Yorkshire Valley Chicken

Usually I post about going to a farm and finding some local vegetables, fruits or meat. This post is about finding some locally produced organic poultry right at the grocery store. Yorkshire Valley Farms is a couple of farm families farming together from Keene and Peterbrough, Ontario. The chicken is organic and free range and also bears the Foodland Ontario stamp of approval.   Nick and Kate Ahrens of Betolianni Organic Farms   2 Farm Families = lots of organic chicken The Ambler Farm consists of Tony and Virginia Ambler who have raised chicken for over 8 years on their 350 acre farm near Keene, Ontario.  Last year son Wray joined the family operation. The Ahrens Farm consists of Thomas and Belle Ahrens who have farmed organically in the Peterborough, Ontario, area since 1990. Son Nick and his wife Kate are now partners in Betolianni Organic Chicken. How to describe this chicken taste – Yes, it tastes like chicken but its better. Its thicker, firmer and juicier. I guess that you could say that it is more substantial than your run of the mill, pumped full of salt chilled chicken. Which brings me to one other point about this chicken – and that is its processing. Yorkshire Valley chicken is air chilled rather than water chilled. Water chilling adds a lot of water and chlorine to the process, so they are avoiding this. An air chilled chicken keeps its chicken flavour and you should notice even in the packaging that the chicken is not sitting in a pool of water and blood. Sorry if you are squeamish! I did not have very many ingredients in the house so I opted for a very simple and old fashioned style dish to try out this chicken. Stoved Chicken is a classic way to cook chicken, it is almost like a stew of chicken and potatoes and it turned out delicious. Stoved Chicken butter for greasing 2 1/4 pounds of Ontario potatoes – peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds 2 large Ontario onions 2 tbsp Herbes de Provence 2 tbsp butter 1 tbsp olive oil 4 bacon slices – cut into little pieces 4 organic chicken thighs, 4 organic chicken legs 2 cups chicken stock Salt and pepper Preheat oven to 350º Grease a large baking dish with some butter. Arrange a layer of potatoes in the bottom, then a layer of onion, sprinkle some herbs and salt and pepper. Heat the oil and some butter in a large pan. Toss in the bacon, cook for a minutes, then add the chicken pieces in. Cook the chicken until it is even brown on all sides. Arrange chicken on layer of potato and onion. Repeat layers, ending with potato. Pour stock into dish and season again. Cover dish and cook in oven for 2 hours or until potatoes are tender.   Yorkshire Valley Farms Chicken is available at Loblaws, Superstore and Zehrs. They sell chicken breasts, drums, wings, thighs and whole chickens. You will find them in the meat department refrigerator section.      Read More