Revising an old recipe

In my disorganized collection of recipes, I finally found one I was looking for recently: A baked chicken dish with a "barbecue" sauce. The problem is, I'm working from a photocopy of a handwritten recipe that was given to me some time in the mid-70s. (No guesses as to what my age might be from that factoid, please! )

While the chicken-baking instructions are clear, I'm having difficulty making out the sauce ingredients, as the copy has faded over time. ( tried scanning it and playing with the contrast, but didn't have any luck.)

Below are the ingredients as best I can determine; do the proportions sound right, particularly the Worcestershire sauce? Or, does anything seem out of whack for a recipe prepared today? I'm not sure when my stepmother developed this recipe (at least, I don't think it came from a cookbook), so actual provenance is hard to say. Is there anything you would add? In reviewing it while writing it down here, it does seem to me to be screaming out for some molasses.

As always, any thoughts/advice are much appreciated!

Marie's Barbecue Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. canned tomato juice
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. powdered mustard
4 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. salt
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. pepper (I think -- very hard to make out the writing)
3/4 c. cider vinegar
3 peeled garlic cloves, cut in pieces
3 Tbls. butter or "oleo"

Procedure:
Simmer all ingredients 10 minutes.

well, if you're sure you've got all the ingredients listed, this should be easy to deal with. start with 2t.worcestershire, if you think you have the quantity wrong, though 41/2t. doesn't sound outside the realm of possibility. 1/4 t. pepper sounds fine. i'd also cook it more like 30 minutes the first time so you can add more worcestershire at the end (and possibly a pinch more sugar to counter all the vinegar). since it'll be cooking longer on top of the chicken, it'll mellow out more in the oven. but cooking it longer on the stove won't hurt it at all (as long as you don't boil all the liquid away ), and it'll taste closer to the finished sauce. hope this helps....

It seems like it will turn out okay. You could always add a dash of something more to taste like adding a spoonful of brown sugar or a dash more of pepper if you like it zippy. Also the sauce may turn out on the thin side given its made from tomato juice rather than tomato sauce.

Starting out with 2 t. of Worcestershire sauce certainly sounds like a very reasonable way to go -- thanks! I do think I will simmer it longer than 10 minutes, and I am going to melt the butter first on med. heat and bloom the spices and garlic in it before adding the rest of the ingredients.

(I did pull out my magnifying glass to double-check the ingredient list, so I did get all of them included.)

Toria, I can't help myself -- I am going to have to add just a bit of molasses to the sauce. That should also help thicken it a bit.

Good idea. That will give it more tang too.

I'm with toria: this sounds awfully thin. The tomato juice could probably be replaced with puree, and for folks other than GWiv, 1tsp of sugar is pretty low.

With only 1/4 tsp of cayenne and mustard, I'm wondering though if the 1.5C of tomato juice should be tablespoons? Then, the rest of the ingredients might work... except then you really have too much worcestershire and cider vinegar.

Considering the OP's sig reference to UNC, I am assuming that this recipe was thought up by a Tarheel, or at least someone from the Carolinas. BBQ sauce is much, MUCH different back there. Here's an unembellished Piedmont BBQ sauce recipe from an old issue of Bon Appetit. Note the HUGE amount of vinegar in proportion to the rest of the ingredients.

sundevilpeg wrote:Considering the OP's sig reference to UNC, I am assuming that this recipe was thought up by a Tarheel, or at least someone from the Carolinas.

I had the same thought as SDP. I'd peg it, no pun intended, as mid-western NC due to the amount of tomato and scant sugar in the sauce.

I'd be interested in seeing the complete chicken/sauce recipe.

Thanks,
Gary

My stepmother Marie would be stomping up and down if she could hear y'all say you thought this sauce recipe had its roots in North Carolina cooking, and particularly North Carolina BBQ ... she was from Italy, spent her formative and young-adult years in New York City, then moved to Birmingham, Alabama, which she always felt was "home." I am chuckling because we used to have heated "discussions" over which state had the better barbecue -- Alabama or N.C. You can probably guess which side of the line I fell on ...

I did add some molasses to the sauce, and my husband wanting to know what smelled so good while it was simmering. So we shall see what comes of this!

Any suggestions on how to improve the entire recipe are quite welcome; I won't do the actual cooking until early Saturday afternoon. I've printed it below (I typed it out from the handwritten copy I had). I'm a little concerned that the skin will not be tasty with the method outlined below, and the cooking time might also be too long for today's chickens. Thoughts?

Special note to GWiv: I know, the best/tastiest way to do this would be to cook the birds on the grill, but it's not an option tomorrow.

Thanks, everyone!
Sharon

Baked Barbecue Chicken
(Recipe from Marie Darling)

Ingredients:
2 fryers – cut in quarters
3 medium onions – sliced thinly
Salt and Pepper

Procedure:
Arrange chicken in a single layer – skin-side up – in a roasting pan.
Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
Pour in enough hot water to cover bottom of pan – no more.
Add sliced onions – tuck some under the wings and legs.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and turn chicken pieces over.
Return to oven and bake another 30 minutes.

When fryers have baked for 1 hour, remove from oven and pour off all but ¾ cup of the liquid in the bottom of the pan. Turn fryers skin-side up and pour barbecue sauce over all.

Return fryers to oven; bake 1 hour longer or until a fork can be inserted easily into the leg part of each piece. During the last hour of baking, baste frequently with the sauce in the pan.

I would watch the amount of liquid in the pan...too much and you will end up with steamed or stewed chicken and too little it could burn. I am not a fan of chicken skin especially if its not fried crisp or grilled outside and charred even then I would rather pass so I would also watch and guard against limp baked chicken skin.

i have almost this exact recipe that i got from my italian mother-in- law. the only difference being her recipe calls for 2 cans of tomato sauce and 1 can of water, and 2 bay leaves. all the other amounts are exactly the same. also, there is no vinegar in her recipe. i cook the chicken and onions, and a little water for about a half hour while i prepare the sauce and let it simmer. then i pour the sauce over it and continue cooking for another half hour or 45 minutes. my kids love this with the sauce and onions over mashed potatoes. the skin doesn't get crispy but we usually don't eat it anyway. i might make this tonight.

abolt wrote:i have almost this exact recipe that i got from my italian mother-in- law. the only difference being her recipe calls for 2 cans of tomato sauce and 1 can of water, and 2 bay leaves. all the other amounts are exactly the same. also, there is no vinegar in her recipe. i cook the chicken and onions, and a little water for about a half hour while i prepare the sauce and let it simmer. then i pour the sauce over it and continue cooking for another half hour or 45 minutes. my kids love this with the sauce and onions over mashed potatoes. the skin doesn't get crispy but we usually don't eat it anyway. i might make this tonight.

Thanks, abolt! This is very helpful to know. Perhaps the cider vinegar addition was the Southern influence on my Italian stepmother?

This is one of the dishes I am making referenced in the thread "good one-dish meals to freeze and reheat:"
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=16005

A friend is in the hospital for surgery/recovery for a solid week, so I am preparing a few meals for her husband and two boys (don't want her husband to have to have to think or fuss about preparing food when he has so many other things going on right now). The family will get mac 'n cheese to "go with" the chicken, as that is the oldest's favorite thing in the world to eat, his mom says. I think here at the Bond house we will have our half of the finished product with mashed potatoes, as you describe, since I have some left over from last night.

I am getting very hungry!

I'm replying to myself in case anyone is interested in how the chicken turned out ...

I got an email from my friend; they were having some of the chicken the other night, and her youngest son reported that "this is the best chicken I've ever had in my life!" (He is 6 or 7 years old.)

With that high praise, I am a very happy cook.

Hi,

I hope you ate some of your chicken? How did your prep compare with your memories of this dish?

I am going to have try this and some of the other variations found on the internet.

Thanks for including us in your time traveling recipe investigation.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I hope you ate some of your chicken? How did your prep compare with your memories of this dish?

I am going to have try this and some of the other variations found on the internet.

Thanks for including us in your time traveling recipe investigation.

Regards,

Hi Cathy,

We did, indeed, enjoy the chicken -- three times, in fact! The inside of the meat was tender and moist, and I was able to crisp the skin up by making sure it was above the liquid level in the pan. What I can't figure out for the life of me, though, is why the flavor of the chicken turned out very mild. It was as if all the "tang" from the tomato juice, cider vinegar and cayenne, among other ingredients, baked right out of it!

Maybe someone who knows more about what happens to certain ingredients when they are baked can posit a theory as to why. From what I remember enjoying as a teen on a visit to see my dad and Marie, the chicken was tangy, which is probably why I liked it so much and why dad photocopied the recipe for me.

The sauce did sit in the fridge from late Friday evening until Sunday evening, but I thought that would meld the flavors further, not make them dissipate. So I am puzzled! Having said all that, I would recommend the recipe, and do plan on making it again.

(I had actually used a similar baking method recently for a recipe I found online that used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and it came out quite tasty, by the way, so using butter, onions and water definitely works!)

Thanks for asking!

Sharon

Cookbook of Unknown Ladies dating back to 1690 reveals gluttonous recipes of cow heel and veal kidney florentine