Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen
Down Home Country Meal with Chicken Fried Venison
Season 3 Episode 11 | 25m 31sVideo has Closed Captions
Make some Chicken fried venison with succotash and dirty rice.
Make some Chicken fried venison with succotash and dirty rice for a down-home country meal.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen is a local public television program presented by KET
Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen
Down Home Country Meal with Chicken Fried Venison
Season 3 Episode 11 | 25m 31sVideo has Closed Captions
Make some Chicken fried venison with succotash and dirty rice for a down-home country meal.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪ They say ye'are what you eat, so I don't eat chicken feet ♪ ♪ But I love me summa' Grandma's pickled beets ♪ ♪ Well, cut it up, put it'na pan, ♪ ♪ throw it on these sholders and see where it lands, ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Maters, taters, beans and corn, ♪ ♪ the cow's in the barn ♪ ♪ and the sheep's been shorn ♪ ♪ Kids in the barnyard ♪ ♪ chasin' Grandpa's chickens, chickens, chickens ♪ ♪ Spices, slices, cuts and dices, ♪ ♪ gonna slash your grocery prices, ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Help you grow your garden good, ♪ ♪ with recipes to suit your mood ♪ ♪ Try some grub you've never tried before, ♪ ♪ 'fore, 'fore ♪ ♪ Smash it with a wooden mallet ♪ ♪ gonna educate yer palette ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ In Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen ♪ ♪ We gonna all cook some good night y'all ♪ Hello and welcome to the Farmer's Kitchen.
We're the Farmers' -and this is our kitchen.
-That's right.
Now, when we bring you a show like we do every week, -it's us cooking dinner... -When we're starving.
and our daughter filming it and then editing it -and putting it out.
-That's right.
This is real.
So, how do we determine what we're going to have for dinner?
-You dig around.
Freezers... -We dig.
-We dig.
-That's right.
Yeah.
This week we went freezer diving.
Yes we did.
Some people do dumpster diving.
We do freezer diving.
So, we went to look and see what we have.
Now, we have a lot of freezers because we do a lot of hunting and farming - and fishing.
-Nicki: That's right.
-So... -Keep them separate.
I have them organized, kind of organized.
Most brilliant thing you've ever done, not only that you wrote down -what was in each freezer.
-That's right.
That's right.
It's amazing, we can go to freezer to freezer -and find out what's what.
-Yeah.
Now when you hunt and fish a lot, when you have deer, when you raise your animals or if you got a pig or a cow whatsoever, you have to have a lot of freezer space.
Right Now, that being said, sometimes you need to clean the freezer out when something else is getting ready to go in.
-We do.
-So, what do we find?
We found some ground pork -Tim: from your little buddy.
-Nicki: That's right.
We found some deer meat.
-I've got a eye of round.
-That's delicious.
I've got an inner tenderloin and some unlabelled deer steaks.
What are we going to do with all this?
Are you making all this?
-Not all of it.
-Okay.
Tim: So, let's look at our ingredients.
Nicki: You got a lot of stuff out.
-Tim: I got a lot of stuff out.
-Nicki: Yes you do.
So, what do you think we're possibly going to fix here?
What are you making?
One thing that I don't think we've made on the show -is Succotash.
-We have not.
Do you know the history of Succotash?
I do not.
There's a man named John Succo, S-U-C-C-O.
His mother's name -- her nickname was Tash.
-Really?
-She would go making.
No, I'm lying.
-I was like what the heck.
-That's not the truth, but it's actually Algonquin up in the northeast part of the country - when the pilgrims came here.
-Are you being honest?
No, I'm being -- that's for real this time.
That's probably what they were served -during the first Thanksgiving.
-Okay.
It was a mixed vegetable thing.
Succotash and Algonquin means something roughly to broken corn kernels.
So, we were recently down south and a lot of folks are making Succotash also dirty rice.
I don't think we made dirty rice.
Nicki: We have not.
Now, if you look up the history of dirty rice, a lot of American recipes that are kind of popular have pulled from other cultures, other areas so on and so forth.
The origins of dirty rice are from very poor people who took meats that are kind of left over, undesirable from other folks and turned it into a staple with rice and it could be a side or it could be the main dish.
However you want to do that.
There's a lot of ways you can do your dirty rice.
You can put chicken livers, chicken gizzards.
-You can use tongues, snouts.
-Yum.
So, not too long ago, we did chicken fried steak.
Now there's country fried and there's chicken fried.
Tonight, we're going to do chicken fried.
We got flour and we're going to make a white gravy... -Nicki: Yummy.
-Tim: Delicious.
Now there's chicken fried steak, chicken fried venison.
The first time I had it Freddie's mom, Shirley made it -years and years ago.
-You said, it was good.
-It was amazing.
-Yeah.
We got lots of stuff to do here so I guess we best get busy and let's go ahead -Get the Limas.
-take those Lima Beans and that's probably what?
- A cup and a half Lima beans -Nicki: Yeah, that's right.
something like that, from down the road.
Now, for what we're doing now, if you'll cut me up most of that onion.
-All right.
-I will cut some green pepper and some celery for our trinity.
Now, there are a million different ways to do this and a billion recipes on how to make dirty rice.
If this is not your grandmother's recipe doesn't mean we're wrong.
It's just the way we make it.
A lot of people when you do a regional recipe, they're really proud of their recipes and they want to let you know they're proud and those who are watching, I'm anticipating that some of you are going to think, what is that cool knife he's using?
What's the one armed knife?
It's an Ulu and these have been around for a long time.
You see the Northwest Native Americans and folks way on up into Canada were using this years ago.
Let's go ahead and put some butter in there.
Now again, the meat choice is up to you in your dirty rice.
How do you want to dirty it up?
It's up to you.
Nicki: How many onions you want?
A handful?
Tim: Now, you can use white rice.
You can use brown rice, whatever you got available.
You know, we like to travel and everywhere we go we like to sample all the folks cooking and different things.
Sometimes you just forget about things.
Yeah.
We haven't made this for years.
So, Nicki used about a half of an onion over here and I used about a half a green pepper, bell pepper.
It's a pretty good way to start just about any recipe.
-Oh, it smells good.
-Doesn't it, though?
Tim: We got our Lima beans coming up to boil over here.
Lima beans where do you think they're from?
Where are they from?
I don't know.
Lima, Ohio.
Whatever.
-Tim: More like Lima, Peru, -Nicki: Okay.
South American.
-Nicki: I like Lima.
-Tim: Yeah, they -- Tim: Native Americans had an extensive trade route and those South American beans found their way up -Nicki: Really?
-Tim: into the United States.
Tim: So in this dish, we're going to have a lot of flavors.
One of them being cumin.
Now we talked about, that's an old world spice.
I mean records of cumin go way, way, way, way, way, way back from Iran, India all over the place.
You started hearing about cumin about the time some folks came into Texas, Mexico, way, way back and you started seeing cumin show up.
So, we're going to have a little cumin.
-I love that taste.
-I do too.
We're going to have a little bit of cumin in our dirty rice.
If you don't like it, you don't have to do that but we like it that way.
And another very traditional thing that you use bay leaf.
Go buy some bay leaf in the store - and look at the price.
-Nicki: Yeah.
Tim: Go down south, walk around the swamp - and pick them up for free.
-Nicki: Yeah.
That's true.
Tim: So, we're going to saute these for about five, six minutes till the onions start to just get a little tinge of brown on become translucent.
-Did you see that onion fly?
-I did.
-That's a flying onion.
-That's a good onion.
I'll throw it back.
Tim: In a minute we're going to take these, we're going to scoop this up and take this out of here because you like the one pan method don't you?
Nicki: I do.
I don't like a lot of clean up.
We're going to take our already hot skillet.
-You need about half of this?
-Yeah, Tim: I'd say about a half a pound will work nicely.
Now, this is the famous pig that... Tim: That bit Nicki's hand.
Nicki: It was a bad pig.
That went to market.
-A little premature.
-Did she taste good, you know?
She was still a pretty big pig, but that little pig it did go to market.
Nicki: Yes she did.
Tim: And did not go wee, wee, wee all the way home.
Nicki: No, she didn't.
So what are we going to do here?
We're going to take... we want this to be, we don't want huge hunks in here.
-So we're going to chop -Break it down.
that up pretty good.
Now, again, this recipe developed over the years now there have been changes.
If you really want to go back to the root, you could probably find some really old recipes, but it was mainly done with pretty rough cuts of meat.
Things that nobody else really wanted to use parts of pigs, parts of chickens.
And I found some chicken livers that I was going to use for catfish bait but you know what?
-It would be perfect.
-Let's just put those in here.
That's probably half a pound of chicken livers.
Some people do not like chicken livers.
I think it adds a great taste to this.
So, if you don't like chicken livers.
Don't use them, don't put them in.
You don't need to say, yuck, it is so gross.
I think it gives it a great flavor.
It gives it a great flavor but again, if you don't like them we understand but you don't have to put it in.
We will not come to your house and stand right beside you and give you dirty looks.
If you don't put chicken livers in.
-Nicki might, I won't.
-Because I'll eat it.
Tim: So, now as this meat is coming together, I'll start putting some seasoning in there.
All right, I'm going to put some pepper, that's probably about a teaspoon.
I'm going to put some salt probably about a half a teaspoon.
Now I'm going to come back with some cumin.
So, I'm going to put probably half a tablespoon, three quarters of a tablespoon.
Then I'm going to come back with some Cajun seasoning you know, whatever Cajun seasoning you like.
We make our own.
I'm going to also take some oregano.
-Nicki: That's smelling good.
-Tim: It is smelling good.
The traditionalists will say bay leaves.
So we got to put some bay leaves.
So, don't forget to take your bay leaves out.
Nicki: That's right.
Let those cook in there.
Now at this point, our meat is just about done.
It's just like a meal to me.
It is.
I mean, you could actually make this a meal with rice.
This is going to be our side because we got a lot of stuff going on.
Oh, I like the cumin in there.
In fact, I'm going to put some more.
-Whose kitchen is it?
-This is our kitchen.
We do what we want.
My sister used to say I do what I want.
-She still does.
-She still does and she does exactly what she wants.
-That's right.
-So, at this point, we're going to put our veggies back in.
Nicki: Yummy.
Tim: Oh, I wish you could smell this.
It's absolutely wonderful.
Now, if you want more heat in it, which you probably won't.
Nicki: we're good, I think we're good.
Tim: I've been putting a lot of heat.
You can put some more cayenne in here.
Now, we're going to take some chicken broth.
Let's go a cup and a half.
-In there.
-Perfect.
And a cup and a half of rice.
Nicki: And this is instant.
So, it's going to go quicker.
Tim: So, let's actually go not quite a cup because that's really going to expand and let that cook up.
I'll turn that up a little bit and let that cook down, let that rice absorb that chicken broth.
Nicki: And we got a side.
Yum.
That looks good.
Tim: Now, let's drain these beans.
So, we put a little cover on our rice.
We turned it down.
We're going to let that come to a nice simmer.
We got our beans right here drained.
We're going to put some bacon.
Nicki: Yummy.
It's a good way to start.
And then one more thing that we're going to do here just to add a little taste and depth, is butter.
Nicki: Butter is always great.
Tim: Cover that back up and let it go.
One more thing I'm going to put in here before we get too far along.
It's just a little bit of garlic.
See how our rice is beginning to... -Nicki: It's looking good.
-Tim: absorb that.
Oh, can you smell that?
I'm excited.
To me that's a whole meal.
It is a whole meal.
Nicki: I think we got enough to eat on this for days.
Tim: Yeah, we do.
- And we will.
-Nicki: That's right.
That's one good thing about it.
If you fix too much, it's still yours.
Then we've got about four pieces of bacon here.
We're going to cook that.
Now, the main thing I want out of this bacon is bacon grease.
We could use bacon grease but I also want a little bit of bacon chopped up in there.
All right, I got me some bacon grease now.
Nicki: Should I sample that bacon - to make sure it's good?
-Tim: You probably should.
Nicki: I might have to let it cool down.
Tim: Just save me a little bit to put back in our dish.
So, here's a quiz.
Where the words Succotash come from?
I don't have a clue.
I already forgot.
-Remember John Succo -Yeah.
and his mother's nickname was Tash.
It was Tash, yeah.
That'll stick with me.
It's algonquin.
All right.
So we're just popping our bacon out and we're going to immediately put in our... -Nicki: Onions and peppers?
-Tim: Onions and peppers.
Now, I don't have to season this too much.
-Why?
-Why's that?
Because the bacon has a lot of salt.
That's true.
Got some good smell is going in here.
Tim: Oh, yeah.
Now, I didn't measure this, but that's a half red bell pepper.
About a half of the yellow sweet onion.
The other half of the onion.
And a little bit of black pepper.
You cut some corn last year and froze it.
-Nicki: Good corn.
-Tim: Just right up the road.
It's delicious.
We had some frozen okra and a lot of people say, oh, you can't use frozen.
- Oh, yes, you can.
-Nicki: Yeah Now we're going to come back with some okra.
I'd say that's about three quarters of a cup.
- If you don't like okra... -Nicki: Don't use it.
don't use it.
We will not force you to do that.
We like okra that's pretty.
Tim: Remember Jerry Clower the old southern comedian.
He tells a story about the raccoon dogs and the okra.
-Really?
-Hilarious.
Tim: Now, this corn has already been blanched - way back.
-Nicki: Right.
So, that's the last thing that we'll put in and we're going to come back with some Lima beans.
Yummy.
Love Limas.
-Tim: Lima, Ohio.
-Nicki: That's right.
Tim: Or was it Lima, Peru?
I like Lima, Ohio.
It's closer.
How much Lima beans did you put in there?
About the same three quarters, half the cup, three quarters?
-About that.
-Awesome.
-Tim: We put our corn.
-Nicki: We've added... Nicki: Yum.
Oh, that's a good looking dish.
Isn't that colorful and beautiful?
Nicki: That's healthy.
That's all the veggies, right?
Take some of that bacon Nicki and just kind of just tear some pieces and put that in there.
[music playing] Okay, so, we've got our wonderful deer meat here.
-Nicki: That looks really good.
-Tim: doesn't it, though?
Nicki: Really good meat.
Tim: Deer meat is very dark.
I'm going to go ahead and put some salt and pepper on here, even though I'm going to pound it out.
I'm going to go ahead and have some seasonings on here.
I'm going to put some more stuff later.
But what we're going to do if I can have you, -Want me to put them in?
-just go and put one piece in the bag.
-This is a little way of... -Not make a mess.
and keep it from going everywhere and I'm going to pound that out.
- Now again, this is venison.
-Nicki: I'm excited.
I'm going to have two receptacles of flour, one of them being just flour and the other one is going to be seasoned with some smoked Paprika, which I'm going to kick here lately I really like that.
-I like it too.
-You too, don't you?
We're going to put some garlic seasoning.
Now, we did a show last week, we did some frying.
-A lot of garlic.
-A lot of garlic.
That was probably half a tablespoon at least and some onion powder just a little bit.
Let's say half a teaspoon, some pepper, some salt to taste according to your diet that you may be on or restrictions.
That's going to be our season.
Nicki: I really like how you did the meat in the bag.
I have no mess.
-That's right.
-It didn't go over the kitchen.
-It didn't go over my shirt.
-Great idea.
That's right.
Now, if you wanted to too, hot sauce will give it a little zing.
What's the zing.
Since we got this out and about.
Let's go ahead and put some Cajun seasoning in here too.
-Nicki: You like your Cajun.
-Tim: Oh, yeah.
-That was a little.
-That was a little.
Hate to see a lot.
Probably half a teaspoon.
Now, again, when you're cooking with flour like this and you're frying something, it takes quite a bit to get that flavor profile out there.
- What about that much?
-Nicki: Okay.
You really do have to put quite a bit in there and you want to have plenty of flavor.
Now, if you'll take that little bit of buttermilk and whip those eggs up in there.
- Both of them?
-Tim: Yes, please.
And that was probably what, a quarter cup of buttermilk?
-Nicki: I think it was.
-Tim: And two eggs.
Let me set this right over here.
Split those two up.
No seasoning, seasoning, eggs, butter milk.
So not only does this process here thin it out, but it tenderises it.
You think about food history.
You think about chicken fried steak, -Nicki: I love that.
-which we had a while back.
Tim: Any time you have chicken fried steak, you want some white gravy on it.
But when you look at this process, does it remind you of something overseas?
Yes it does a schnitzel.
-Tim: Wiener schnitzel -Nicki: It was very good.
Tim: So a lot of the things that came into this country were kind of Americanized.
This is very close to that, but with more of American seasoning.
Nicki: What a way to use your deer meat.
Tim: Yeah, oh, look at that.
I'm going to let my oil get up.
Again, we don't do back to back shows with frying stuff.
But lately.
But this just happens to be what came out of our freezer.
-That's right.
-Got to do something with it.
-Nicki: Yes.
-Tim: Are we lucky that we live in a state that has a good deer population?
Are we lucky that we have property here we can take our own deer?
And that looks wonderful.
I'm excited to try this.
That is so good for you.
Now, we're kind of putting it in the fire.
That's okay though.
But look at that.
That's beautiful deer meat.
If you don't have venison, you can do this with, you can do with a skirt steak, flank steak, cube steak, whatever you want to use it for.
All right, straight to flour.
That picks up the egg nice and even.
Then we come back with the seasoned flour, that egg holds that seasoned flour on there.
And theoretically it doesn't fall off -Nicki: Yummy.
-Tim: too terribly.
[music playing] Tim: This is one way.
How do you call it?
One of those gateways to getting kids to try venison?
Nicki: That's a good idea.
Yeah.
Tim: Now, when it was Kelly way back and she didn't like venison.
-I made a steak.
-I remember you did.
Back strap.
Oh, I seasoned it up just right.
And I'm putting butter on it.
I said Kelli you want steak?
Yes.
Yes.
So, she ate it.
She wanted another one.
We obliged.
Now, this is not something you would want to do to everybody because Kelly's got a good sense of humor.
Nicki: That's right.
Tim: I said, Kelli, that was deer.
And she says, oh, my goodness.
So then guess what happened?
She raided the freezer.
She says I'm a starving college student.
Can I take some of that back to school in Central Michigan?
-All you can do is say no.
-That's right.
So then guess what happened?
-Now, she loves it.
-All the venison disappeared.
Now her husband shoots deer and she cooks it.
Tim: I can't wait for her to try this.
I don't think she ever had this.
[music playing] All right, we're going to take these, stick them in the oven.
Just keep them nice and warm.
I think I've had about three or four tablespoons of grease here.
-All right.
-Go ahead and put me in.
-Tim: The sprinkling?
-Nicki: Yeah, we're going to add some flour here.
-We're going to create our... -A little bit at a time?
Yeah.
Because you're the gravy queen.
I'll see Nicki: Let's just do three and see how that does.
-Tim: A little salt.
-Nicki: A little pepper.
Tim: A little pepper, a little bit Cajun.
Yeah, give me all your little seasonings.
We're going to create our own gravy.
Tim: Garlic, some onion powder.
Now, this is half and half.
I actually had to buy a cup here of half and half.
So, I'm just going to keep adding it till we get it to the consistency we like.
Do you think a little thinner?
-Just a tiny bit of sage.
-Do it.
Just a tiny bit.
-Oh, yeah.
-I like it a lot too.
All right, that's perfect.
Yum.
[music playing] Tim: That's exactly how I remember Shirley's looking.
That looks good.
Don't that look like something from a country diner, somewhere?
Let me tell you what I'm going to do.
I like what you did to the gravy with the seasoning.
I need you to help me always.
That was wonderful.
That was really good.
Tim: How much gravy do you want?
- Like a lot of gravy?
-Nicki: Yeah, I like gravy.
Yeah.
That looks good.
That was a lot of work but you know, it was worth it.
-Oh that looks so good.
-Dig in there.
I can't wait.
Yes.
Wow.
Tim: Venison really lends itself - well to this recipe.
-Nicki: Oh, yeah.
Chicken fried venison.
Are you kidding me?
It's one of my favorite ways to have venison now.
I've never had it like this, so good.
See if you like your Succotash named after John Succo.
That's really good.
I got to try the rice too.
I've been wanting to eat that.
And the dirty rice, which looks dirty.
Really tasty.
Delicious.
Wow.
When you let that sink in the first thing you get, I taste the bay leaf but that to me cumin makes it.
-Oh yeah.
-You taste that.
You just a little bit of that cayenne -Yes.
-that's in with the mix.
Nicki: It's really meaty.
You made it very meaty.
I like that delicious taste.
And you got to admit the chicken livers really do something.
If you don't like them, don't put them in.
But the chicken livers adds that nice texture, -that nice moist texture -Right.
and that earthy, lovely organ meat in there.
-Nicki: It's all good.
-Tim: It's all good.
Tim: Now, here's the situation.
-Our half hour is about up.
-Yes.
This is not going to get any warmer sitting here.
That's right.
Sadly, we have to close the show.
So we can eat.
But if somebody runs up to you and says, Mrs. Farmer where am I going to get those recipes?
What would you say?
I say TimFarmersCountrykitchen.com.
-Tim: I've been there.
-Nicki: Have you?
What if somebody came running up to you and says Mrs Farmer, I would really like to get on your Facebook page, but I heard it's extremely hard.
What do you have to do to get on there?
You'd say?
Nicki: You hit like, yeah, it's difficult.
Tim: That's not that hard.
-I'm about worn out.
-You cooked hard today.
Look at our kitchen sink.
It's a mess you going to clean up today.
-Yes I'll clean.
-Thanks.
But I tell you what I'm going to do is I'm going to dive in on that.
I could spend a lot of time right there though.
-Me too.
-But that right there.
-It's beautiful.
-It is all good.
Another Southern meal out of our kitchen.
What will we make next week?
-I don't know.
-We still got the duck.
-Oh, thats right.
We didn't dive into the duck.
We need to do something with the duck.
We better put it back in the fridge.
All right, dig in Mrs. Farmer.
-It's all about.
-Good times.
-Good friends.
-And really good eats.
-See you next week.
-I can't wait.
[music playing] Narrator: Funding for Tim Farmers Country Kitchen is brought to you by Amerson Farms Country Store something for every member of the family.
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Gulf Coast Connection, seafood straight from the Gulf to you.
Wilderness Road Hospitality, Stanford Kentucky.
The Spine Center of Central Kentucky.
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To order a cookbook, email TimFarmerCK@gmail.com.
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