This is a great recipe for a quick and easy lunch, especially if you make your broth ahead of time and freeze it and the meat.  One package of our inexpensive chicken frames is all that is needed to make this dish.  We add the meat back into the soup to make it more filling.  Add a fresh side salad or humus wrap for a delicious meal.

Directions:

1. Place chicken frames into stock pot and cover with water.  Bring water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 2-3 hours until stock is consistency you prefer.  Cover with a lid and vent slightly.
2. Remove frames from stock pot and let cool in 13×9 pan.  Stir the salt, ginger, chives and carrot (if desired) into the chicken broth, and bring to a rolling boil.
3. While mixture is coming to a boil, remove meat from chicken frames and set aside.  This may take 10-15 minutes, and it is easiest to use your fingers.  One package of chicken frames should yield 1-1.5lbs of meat if you are diligent in removing all of it.
4. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks together using a fork. Drizzle egg a little at a time from the fork into the boiling broth mixture. Egg should cook immediately. Once the eggs have been dropped, stir in the meat if desired and serve hot.

I’ve had several people ask for this, so here goes. Now, this is based on another recipe I found but I only use the salt, sugar and spices portion of it since we deep fry our bird in 100% peanut oil. I leave out the aromatic stuff since we are after more of a true salt brine. Scale this up for a bird bigger, ours is only 12lbs.

• 2 TSP Ground Cinnamon
• 2 TSP Ground Mustard Seed
• 2 TSP Whole Black Peppercorn
• 2 Cups Redmond Mineral Salt
• 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar
• 6 Quarts of Water

In a stock pot, place cinnamon, mustard seed and peppercorns and toast over a low heat until you can smell them in the room (about 5 minutes). Then add half of the water, salt and sugar. Raise heat and dissolve sugar and salt completely and let seasonings meld together. Then remove from heat and add other half of water. Let cool at least 4 hours, but overnight is better. Then, brine your bird for 24 hours!

If you are roasting your bird, you might want to add the more traditional aromatic ingredients like sage, rosemary, thyme, onion, garlic, carrot, lemon, etc. But for a deep fried bird which is tradition in our house, the above is the only way to go!

If you didn’t get one of our turkeys this season then you’re not going to get to enjoy the flavor and benefits that were mentioned in a recent NUVO article that featured Darby and his pastured raised poultry.

“The taste and quality are absolutely amazing,” says Darby Simpson of Simpson Family Farm in Martinsville. Because the animals live and eat in natural conditions and eat grasses as well as grains, which are often organically grown or custom blended by the farmer, their meat has more flavor. And because the animals actually get to move around and use their muscles, the meat is tender but firm. Simpson says that the turkey, of all animals, demonstrates the starkest difference between “an industrially-raised animal and a pastured local animal.”

Be sure and put a reminder on your calendar to catch us next year when we start taking pre-orders again.

If you did grab one of our turkeys this season, we’d love to know what you thought. Come back and leave us a comment and share on our Facebook Page.

And, remember we’ve got more of where that came from! Check-out our other locally raised, authentic meats:

• Pastured Poultry
• Pastured Pork
• Pastured Beef