Buttermilk Baked Chicken Recipe with Side Dishes

Buttermilk Baked Chicken Served with Rhubarb Apple Sauce and Sauteed Spinach

I recently found a recipe in Joy of Cooking (the first cookbook my mother ever gave me, because it served her so well over the years) for a Yogurt or Buttermilk Marinade. It makes a wonderful chicken dinner, the remaining marinade is heated through to serve as a hot sauce on the chicken.

This easy dinner with two side dishes is a typical meal around our home. Whole ingredients, simply combined, and served piping hot in a casual setting. I have included the side dish recipes so you see how I tend to do things at the Hartke Lighthouse (our home is a sixteen sided oval home on a lake, so we dubbed it The Lighthouse).

It was a stormy night, and golf ball sized hail fell into the lake, just as we were sitting down to dinner in our screened in porch. This oven baked chicken dish is a wonderful cook-inside, eat outside dinner for inclement weather. And with the dramatic storm, it turned out to be exciting and romantic all at the same time.

The marinade recipe is so simple.

Buttermilk Marinade and Sauce

2 cups yogurt or buttermilk

2  fresh garlic cloves, chopped fine

Season to taste with sea salt, black pepper

Other seasoning options: curry powder or cinnamon or  ginger or cardamom

Add chicken pieces and marinade for a few hours. When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove chicken with tongs and place pieces on a broiler pan, reserving marinade for sauce.  Bake the chicken until clear liquid pours out when poked with a knife, about 40-45 minutes.

In a small saucepan, heat the marinade until just before the boiling point. It should be steaming hot. We use pasture-raised chicken meat in our household so there is not the “fear” of pathogens from raw chicken, but it is still a good precaution to make sure the marinade is heated for food safety reasons. Bad bacteria are very heat sensitive.

Serve with the chicken a small pitcher or bowl with a pour spout.

Rhubarb-Apple Sauce

Rhubarb Apple Sauce

4 stalks Rhubarb rinse and chop into 2 inch pieces

2 apples, peeled and chopped into large chunks

1 TBL Coconut sugar or 1 TBL maple syrup or stevia (to taste) to sweeten

I use a water-less electric skillet for making fruit sauces.  You could use a double boiler or slow cooker, and may want to add a little water (2-3 TBL?) to prevent sticking. Add the above ingredients and simmer until mushy, about 10 minutes. Remove to a bowl and chill or serve warm or room temperature.

Sauteed Spinach

Since the marinade and sauce have a lot of garlic in them, I sauteed fresh spinach in bacon drippings left over from the morning breakfast (often I saute garlic with the spinach, but not this time). This takes less than 6 minutes to cook and add to the plate. Spinach is so nutritious, and my Popeye loves it!

1 bunch spinach, washed, stemmed, chopped into 2 inch pieces

1 TBL bacon grease (Left over from cooking Home Cured Bacon)

Brush bacon grease over the bottom of a deep saute pan. Saute bacon until it is wilted and cooked through, stirring often. About 6 minutes. Serve immediately.

Stormy Weather Romantic Cook-in and Eat Out

Sourcing Local Ingredients

All of these ingredients were purchased from local farmers. So, now you know how a food blogger lives and eats! My motto? Keep it Simple, Fresh and Local!

Please support your local farmers market. Your farmers are waiting to serve you!

Here is a blog post I did a while back, which explains the economic boon local foods are to a state economy.

Kimberly Hartke blogs about raw milk, real food and the local foods movement at Hartkeisonline.com. Subscribe to her blog today for the latest scoop and delicious home recipes!