In addition to the semi-regular Friday Round Ups, I wanted to add another weekly post sharing a favorite recipe from the week. This felt especially timely since we’re rolling into baking season. Most recipes will be borrowed and not my own, but they’ll be tried and true with a few tips for baking success along the way. I’ll also throw in a few cocktail/ mocktail recipes as well.
This month I’ll focus on my favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Since Thanksgiving is looking like it'll be a small affair this year, it doesn't make much sense to cook tons of sides to go alongside a huge turkey. Instead, I've decided to make some of my favorite dishes to enjoy throughout the holiday season.
The first is a recipe I found from Rachel Ray many years ago for a fresh take on succotash. To be honest, I really didn’t know what succotash was before this recipe, but I guess it’s traditionally made with lima beans and not too tasty.
This recipe uses edamame instead and is pulled together with a homemade bbq sauce. It's all around so tasty!
Since it’s normally served up as a side to turkey, I decided to make this with a slow roasted chicken with some similar seasoning.
Husband and toddler approved meal!
Ingredients
1 tablespoon bacon or duck fat (olive oil will do if you don’t have either)
6 slices thick-cut smoky bacon, chopped into 1/4-inch dice
6 to 8 ears corn, shucked (or 1 bag frozen corn)
3 to 4 cloves garlic, sliced or chopped
1 large red or yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1 cup chicken or turkey stock
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (I like to use bloody Mary seasoning instead)
One 8-ounce can tomato sauce
2 cups shelled edamame
Sriracha
Directions
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Heat the oil and add the bacon. Cook until crisp, 2 to 3 minutes, and then add corn, letting the sugars develop and caramelize at the edges.
Add the garlic, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos, and cook 2 to 3 minutes to soften.
Add the stock, sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire and tomato sauce. Simmer to thicken the sauce, then add the edamame and stir in Sriracha to taste.
Reduce the heat to low until ready to serve or for at least 30 minutes to let flavors marry together. Add a little more stock or water if the dish gets too thick.
Garnish with scallions or parsley to serve.
I used pre-cooked bacon crumbles for this night, in the interest of saving time. You can find these at Costco. We usually keep a bag in the freezer. It's great to add some quick bacon flavor to eggs, grilled cheese, pasta, etc.
Add corn and cook with the bacon for a couple minutes, allowing the sugars from the corn to come through.
Add onions and garlic. Soften, then add bell peppers and jalapenos.
Add wet ingredients to make the bbq sauce: (stock, sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire and tomato sauce) I ended up crowding my original pot (something I often do). So I switched everything to the Dutch oven seen behind here. This allowed everything to have more exposure to the heat, cook evenly, and reduced the liquid in the sauce faster.
As usual I didn't snap a pic of the dish ready to be served (something I need to work on). Since this is a real life blog, the "serving portion" occurs right alongside corralling a toddler to the table, finding a husband who's often working on a project somewhere in the house, and keeping a begging dog at bay.
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