Baked Fermented Chicken

Fermenting your meats is a great way to increase the digestibility and nutritional availability of your food. For some people, it’s necessary to ferment any meat they consume in order for them to digest it with ease. And while it may not be required for you, fermenting your food will always ease the workload on your digestive system and increase the nutrition available to you.

We do have a recipe for fermenting beef as well. You can read it here. However, this fermented chicken recipe is even easier. It is more accessible because you only need to ferment it for three hours before cooking. The fermenting time is limited because fermenting meat is a form of “cooking.” The process of cooking is really about denaturing proteins and acid is another way to do that. You will notice a visual and texture change to your meat as it ferments, and if you ferment it too long, the meat will become too “cooked” to be enjoyable. Because of this, you don’t want to ferment chicken for longer than three hours, whereas other meats like a thick cut of beef, can be fermented days in the fridge if desired.

In a lot of ways, fermenting is like marinating. You are adding flavor and richness to the meat with the additional benefit of pre-digesting some of the proteins. Of course you can use any type of fermented liquid that you have on hand, or you could even use whey or yogurt. You will add different flavors depending on which ferment you use, so keep that in mind as you’re making your recipe. 

As always, add salt to your recipe. But remember that your fermented vegetable brine is also salty, so don’t add too much. You can always add additional salt at the table.

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken
• ½ Cup of Vegetable Ferment Brine of Your Choice (I used Fermented Garlic)
• Sprig of Rosemary
• 2 -3 Sprig of Thyme
• ½ tsp Salt
• 2 Carrots
• 3 Celery
• 1 Leek, Only the Whites
• 2-3 Cloves of Garlic

Directions:

Rinse your chicken and cut into pieces.  Add the cut pieces including the neck and any organ meats to a bowl. Do not add the back bone or its meat. I left the meat on the carcass of the chicken and used it to make a small pot of stock.

Add in the vegetable ferment brine of your choice. I used Fermented Garlic but you could use any brine such as Cabbage Tonic, Beet Kvass, Vegetable Medley, Ginger Carrot Brine, etc. Add in the fresh herbs + salt.

Cover and allow to ferment for three hours on the counter, turning the pieces over halfway through the fermenting time.

Preheat the oven to around 350 degrees. You also could cook this dish for a longer time at an even lower temperature which makes it even more rich and digestible. Just make sure your chicken gets to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

When ready to bake, roughly chop the celery, carrots, and leek whites and add to the bottom of a glass baking dish.

Arrange the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables including the organs and neck meat. Add in the garlic. Top with the leftover brine. Cover the chicken with parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Place in the oven to bake for approximately 60 minutes.

You may uncover the dish at the end to crisp up the skin if desired. Serve the chicken with the vegetables and stock from the bottom of the baking dish. 

Enjoy!