Balsamic-Glazed Drumsticks

Chicken drumsticks are the perfect finger food for so many occasions. Serve drumsticks at parties, pack them for lunch, hand them to your kids for a late-afternoon snack or grab a drumstick on your way out the door in the morning. Delicious baked or grilled with only salt and pepper, drumsticks also quickly soak up the flavor in sauces and marinades.

This balsamic glaze (which can do double-duty as a marinade) lightly coats the drumsticks rather than drowning them in thick sauce. As the glaze reduces, first on the stove and then in the oven, the flavor intensifies and becomes surprisingly bold.

Balsamic-glazed drumsticks are tangy, slightly sweet and perfectly salty. The flavor is complex and interesting enough that you could serve these at a dinner party, but your kids are going to love them too.

Eat these drumsticks warm from the oven or eat them cold, right out of the refrigerator. Either way, they’re finger lickin’ good.

Ingredients:

6-8 chicken drumsticks
3 tablespoons coconut oil (45 mL)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (120 mL)
3 tablespoons tamari (45 mL or 1 1/2 fluid ounce)
1/2 to 1 tablespoon honey (15 mL)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 degrees Celsius)

Coat the drumsticks with coconut oil.

Place the drumsticks on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and fairly crisp.

Combine the balsamic vinegar, tamari and honey in a saucepan and bring to boil. Let the mixture boil for 5 minutes or until it has reduced to about 1/3 of a cup.

Take the drumsticks out of the oven and pour the glaze on top. Bake for another 5 minutes then take the pan out of the oven and use tongs to roll the drumsticks around in the glaze (it will have thickened a bit more in the oven) and/or use a brush to coat them with the glaze.

Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro if you like.

Let the drumsticks rest a bit to cool before eating, then dig in.

Raspberry Butter Sauce with Crispy Salmon and Salad Greens

Admittedly, Raspberry Butter Sauce walks a fine line between a sauce and a salad dressing. Drizzled over crispy, pan-seared salmon on a bed of greens, it is both of these things at once. The flavor is fruity and slightly sweet, balanced by a tangy zip of acidity from red wine vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. Add a few fresh raspberries to the salad and you have a perfect summer meal.

Compared with other types of fruit, raspberries are lower in sugar and they’re also loaded with fiber, vitamin C, manganese and antioxidants. Raspberries add a burst of sweet acidity to salads and are especially good with salmon and pork. In fact, this salad topped with Raspberry Butter Sauce would be equally delicious with slices of crispy grilled pork.

Straining the sauce through a fine mesh sieve is optional, but recommended if you want a silkier, lighter texture and a flavor that’s more tangy than sweet. You’ll only end up with a tablespoon or two of sauce/dressing, which is fine, because a little bit of the flavor goes a long way. This isn’t a sauce to drown a meal in. It’s one to drizzle lightly to bring a little taste of summer to your plate.

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

2 salmon filets, skin on
1 tablespoon oil (for searing salmon)
20 fresh raspberries (or fewer, for a flavor that is less sweet)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
Pinch of sea salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)

Instructions:

Lightly salt both sides of the salmon.

Heat oil in a frying pan/cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is good and hot and starts to crackle a little. Place the salmon in the pan, skin side down, and cook until it is nicely browned and more importantly, no longer sticks to the pan, about 3 minutes. If you turn the fish too soon, it will stick and the skin will rip off, so be patient.

Flip the fish over and cook on the other side, about 3-5 minutes more for a filet that is 1 – 1 1/2 inches thick. If the middle is still not cooked enough for you after this amount of time, lower the heat a little and cover the salmon with a lid for a few minutes more.

To make the Raspberry Butter Sauce, blend the raspberries and melted butter in a blender until smooth.

Scrape into a bowl and mix in vinegar and sea salt. Optional: Strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl, pressing down on the solids to push out the liquid. You’ll only end up with about 2 tablespoons of sauce/dressing.