Chicken is such a versatile protein but many people aren’t used to cooking a whole chicken and it can be a little intimidating at first. So I thought that today I would share some of my favorite ways to use a whole chicken!

When I cook a whole chicken I almost always do it one of two ways. I either cook it in the crockpot for 8 hours on low OR more recently, I have been spatchcocking my chickens. Spatchcocking requires that you be present during the whole cooking time because you are using the oven BUT it takes about 5 minutes of prep and then the next 45 minutes is hands off while the chicken roasts in the oven. I usually end up doing household chores or hanging with the kids. Both are things that I don't do nearly enough of so it's a good change of pace. 

Either way, I use the cooked chicken in all the same ways. Our first meal from a chicken is often chicken with seasonal veggies. Potatoes & carrots are a common side because they store so well and so I often have them on hand. If I crockpot the chicken, then I throw the carrots and potatoes in with the chicken or if I am spatchcocking then I roast the carrots and potatoes on a separate baking sheet.

After meal #1, I debone the chicken and put the remaining meat in the fridge in an airtight container. Don’t toss the bones! If I have time, after deboning, I put the bones in a stockpot along with herbs and whatever spare veggies I have on hand. Then I add water until it covers the bones and bring the pot to a simmer. If I don’t have time right away, then I store the bones in the fridge in an airtight container until the next day. I like to start the broth cooking when I start supper preparations and let it simmer until about an hour before bed when I strain it into a glass jar and let it cool a bit before putting it in the fridge. Use within 2-3 days or freeze for later use.

We often get asked: can we grow our Lawn to Lunch veggies in a raised bed? 

 Absolutely!

In fact, raised beds are great for growing veggies!

With Operation: Lawn to Lunch we try to make gardening as accessible as possible! In our ground prep video we detail how to take a 4x8 piece of your yard and turn it into a garden using a shovel and cardboard because this is a cheap and relatively easy way to create a garden. And most people have access to a shovel and cardboard. However, growing in a raised bed may be easier for many people. Recently, I have learned of some creative, reasonably priced ways to create a raised bed and I want to share those with you today!

Why grow in raised beds? Well, a raised bed can mean less bending over – and that’s reason enough all by itself ;) Also, with a raised bed you fill it with your choice of soil mix and raised beds tend to be less compacted, drain better and even warm up a bit earlier in the spring. Raised beds can also offer definition to your garden space, less weeds and just plain be pretty to look at!

You can spend as much or as little as you want to make a raised bed. You can make a raised bed yourself out of wood, metal sheets or cinder blocks. Or you can buy premade beds or raised bed kits! More recently, I have learned that you can buy fabric raised garden beds or you could even use a debris bag which can be found at home improvement stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Things to keep in mind when building or buying a raised bed:

• Height: to decrease bending over and/or to be accessible to a wheelchair user, the recommended height is 30-33” from the ground to the top of the bed. However, your raised bed can be as little as 6-12 inches high and still be an effective growing space.
• The bed needs to be able to drain – if you use something with a solid bottom like a stock tank, you will need to drill holes in the bottom so excess water can drain out. *pro tip: if you are making or buying an elevated bed that sits on legs, you can line the bottom of the bed with landscaping fabric before filling it to allow water to drain while keeping the soil in place J
• Chemically treated or ‘green’ lumber can leach chemicals – we recommend untreated lumber even though it will have to be replaced more often OR Cedar as cedar is naturally rot resistant
• Soil in raised beds:
  • When I fill my raised beds I like to use ½ soil and ½ compost. You can also add vermiculite or a bit of sand to help with drainage if your soil tends toward clay like ours does. I have found a good compost to be enough to equal out even our clay soil though.
  • For a 8’x4’x12” raised bed, you will need 32 cu yards of soil/compost mix.

If you are filling a 33” tall raised bed you may want to consider using the Hugelkultur method which utilizes several layers including cardboard and sticks and logs in the bottom, plant material in the middle and soil/compost mix in the top of the bed. The bottom and middle layers then slowly compost over time. Hugelkultur has many benefits including saving on soil/compost when you initially fill the bed. You can read more about this process here: https://vegogarden.com/blogs/academy/how-to-fill-raised-garden-beds-and-save-money

One more thing to consider when growing in a raised bed is that they may require more water than an ‘in-ground’ garden. This is especially true of raised beds that sit on legs or stilts.

After that, growing in a raised bed is very similar to growing in the ground!

Let's get growing!
​
Emily & Nathan

P.S. to learn more about Operation: Lawn to Lunch or to get signed up head over to our Lawn to Lunch information page!

Lamb was not a common dish in my house growing up. In fact, it wasn't a dish at all. So I have had fun learning to cook and enjoy lamb over the last few years. 
At first, cooking lamb was intimidating. But only because I had heard over and over again that lamb was tricky to cook. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not. Lamb absolutely CAN be easy to cook. Yes, even a leg of lamb! To help you with your next Leg of Lamb (or perhaps your first ;) I am sharing my favorite recipe, Buttermilk Leg of Lamb

Having a garden that you can easily reach the middle of without having to enter the growing area, also means that your garden will have less (or no!) compaction. Compaction is one of the leading problems in home gardens. Compacted soil makes it harder for roots to grow and for water to soak into the soil. Did you know that the human foot applies the same amount of pressure to the soil as a tractor tire?! So every step we take in the garden has a significant impact!
 
Smaller gardens also mean the garden can oftentimes be placed closer to your house where you will see it every day.  Most of us are much more likely to tend to a garden that is in our regular line of sight. We are also much more likely to enjoy our gardens when we see them regularly.  
 
And finally, less empty space = less weeds to pull. And who wants to spend more time pulling weeds?! In addition to being smaller, square foot gardens are planted in such a way that the vegetable plants themselves quickly shade out those ornery weeds!

To register for an Operation: Lawn to Lunch Garden Kit including videos on key gardening topics, click here.

This is one of my most requested recipes. And that makes sense because honestly this is a super simple dish that packs a 1, 2 punch with both flavor and a it's packed full of veggies! I also love that this dish is super adaptable too. The recipe calls for ground pork but I have also used ground lamb as well as left over pork roast and leftover carnitas. So, without further ado ... 

Egg Roll in a Bowl
​Ingredients
1 lb ground pork
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium head cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons sriracha
1 egg
1 tablespoon sesame oil*
2 tablespoons sliced green onions
 
Brown pork. Add minced garlic and sautee until fragrant. Add the cabbage, carrots, soy sauce  & ginger. Sautee until cabbage & carrots are tender. Reduce heat to low. Make a well in the center of skillet and add the egg and scramble it. When egg is cooked thoroughly, stir in sriracha. Drizzle with sesame oil & sprinkle with green onions.

Yep, It's really that easy!
Enjoy!
Emily

Welcome! Today’s post is about the anxieties or mental roadblocks that might keep you from cooking a whole chicken and how to deal with those roadblocks. This post is co-authored by Vera Petersen. Vera is a License Mental Health Counselor from Exira, Iowa. She primarily works with clients who are experiencing anxiety, life transitions, and trauma. I reached out to Vera because this is such an important topic and I knew she would have great tips!
 
The idea for this post came about when I was talking with a valued friend and customer one day about the challenges or mental roadblocks that can come up when thinking about cooking a whole chicken. Or, honestly, any larger cut of meat. My friend admitted that although she loves our chickens once they are cooked, she has anxiety about cross contamination when cooking raw meat and also feels anxious about over cooking and possibly ‘ruining’ a WHOLE chicken. And that it’s hard to get over that ‘hump’ to actually start the cooking process.
And the thing is, I feel some of these anxieties at times myself and I’m sure a lot of other people do to. Soo, in addition to some of my own tips, I thought it would be really helpful to have professional input. And I am so very grateful that Vera agreed to contribute to this post!
 
To start, I think it helps to have a basic understanding of how to cook/handle raw meat and specifically a chicken. For a specific cooking method called ‘Spatchcocking’ check out my video: How to Spatchcock a Chicken

As with any cooking, it helps to prepare yourself and your kitchen before you even take the chicken out of the fridge. Vera says “When it comes to anxiety in the kitchen, a way to begin building trust with yourself would be to read a recipe through several times. It is also helpful to establish your “mise en place”, a French culinary term for preparing your pans, bowls, and ingredients ahead of time before you even start cooking. Knowing how your recipe works beforehand can help settle some anxiety and allow room to build trust with yourself.”
 
I would suggest making sure you have a clear counter space to work on, preferably close to the sink for easy hand washing. Before doing anything else, place your trash can next to your workspace so you can place the chicken packaging directly into the can after removing it from the chicken. It is also helpful to keep disinfecting wipes close by. Keep them open and ready to use! Because you are close to the sink, any utensils used can go directly in the sink when done with them. If you will be using any seasonings, pre-measure them into a bowl that can be easily washed so you don’t have to touch the containers with messy hands. This may feel awkward at first but after some practice, you will develop a routine that minimizes mess and therefore chances for cross contamination.
 
Vera shares that “Another way to build trust may include taking cooking classes. Community colleges often have non-credit classes for the public to take during an evening. Metropolitan Community College in Omaha often hosts specific classes about knife skills or cooking poultry. This classroom experience allows a space where you can feel safe to ask questions (because you will not be the only person with that question) and practice with the guidance of an experienced educator”
 
And “Possibly the scariest [but still effective]  way to build trust would be to learn to practice on your own. For this, work on using rationalization. Your dish most likely will not be perfect the first time and possibly not the second or third time either. Let go of the ideal perfect outcome as even the best chefs have had moments of overcooked or ruined chicken. It is a great learning experience!”
 
Finally, Vera adds “One of the biggest culprits of low self-confidence in the kitchen would be anxiety and it’s power to self-sabotage. Remind yourself, anticipatory anxiety can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, replace these negative thoughts with positive affirmations such as “I can learn from this”, “I am smart”, “I can do hard things”, or “I did the best I could.””
 
As for me, my last bit of advice is to familiarize yourself with different ways to check your chicken or other cuts of meat for ‘doneness’ as well as what ‘done’ means. There are cues such as smell, color of the skin and of course the old ‘when juices run clear’ and those are all valuable indicators, however these can be highly subjective and so I recommend using a meat thermometer. According to the USDA, Chicken is ‘done’ when the thickest part of the breast, and innermost part of the thigh and wing read 165F*. It’s worth noting that meat does NOT stop cooking the second you remove it from the oven. In fact, it will continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes. This means that even if you remove the chicken from the oven a degree or two shy of 165, the meat will finish cooking. And regardless of what temperature you remove the chicken from the oven, ‘tenting’ your chicken with tin foil and allowing it to rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting will allow the juices to settle and leave you with a juicier/tastier chicken.
Like most things, you can get a whole spectrum of meat thermometers – all the way up to thermometers that stay in the bird in the oven and send a signal to your phone when it reaches a pre-determined temperature. Honestly, I use a very basic, no frills meat thermometer but it’s nice to know that there are more specific tools out there too!
 
I hope this article has given you some ideas to help quell kitchen related anxieties! I want this blog as a whole to be helpful to you and so if you have any questions or things you would like me to write about, reach out via email brunkofarm@gmail.com. I can’t guarantee I will have all the answers or be able to get to all the requests but I do want to make sure I write about topics (and offer products) that are interesting and relevant to my followers <3
​
Thank you for reading and a huge thanks again to Vera for co-authoring this post. See Vera’s full bio below. We are lucky to have such a great mental health professional practicing in our small community!

​Emily + Vera

*There are a few poultry ‘doneness’ guidelines floating around out there and that can be confusing but this is the most current – see references below
 
https://www.thekitchn.com/the-right-internal-temperature-for-cooked-chicken-quick-kitchen-facts-216074
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2006/04/usda-165-degrees-magic-number-safe-poultry

To order whole or cut up chickens visit www.brunkofarm.com/chicken  
 ​

​If you follow us on Facebook, you have probably seen some pictures of beautifully delicious but oddly presented chickens. Those odd but delicious looking chickens look odd because they have been spatchcocked.

Spatchcocking is my favorite way to cook poultry and I’m here to shout it from the rooftops!

WHY spatchcock a chicken?? Because it results in the juiciest, tastiest chicken you will EVER eat. Also, it decreases the cooking time. And honestly, it’s super simple so I think the real question is why not?

Because learning to spatchcock a chicken totally changed my take on chicken, I made a short video to show you exactly how to do it so you can enjoy roasted chicken every bit as much as I do!

TL:DR thaw your chicken overnight in the fridge, remove backbone using sharp kitchen shears, lay chicken flat in a roasting pan and allow to sit at room temp for 30 minutes. Bake at 425F for approximately 45 minutes. Remove from oven at 162F and allow to rest 10-15 minutes to finish cooking. Enjoy fabulous, juicy, tender, chicken!

And don't forget to order your cage free, home grown chickens here!

​Ready to try spatchcocking a chicken yourself?? Order whole or cut up chickens here: www.brunkofarm.com/chicken

Do you dream of stocking your freezer with cage free, locally raised chicken but your just not sure how to cook a whole chicken? 

I can help with that! There are so many ways to cook a whole chicken that I'm confident we can find something that suites your needs/skill level!

Here we go..

1. Crock Pot
The absolute easiest way to cook a whole chicken (and my go to method for YEARS) is to simply throw that baby in the crockpot. Take your chicken out of the freezer 1-2 days ahead of time and allow to thaw in the fridge. On your chosen cooking day, simply place in the crockpot with a half cup of water or chicken broth and cook on low for 8 hours. You can rub any kind of seasoning on the outside of the chicken that you like. I suggest something with sage or lemon. YUM! 

2. Spatchcocking
Spatchcocking may sound odd but it is my new favorite way to cook a chicken. If you want a fool proof, tender, delicious chicken this is absolutely the way to go! For an extra moist chicken, try out dry brining.

To spatchcock a chicken, cut out the backbone and lay the chicken flat as pictured to the right. You may need to use a little pressure to crack the breast bone but not much. Spatchcock and let the chicken sit at room temperature for about an hour before cooking. Roast the chicken at 425F until the thermometer reads 157-160F.  At this time, remove chicken from the oven and allow it to rest for 15-20 minutes before carving. The chicken will continue to cook during the resting time and the temperature will increase by about 10F.
Optionally, if you are good at planning ahead, spatchcock & dry brine/season the chicken 12-24 hours prior to cooking for optimum flavor and extra crispy skin. How do you dry brine a chicken? Simply salt the chicken all over and let rest in the fridge uncovered* for 12-24 hours. You will use about 4-6TBSP salt. 

*yes you read that right uncovered!

There is nothing better than a juicy, flavorful pulled pork sandwich. And this recipe is as simple as it gets!

Creole Pulled Pork
Ingredients                                        

• pork roast, (any pork roast works well for this including fresh ham roast,         shoulder roast, and loin ... I've even used 4 or 5 shoulder steaks in a pinch
• olive oil
• creole seasoning (we like Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning**)

 
Directions

• Use a knife to pierce the roast all over
• Drizzle roast with olive oil
• Use your fingers to rub seasoning into the roast
• Allow to marinate overnight in an airtight container (optional)
• Put roast & 2 inches of water into crock pot and cook on low for 10-12 hours
• Remove any bones and shred pork into the juices

Serving Suggestion: This pulled pork really shines when served on an English muffin with a dill pickle and creamy grits on the side
 
 **Don't have creole seasoning on hand? The following creole seasoning recipe is from Tony Chachere's cookbook. You will only need a fraction of this so consider cutting the recipe down. Or, don't. It's a versatile seasoning and I'm sure you find many ways to use it in your cooking.  We also particularly like this seasoning on fried potatoes and chicken.

• 26-ounces Morton's free flowing salt
• 1 1/2 ounces ground black pepper
• 2-ounces ground red pepper
• 1-ounce pure garlic powder
• 1-ounce chili powder