the best parts of a roast. When we can, we serve our own flank steak from the beef cow herd we raise on our farm.

About the Horseradish Sauce

In the cookbook, we pair this beef recipe with a mushroom gravy. But if you come for dinner on The Farm now, we do a horseradish sauce instead.

About 3 or 4 years ago, Helen was looking for a prime rib recipe, and she stumbled upon a horseradish sauce recipe that sounded interesting to her.

My mom loves horseradish, and being 100% Czech, she grew up with it. I remember her parents (my grandparents) preparing the horseradish root for canning. They did this outside and used a huge, red grinder. As a kid, I couldn’t get within a city block from their operation without my eyes and nose starting on fire.

Because of her love of horseradish, Helen adapted the recipe she found to her liking and replaced the mushroom gravy with it. It’s a nice nod to her (and my) Czech heritage!

buying horseradish

For this recipe, you’ll need to find a prepared horseradish. You don’t want a sauce that has eggs, etc in it. The ingredients will be primarily grated horseradish root, vinegar, and salt. I’d never bought this before, so I had a hard time locating it. I had to call my mom, and she said that it’s usually found in the meat section of your grocery store in a refrigerated case. And that’s where I found it!

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STEPS: EXPLAINED, WITH TIDBITS AND ADVICE

1. Place a 2 pound flank stake in a shallow pan or plate.

2. To make the marinade, in a medium bowl, whisk together 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons onion powder, 2 teaspoons garlic, 1 teaspoon seasoned salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar.

3. Pour the mixture over the steak.

4. Flip the steak over a few times to make sure the marinade has fully covered both sides of the steak.

5. Let the steak sit in the marinade for 10 to 15 minutes, flipping a few times.

NOTE: If you are short on time or you are going to pan-fry your steak, you can do a dry rub instead of a marinade. Helen is a little worried the soy sauce will make it hard to brown the flank steak in the pan.

To make the dry rub, mix together 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, and 1 teaspoon brown sugar. Rub this spice mixture in both sides of the stake with your hand, working the spices into the meat. Immediately cook.  

6. While the steak is marinating, make the horseradish sauce.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup sour cream, 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish, 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt, and 3 tablespoons of minced chives or green onions.

7. Go ahead and taste it. If it needs more of anything to your liking, add more! But if you find you added too much of something, you can try adding more sour cream to chill out those intense flavors.

8. After the meat is done marinating, place it on a hot grill or in a hot cast iron frying pan.

If grilling, sear the steak on high for 5 minutes on each side. Then turn the grill down to medium and continue to cook for 10 minutes on each side or until desired doneness. 

If you can’t use a grill, heat a cast iron skillet or other heavy skillet on medium. Add about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Brown the flank steak 2 to 3 minutes per side.  Then, place the skillet in a 325 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until desired doneness.

NOTE: If you aren’t sure about the doneness, check the steak with a meat thermometer. For best results, the temperature should be between 140 to 150 degrees. 

9. Once the meat is cooked, let it rest for about 10 minutes or all the juices will run out. Cover it with foil to keep it warm. This particular cut of beef will be too tough if you don’t slice it correctly. You want to cut it into thin slices at a 45-degree angle across the grain. 

The salesman who tipped us off to flank steak had to teach Jim how to cut it. Here he is slicing beef this past holiday season.

Photo curtesy of one of our guests!

Serve beef with horseradish sauce! Enjoy 🙂

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Flank Steak with Horseradish Sauce

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Servings: 6 people

Ingredients

Flank Steak

  • 2 pounds flank steak
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil (if pan frying)

Marinade for Grilling

  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar

Dry Rub for Pan Frying

  • ¼ tsp seasoned salt
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp brown sugar

Horseradish Sauce

  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 3 tbsp prepared horseradish
  • 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • ½ tsp seasoned salt
  • 3 tbsp fresh or died chives or green onions

Instructions

Flank Steak

  • Place flank steak in a shallow pan or plate.
  • If grilling, in a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, garlic, seasoned salt, pepper, and brown sugar. Pour the mixture over the steak. Flip the steak over a few times to make sure the marinade has fully covered both sides of the steak. Let the steak sit in the marinade for 10 to 15 minutes, flipping a few times.
  • If pan frying, use a dry rub: to make the dry rub, mix together 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, and 1 teaspoon brown sugar. Rub this spice mixture in both sides of the stake with your hand, working the spices into the meat. Immediately cook.  
  • Grilling: After the meat is done marinating, place it on a hot grill or under broiler on high. Sear the steak on high for 5 minutes on each side. Then turn the grill down to medium and continue to cook for 10 minutes on each side or until desired doneness.
  • Cast Iron Pan: heat a cast iron skillet or other heavy skillet on medium. Add about a tbsp of vegetable oil.  Brown flank steak 2-3 minutes per side.  Then place the skillet in a 325° oven for 10-15 minutes or until desired doneness.
  • For best results, the internal temperature should be between 140° to 150°.
  • Once the meat is cooked, let it rest for about 10 minutes or all the juices will run out. Cover it with foil to keep it warm. This particular cut of beef will be too tough if you don’t slice it correctly. You want to cut it into thin slices at a 45-degree angle across the grain. 

Horseradish Sauce

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, prepared horseradish, balsamic vinegar, seasoned salt, and minced chives or green onions. Season to taste!

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Roasted Citrus Ham with Cheesy Potatoes and Green Beans

Because of the world pandemic we are all living through, Easter is going to be very different this year. While there is immense grief in not being able to gather and be with our faith communities and family, we still have food.

We can still fill our individual kitchens with the smells of Easter and celebration, and, in my case, learn how to make ham from my mother Helen, which wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t separated right now.

TIP: If you can’t be with the people who usually cook the family meal for this Holy week, ask them for their recipes. When else than in this moment in history would we have the time to learn recipes that are important to our family traditions!

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A note on soda

A vintage American ad. The Coca-Cola Company

As any typical Millennial who’s into the all-natural, local food movement and terrified of high-fructose corn syrup, I was real dubious when Helen told me that the ham glaze recipe called for either Coke or 7-up. I suspected that Coke was in this recipe because it had been written by the marketing department at Coca Cola.

So I looked it up, and it turns out, there is a solid reason for using soda in cooking. There are flavors used in soda that are hard to replicate and, apparently, Coke is a fantastic meat tenderizer. Helen said it would be fine to use an all-natural soda made with cane sugar. “What you want,” she said, “is the fizz and the sweetness, and if you have that, it’ll turn out just fine.”

A note on canned cream of chicken soup

Another 1960’s-church-basement staple shows up in the Cheesy Potatoes recipe: cream of chicken soup. For some of you, this will be wonderful and nostalgic. For others, you’ll want to skip this recipe because it has canned soup. While I am as nostalgic as they come, I have to admit to being guilty for giving a hard pass to any recipe that calls for cream-of-anything from a can.

But instead of continuing to be a bit picky, I researched why this is a thing. I discovered that canned soup in recipes is just a shorthand or time saver for adding the ingredients in the soup to your recipe. If you don’t want to use packaged food, you can easily add all those things to the recipe from scratch if thats your thing.

I opted for buying Amy’s Cream of Mushroom Soup for this recipe (they were out of Cream of Chicken) because they don’t add MSG to their soup.

Jump to Recipe

STEPS: EXPLAINED, WITH TIDBITS AND ADVICE

This recipe is for a 5-7 pound ham labeled “Fully Cooked” or “Ready to Eat.”

NOTE: If you have a ham that’s labeled “Cook Before Eating,” the cooking time will be a little different, and the internal temperature needs to get up to 160 degrees.

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. The low heat keeps the ham from drying out. Place your ham in a roasting pan or a 9×13 cake pan on a rack. It’s important that the ham is raised up off the surface of the pan to cook properly.

2. Cover your ham with a lid or foil if your ham is in a cake pan. Place on the middle rack of your oven. Set your timer for 20 minutes.

NOTE: Cooking time will depend on the size of your ham. Here is a guide: allow 18 to 24 minutes per pound. The ham will be ready when the internal temperature reaches 140°F. 

3. Now, we’ll prepare the ham glaze. In a medium sauce pan, combine 1 can (12 oz.) Coke, 7-up, or your favorite soda of choice, 1 cup orange juice, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Stir to combine. Make sure you don’t stir away your carbonation.

Bring the glaze to a boil.

Once your glaze is simmering, taste it. If it’s too sweet, you can add water to dilute it a bit or if you want it more tangy, add some more orange juice. It will pick up lots of salt from the ham juices, so don’t worry if it’s mostly just sweet.

4. Once your ham timer goes off, pour the glaze over the ham, and return it to the oven.

NOTE: It’s best if the ham and the pan is heated up before you add the glaze. My ham was small, so I added the glaze after it had baked for 20 minutes, but if your ham is larger, it might take longer to heat up enough to put the glaze over it. Helen said that you should bake the ham with the glaze for at least an hour.

Once you add the glaze, you want to start basting your ham about every 15 minutes, so set another timer for that amount of time.

5. While your ham is cooking, we’ll start on the Cheesy Potatoes. The original recipe actually came from my mother-in-law, Joyce, from Iowa, though we’ve altered it slightly, like we do. 🙂

Chop up about 1/4 cup of onions into a very fine dice, pretty small so that they disappear into the dish.

6. Saute the onions with 4 tablespoons of butter in a large cast iron frying pan or any large pan over medium heat until the onions soften and become transparent.

7. Once your onions are ready, add 1 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 can of Cream of Chicken or Cream of Mushroom soup to your pan. If you are using your own soup, add about 10-11 fluid oz.

Whisk to combine and bring to a simmer. This should take about 5 minutes.

At this point, your 15-minute ham timer probably went off. Take your ham out of the oven and baste it with the juice from the bottom of the pan. I don’t have a baster, so it was a little tricky with the rack in there. I tried this brush, but it was too annoying. What I ended up doing is tipping the pan so the juices ran to one side, and then I used a measuring cup to scoop up the glaze and pour it over the ham.

Cover the ham and put it back in the oven. Repeat this step every 15 minutes until the ham reaches an internal temp of 140-150 degrees. Since my ham was 3 pounds, I knew it was going to take somewhere around 1 to 1.5 hours, so once I hit the one hour mark, I started checking the temperature every time I took it out of the oven to baste it.

NOTE from Helen: “If it gets a little crazy in your kitchen like it does in mine and you forget to baste it a few times, the ham will still turn out fine! Don’t worry too much about it.”

8. Back to the cheese sauce! Once your sauce is bubbling like this, it’s time to add the cheese.

Whisk in 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. If you want to get creative with your cheese choices, go for it!

9. Once your cheese is nicely combined into the sauce, it’s time to add the spices. Go easy on the salt at first in case your cheese or soup is on the salty side. I started with 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder.

Once you mix in your spices, give it a taste. Adjust the salt, cheese, pepper, and garlic level to your taste. If you want more tang, add more sour cream. Once you like the way it tastes, check the consistency. If the sauce is too thick, it will be hard to combine with the potatoes. It should be like a thicker gravy, which I’m hoping you can kind of see from this picture of how it pours off this spoon.

Mine was a little thick, so I added about 3 tablespoons of milk.

Then it was just right!

10. Dump 2 pounds of hash brown potatoes in a large bowl. If you bought them frozen, make sure they are thawed out. Then, dump the cheese sauce over the hash browns.

Mix them gently until all the potatoes are coated evenly with the sauce.

11. Coat a 9×13 cake pan with cooking spray or your favorite oil on a paper towel if you are out of cooking spray like I am.

12. Spread the potatoes evenly in the cake pan. Try not to pack them down too much. I shook the pan back and forth to get them even, sort of like you do with brownie mix.

13. Cover the potatoes with foil and put them in the oven with your ham.

Normally, these potatoes would be baked in a 350 degree oven, but they will do fine with the ham at 325. Bake them for about an hour or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

14. Now, it’s time to make the green beans.

NOTE from Helen:  “You often see these beans in the upper Midwest at any banquet meal. Plain green beans aren’t great unless they are right from the garden. There is nothing more boring than plain old ugly canned green beans, so I use frozen when I can’t get them fresh and add almonds and onions to add more flavor and color. These green beans are great with BBQ ribs, ham, or any of my fish dishes, which I think are complemented well by the green color.”

Clean your beans well and snap off the stems and any other dark spots. Fill a large pot with water and a dash of salt. Set it over high heat to boil.

15. In a small frying pan, sauté 1/2 cup diced onions and 1/4 cup almonds in 1 tablespoon olive oil until they are soft and translucent. 

16. Once the onions are soft, add 2 tablespoons butter and stir until melted. The butter is added later, so it doesn’t burn or disappear. We want there to be enough butter to coat the beans.

Once the butter is melted, take the pan off the heat, and set aside.

17. Once your water is boiling, add the beans. For frozen, bring them back to a boil and let them cook for 3 minutes. For fresh beans, boil for 5 minutes. 

18. Once your beans are done, drain them and add your almond, butter, and onion mixture plus 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt.

Mix until well combined and serve!

By now, your ham should be pretty close to being done. Once it’s at an internal temperature between 140-150 degrees, it’s ready to come out of the oven.

Let it rest on a cutting board, covered with foil, for 10 minutes before you cut it.

The absolutely best thing about this recipe is that you end up with all these yummy juices in the bottom of your pan, and unlike with a turkey or chicken, these juices are ready to serve as is. Though, you should taste it before you serve it, just in case something went wrong or it’s way too salty or something.

After your taste test, just pour the juices from the pan into a fussy little gravy boat like this one, because it’s Easter, and we’re celebrating!

Your potatoes should also be really close to done. Now is a good time, if you’d like, to take the foil off, and let them brown on top for about 15 minutes. Helen doesn’t do this, but I do! It’s your preference.

Once the potatoes temp at 160 or higher, they are done!

I had fresh parsley left over from the Chicken Soup recipe, so I chopped some up and sprinkled it on top for color. It’s ready to serve!

Once your ham has rested for about 10 minutes, it’s time to carve. My husband does that bit, so if you need carving tips, these people are smarter than me when it comes to ham carving!

Serve with some of the juices poured over the top and with our homemade mustard or apple sauce. Yum!

We at the farm wish you the best possible Easter during this strange time of seperation. We will get through this. Hang in there. Be well!

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Roasted Citrus Ham with Cheesy Potatoes and Green Beans

Cook Time3 hours
Total Time3 hours
Servings: 8 people

Ingredients

Citrus Ham

  • 5-7 pound ham, ready to eat
  • 1 can (12 oz.) Coke, 7-Up, or soda of your choice
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • mustard (optional for serving)
  • apple sauce (optional for serving)

Cheesy Potatoes

  • 2 pounds hash brown potatoes, fresh or thawed
  • 1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
  • ¼ cup onions, finely diced
  • 4 tbsps butter
  • 1¼ cup sour cream
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • ¼ cup milk
  • ½ tp seasoned salt
  • ¼ tp pepper
  • 1 tp garlic powder
  • parsley (optional)

Green Beans

  • 8 handfulls frozen or fresh whole green beans
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ cup diced onions
  • ¼ cup slivered almonds
  • 2 tbsps butter
  • ½ tp garlic powder
  • ½ tp seasoned salt

Instructions

Roasting the Ham

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place ham in a roasting pan or a 9×13 cake pan on a rack. Cover ham with a lid or foil if ham is in a cake pan. Place on the middle rack of your oven. Cooking time will depend on the size of your ham. Allow 18 to 24 minutes per pound. The ham will be ready when the internal temperature reaches 140°F to 150°F. 

Citrus Glaze

  • In a medium sauce pan, combine soda, orange juice, and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Make sure you don’t stir away your carbonation.
  • Bring the glaze to a boil.
  • Once glaze is simmering, taste it. If it’s too sweet, add water to dilute it. If it needs more tang, add orange juice. The glaze will pick up salt from the ham juices.
  • Take glaze off heat and set aside. Pour the glaze over the ham one hour before the ham is done roasting. Baste ham every 15 minutes with glaze until the ham is done.
  • Once the ham is done, let rest for 10 minutes before carving.
  • Pour glaze from pan into serving dish. Taste before serving. Glaze can be added at the table or sliced ham can be served in glaze.

Cheesy Potatoes

  • Saute the onions with butter in a large cast iron frying pan or any large pan over medium heat until the onions soften and become transparent.
  • Add sour cream and can of soup (10-11 fluid oz.) to your pan. Whisk to combine and bring to a simmer. This should take about 5 minutes.
  • Whisk in the shredded cheddar cheese until cheese is nicely combined into the sauce.
  • Whisk in the seasoned salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
  • Give it a taste. Adjust the salt, cheese, pepper, and garlic level to your taste. If you want more tang, add more sour cream.
  • Check the consistency. If the sauce is too thick, it will be hard to combine with the potatoes. It should be like a thicker gravy. If you think it's too thick, add 3 tablespoons of milk at a time until it's the right consistency.
  • Dump hash brown potatoes into a large bowl. Pour the cheese sauce over the hash browns. Mix them gently until all the potatoes are coated evenly with the sauce.
  • Coat a 9×13 cake pan with cooking spray or your favorite oil on a paper towel.
  • Spread the potatoes evenly in the cake pan.
  • Cover the potatoes with foil and bake in a 325-350° oven for 1 hour or until the temperature reaches 160°. If you'd like them more brown on top, remove the foil about 15 minutes before they are done baking.
  • Optional: add fresh or dried parsley to the top for color

Green Beans

  • Boil 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan with a dash of salt. Add the beans to the boiling water. For frozen, bring back to a boil and let cook for 3 minutes. For fresh beans, boil for 5 minutes. 
  • In a small frying pan, sauté the onions and almonds in the olive oil until they are soft and translucent. 
  • Add the butter to the pan and stir until melted. Take off the heat.
  • When beans are done, drain them. Add the butter mixture to the beans.  Then add the garlic and salt. Toss to evenly coat, and serve.

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Helen’s Baked Chicken and Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Intro: why this recipe

I don’t know about you but in light of what’s going on in our world right now, everything seems to take a bit more energy than it used to. That’s why we are starting with this recipe. It’s comforting, it’s simple, and the cook times (about 1 hour) give you space to catch up, empty the dishwasher, or help your child with homework, etc. That’s why it’s one of my (Anna) favorites!

Also, many of you requested Helen’s recipe for Chicken Soup with Potato Dumplings. In order to make that recipe, we need to make this one first!

A note on EFFICACY

My grandma Toinie never wasted anything in the kitchen. She used to make these casseroles where she’d mix together whatever vegetables, potatoes, and meat she had left over in the fridge, pour some gravy over it, cook it in the oven for one hour and serve it to whoever was around on The Farm that day for lunch. It sounds gross, but it was actually pretty good. Helen does similar things in her kitchen, but in a more sneaky way. That being said, if you plan to join us to make Chicken Soup with Potato Dumplings, be sure to:

  1. Make enough extra chicken so you have two cups of shredded meat left over
  2. Make enough mashed potatoes that you have 1 cup left over
  3. Save your potato water

How Helen came up with this recipe

Grandma Toinie never really put much on her chicken. She just baked it with some spices. My mother always breaded our chicken. She would dip it in egg and then in flour, fry it, and then finish it in the oven. I wanted something more like my mom’s chicken, but frying for that many people is too involved. Somewhere I read that I could just add spices to the flour, coat the chicken with it, and then bake the meat, brushing it halfway through. So I starting making it that way because it was the closest I could get to my own mom’s recipe. 

For the Mashed potatoes…I don’t remember. I used to put cream cheese in them, but that wasn’t very good. Don’t do that. Haha!

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Steps: Explained, with tidbits and advice

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees or 350 for a convection oven.

2. Trim extra skin and fat from 1 fryer pack or family pack of bone-in cut-up chicken (about 8 pieces of chicken.) Set aside. NOTE: This is a totally optional step. Skip it if it sounds obnoxious. Your dinner will not be ruined.

We always use bone in chicken for this recipes. You can chose whatever bone-in cuts are your favorite. I used thighs in this example. If you are going to make Chicken Soup, plan to have an extra 2 cups shredded chicken leftover.

3. In a medium bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, 1 tablespoon granulated garlic , 1 teaspoon seasoned salt, ½ teaspoon ground pepper, 1 teaspoon paprika. Mix thoroughly. NOTE: You can experiment with different spices or dried herbs in your flour mixture. I’d recommend Herbs De Provence or Old World seasoning. When Helen makes this chicken, she exclusively uses Old World plus the spices in this recipe, but we know not everyone can get Old World. Don’t stress. Your chicken will turn out great with just the spices in this recipe.

4. Grease a shallow baking pan or dish (a cookie sheet will work) that will fit all the chicken. Using a shallow pan will make the chicken brown more nicely than a pan with a higher side, but a 13×9 cake pan will work if that’s all you have. 

5. Coat chicken on all sides with flour mixture. It should be a light coating on each side. You don’t need a lot of the flour mixture.

Do one side.

Then, the other side. Don’t coat the chicken any more than that. When I’ve worked with my mom in the kitchen, I’ve gotten in trouble for coating the chicken with too much flour. Haha!

NOTE: If you let the chicken sit in the fridge for 60-90 minutes after flouring, it browns a little better. My mom is a throw-it-together-last-minute kind of cook, so she would NEVER do that. If you have the foresight, give it a try. 

Place the chicken in pan, skin-side up. 

The chicken should be packed tightly together. Really, I should have had one more thigh in this picture…but there’s a pandemic on so…. 😉

You want all the pieces nestled together as close as possible.

6. Put the chicken in the oven on the middle rack and bake. Set a timer for 30 minutes.

7. While the chicken is baking, it’s time to start your mashed potatoes! Peel, wash, and dice 3 pounds of russet potatoes (or whatever potatoes you can get.) NOTE: If you don’t have a scale, one pound of peeled, diced potatoes is about 2 1/4 cups. If you are planning to make Potato Dumplings for the Chicken Soup, make sure you have an extra cup of finished mashed potatoes left over.

For the dice size, it’s up to you. Helen dices her potatoes large (a little smaller than quarters), like in this photo, because she’s making a lot usually, and she says it’s too putzy to cut them smaller. The downside is that they will take longer to cook. I dice mine in 1 inch pieces because I’m usually just cooking for 2 people. The important thing is to make sure all the pieces are around the same size so they cook evenly.

8. Put the diced potatoes in a 5 quart sauce pan. Fill it with just enough water to completely cover the potatoes. Add 1/8 teaspoon salt to the water, cover the pot, and put on the stovetop on high to boil for 15-30 minutes depending on the dice size. Poke the potatoes with a fork or knife to check them. They are done when the knife slides in easily with no resistance. NOTE: Once the potatoes start boiling, if the lid is still on, the water will boil over, so don’t wander off too far from the kitchen. You don’t need the lid once the potatoes are boiling. Put it to the side because you’ll need it later to drain the potatoes.

9. This is a great time to consider your green vegetable side. I made broccolini because I think it’s tasty, but we don’t have a farm recipe for that. A simple lettuce salad or any green vegetable boiled, steamed, or roasted works great, especially of it’s smothered in butter! Since the oven is already on and it’s almost spring, try this asparagus recipe. It’ll come out fine in a 375 degree oven (might just take a little longer).

10. When your chicken timer goes off, pull the pan out of the oven. Use the pan drippings to brush all the chicken, making sure that any dry flour spots are covered. If there are no pan drippings, use olive oil to brush chicken.

In my example, I had some pan drippings for about half the chicken. Then, I had to bust out the olive oil.

When you’re done, you shouldn’t see any flour.

11. Sprinkle the chicken with all the spices you put in your flour mixture (garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika) until it “looks right.” I know. I try to think about it like this: how much salt, garlic, etc would I want in that one bite. It’s a medium sprinkle. NOTE: For those of you who bought the cookbook, this step got left out :0

Here’s my chicken after I added the spices. The good news is that once the chicken is done, you’ll know how you did. If it’s bland, add more spices during this step. If it’s aggressively salty/garlicky, hold back a little bit next time!

12. Bake for another 20-30 minutes or until meat thermometer registers at 165 degrees.

Aside from temperature, you know it’s done when it’s nice and crispy and brown.

13. Once your potatoes are done, use the lid to drain the water into a jar or other container. Let it cool a little while before storing it in the fridge, so it doesn’t heat up your fridge and cause your other food to spoil. Potato water has lots of uses. I want you to save it for the Chicken Soup recipe.

12. Once you’ve got your potato water sorted, it’s time to mash your potatoes. At The Farm, we do them in a mixer because it’s such a large quantity. At my home, I use a hand masher, and then a spoon to mix them once they are mashed. Sometimes, I also mash my potatoes with the pot on a burner set to low so that the add-ins don’t cool the potatoes too much. It’s up to you. At The Farm, the potatoes go from the mixer to a chafing dish and then back into a warm 200 degree oven until we are ready to serve.

Steamy! Whether I’m using a hand masher or mixer, I add 2 tablespoons of butter first, and then mash them. The important thing is to NOT over mash/mix them because your potatoes will turn starchy with a glue-like texture.

13. Once they are thoroughly mashed, gently mix in 1/2 cup milk, 1 tablespoon sour cream, 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. This is your starting point. Once that’s combined, taste it.

What do you think it needs?

After I added those things to my potatoes, they seemed dry to me, so I added another 1/2 cup milk and another tablespoon of butter. Then, I tasted them again. Because I added more milk and butter, I needed more sour cream, salt, and garlic because the liquids diluted the mixture. So I added more of those things. If you are nervous about overdoing it, go slow, adding a little at a time. This is a perfect moment to customize. I don’t like a lot of sour cream. My mom does. You might not want to taste the garlic out right or you might LOVE garlic and dump in a ton! Now’s your chance to play! And keep tasting as you go!

That’s better! It’s much more creamy, like I like!

14. Hopefully, your green vegetable worked out!

So how’d it go? Did you use different spices on your chicken? How did you customize your mashed potatoes? What was confusing? Do you have pictures? PLEASE SHARE! 🙂

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Helen’s Baked Chicken and Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 6
Author: palmquistfarm

Ingredients

Baked Chicken

  • 1 fryer pack or family pack of bone-in cut up chicken, about 8 pieces of chicken
  • 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp granulated garlic
  • 1 tp seasoned salt
  • 1 tp ground pepper
  • 1 tp paprika
  • 2 tbsp olive oil (maybe)

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

  • 3 lbs russet potatoes
  • ¼ to 2 tp salt
  • 2 to 4 tbsp butter
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 to 3 tbsp sour cream
  • ⅛ to 1 tp garlic powder

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees or 350 for a convection oven.
  • Trim extra skin and fat from chicken (optional) 
  • In a medium bowl, combine the flour, granulated garlic , seasoned salt, ground pepper, and paprika. Mix thoroughly.
  • Grease a shallow baking pan or dish (a cookie sheet will work) that will fit all the chicken. Using a shallow pan will make the chicken brown more nicely than a pan with a higher side, but a 13×9 cake pan will work if that’s all you have. 
  • Coat chicken on all sides with flour mixture. It should be a light coating on each side.
  • Place the chicken in pan, skin-side up. The chicken should be packed tightly together. 
  • Put the chicken in the oven on the middle rack and bake. Set a timer for 30 minutes.
  • While the chicken is baking, peel, wash, and dice potatoes 
  • Put the diced potatoes in a 5 quart sauce pan. Fill it with just enough water to completely cover the potatoes. Add ⅛ teaspoon salt to the water, cover the pot, and put on the stovetop on high to boil for 15-30 minutes depending on the dice size. Poke the potatoes with a fork or knife to check them. They are done when the knife slides in easily with no resistance. 
  • When your chicken timer goes off, pull the pan out of the oven. Use the pan drippings to brush all the chicken, making sure that any dry flour spots are covered. If there are no pan drippings, use olive oil to brush chicken.
  • Sprinkle the chicken with all the spices you put in your flour mixture until it “looks right.” I try to think about it like this: how much salt, garlic, etc would I want in that one bite. It’s a medium sprinkle.
  • Bake for another 20-30 minutes or until meat thermometer registers at 165 degrees. Aside from temperature, you know it’s done when it’s nice and crispy and brown.
  • Once your potatoes are done, use the lid to drain the water. Don't forget to save it!
  • Add the butter to the potatoes. Mash them with a hand masher or mixer until no lumps remain. Be careful not to overwork them or they will turn out gluey. If you want to keep them warm, mash them in the pot over a burner on low.
  • Once they are thoroughly mashed, gently mix in ½ cup milk, 1 tablespoon sour cream, ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder, and ⅛ teaspoon salt. This is your starting point. Once that’s combined, taste it. If they are dry, add more butter and milk. If you can't taste the salt, garlic or sour cream, add more of that. Do this little by little, and keep tasting until you've got it just the way you like it!

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