Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Food For Fat (Tuesday)

Just as everyone is blogging about bacon, news yesterday that Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork processor, is cutting production 10%, shuttering 15 plants and laying off 1,800 employees. Not only are exports expected to slow, but beleaguered US consumers have been switching to lower priced "house label" brands. Eventually once supply shrinks enough, prices will begin to sizzle.

So to throw a little fat on the pan and support this necessary industry, I propose Save The Bacon, where "Fat Tuesday" (2/24) be renamed "Pork Tuesday", and everyone make something hideously fattening containing pork. Just for this one year.

My recipe contribution to this expected excess of cholesterol comes from my Granny, Lucille Browning Kressbach who at an early age moved from Logan, West Virginia to Pontiac, Michigan with her (young) widowed mother and sister. Maybe it was growing up in a rural town in WV in the early 1900's , but Granny loved bacon, and Jim Beam. This is a recipe she made for over 40 years for her bridge group, you make it the day before so it's very low maintenance the day of the event.

I make it now for my family it's one of their favorites, but I can't bring myself to make it more than once every three or four months. I've modified it slightly, the chicken breasts today are much larger, so for portion control I've cut them in half. This of course isn't a cooking blog, but in the interest of Save The Bacon, I'm sharing.

Granny's Party Chicken
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half crosswise (12 pcs.)
4-5 oz. dried beef (the small round kind they sell in jars)
12 pcs. bacon
2 c. sour cream
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup

Grease 9 x 12 pan (with bacon fat, if you have it) spread beef over the bottom. Wrap each piece of chicken with 1 slice of bacon and place on beef. Mix sour cream and soup, spread over chicken. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 275 degrees for 5 hours.

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