Recipes

GRASS BAKED CHICKEN

With Vegetables, Black Truffles & Huckleberry Sauce
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 bone in chicken

4 cups diced vegetables (carrots, leeks, celery, turnips)

2T olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

1 lb. assorted grasses (rye, alfalfa, wheat), dampened with water

½ pint chicken stock

2T shallots, finely diced

1 tsp garlic, peeled and chopped

½ cup red wine

3 oz wild black huckleberries

2 oz. butter

½ cup peeled onion, diced

½ cup white wine

1 oz black truffles

METHOD

Toss one cup of vegetables in one tablespoon of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Fill chicken cavity with the vegetables.

Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add remaining oil and sear each quail, quickly browning the breast and legs. Remove from heat and cool.

Place the chicken on a baking dish and wrap loosely with the damp grasses but do not tie. Most of the grass will naturally fall off during baking.

In the same skillet, sauté the shallots and garlic. Do not brown. Add the red wine and the huckleberries and reduce by half volume. Add the chicken stock and reduce again by half. Keep warm.

Warm a sauté pan and add the butter, melting slowly. Add the onion and remaining vegetables and sauté lightly. Add white wine and shaved black truffles. Cook until tender.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Place the baking dish with the grass wrapped chicken in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove remaining grasses from the chicken. Carefully slice breast and leg meat from bones. Arrange on warm dinner plates with the truffles and vegetables.

Pour huckleberry sauce over the chicken and garnish with grass stems.