The Importance of Organic – Less Chance of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Last month the Poultry Site web site had an article about research by a team of Johns Hopkins researchers on antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in chicken purchased in Baltimore, MD supermarkets. They purchased chickens in the supermarkets from five different poultry companies for 20 weeks in 2004 and for 15 weeks in 2006. In both 2004 and 2006 they found that Campylobacter strains of bacteria from conventionally produced chicken were more likely to be resistant to the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics than antibiotic-free chicken. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are used by doctors to treat food poisoning caused by Campylobacter. Poultry producers had been using fluoroquinolones to treat respiratory disease in their chickens but claimed that they had stopped using it in 2002 three years before it was banned by the FDA in 2005. Despite the fluoroquinolone no longer being used to treat the chickens, the proportion of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the conventionally produced chicken showed no significant change between 2004 and 2006 indicating that the amount of antibiotic-resistant bacteria was not decreasing in chicken from these producers.

One sentence in the report was particularly eye opening. It said that the authors were not able to verify that the producers had voluntarily stopped using the fluoroquinolone antibiotics in 2002, because poultry producers are not required to report their use of drugs in food animals to regulatory agencies!!! Who knows what drugs the big poultry producers are using? It is a secret that only they know. This is another reason why organically raised chickens, turkeys, and eggs are a better choice than conventionally produced poultry and eggs. To read more … www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/12297/drugresistant-campylobacter-persists-in-poultry

Chicken and Rice

Put 2 cups of brown rice in the bottom of your roaster. Top with a little chopped onion and bell peppers. Sprinkle with salt. Add 4 cups of hot water. Sprinkle salt on your whole chicken. Place breast side up into roaster on top of the rice. Sprinkle with desired herbs. I like sage, garlic powder and onion powder. Cover. Baked at 325 degrees for three hours or till chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender. Are you in a hurry? Turn the oven up to 400 degrees and bake for 2 hours. (At 400 degrees, the rice will probably stick to the bottom of the pan a little, but it won’t burn.) I like to double the recipe so I have leftovers to make chicken and rice soup. To make the soup you only need to add water and a little salt to the rice and chicken that has been taken off the bone. The broth is in the rice.

Quick and Easy Pizza

If you want pizza, but don’t have the time or desire to put together a yeast dough crust, here’s a recipe you can try. My family loves pizza, but they don’t think they get it often enough (especially my husband 🙂 ). So not long ago I began using this recipe. It was an instant hit and it is quicker and easier to make.

Crazy Crust Pizza

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground oregano
1/8 tsp. black pepper

       Combine in bowl.

2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cups milk

       Combine and stir into flour mixture. Pour batter into greased pizza pan.

1/3 cup chopped onions
Mushrooms if desired

    Sprinkle over dough. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and spread on meat, pizza sauce and toppings below:

1 lb. hamburger

    Brown and drain. To have a sausage flavor, add Wright’s hickory smoke or 1 tsp. ground sage to the meat. You can also use chicken or lamb, cut up.

1 cup pizza sauce
3/4 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese

    After putting toppings on pizza, return to oven 5 more minutes or until cheese melts.

A Chicken Recipe From a Customer

One of our customers, Donald Fowles, sent us a delicious chicken recipe last month and we’d like to pass it along to you. Here is what he says:

"Cut one large onion into chunks and put in bottom of crockpot.  Mix ~2 tbsp. olive oil, 1-2 cloves garlic, 1/2 to 1 tsp. dry tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl.  Wash whole chicken, drain, and put it in crockpot breast side down.  Rub about 1/3 of olive oil mixture over bottom of chicken.  Turn chicken over and rub remaining mixture on chicken.  (Add no other moisture.)  Cook 8 hrs on low.

“This recipe is so quick and easy, and it results in a moist and tasty chicken ready to eat when you get home from work.  I strain the juices left in the crockpot and put them in the fridge.  The next day I scrape off the fat at the top and use the gelled material as the base for chicken gravy, to which I add some of the leftover chicken meat and serve over hot rice.  Incredible!"

Recipe: Cathy’s Favorite Marinade

My favorite marinade for meat and poultry:

1/4 c. olive or coconut oil
1/4 c. balsamic or apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp. salt

Bake the meat or poultry in the marinade. Delicious!

Recipe: Butter Baked Chicken

Here’s one of our family’s favorite chicken recipes. It’s so delicious and sooo easy.

1 chicken, cut up

4 Tbsp. butter, melted (no substitutes except coconut oil)

Unrefined sea salt

Brush one side of each chicken piece with butter. Sprinkle with salt. Turn the chicken pieces over. Repeat the process of brushing with butter and sprinkling with salt. Bake skin side up at 350 degrees 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or till the chicken pieces are tender. (Breast pieces will take less time.) To speed up the baking of the chicken, you can bake it as high as 425 degrees and it will still bake fine.