Do you have any quirky food preferences? Weird food rituals? Maybe something that you never thought odd until you got together with a partner and they just can't believe you eat THAT?!?
Maybe you are a texture-based eater? I am one. I'd love to know if you are one too! There's kind of two types of texture based eaters - those that avoid textures they dislike (common in "picky eater" children) and those that focus their meals on the textures they love.
I'm the second one - I'm all about CRUNCHY! Hearty salads with all the things? Yes! Vietnamese salad rolls filled with crunchy bean sprouts? Please! Apple or carrot sticks? By the bowlful. Then there's the dangerous territory of chocolate chips or M&Ms - a constant stream of mini crunches.
But what I really love is pickles. Now not all pickles are the same - it's got to be dill pickles, tiny, garlicky dill pickles, shatteringly crisp pickles. Like that one brand of pickles that is only carried by the one store an hour and a half away from the ranch...
So I have developed quite a loyalty to this one brand of pickles and the rate I eat them it's kind of expensive (especially since my kids got into my stash and have now developed their own love of pickles).
So pre-covid, I'm the lady buying 3-4 jars of pickles with my grocery shop and getting the offhand remarks from the checkers - "wow you really like pickles", "they need to make a bigger jar of these for you", "lotsa pickles, you pregnant?"
Gah! No, I am not pregnant. Though it's a shame I didn't rediscover my love of pickles during my pregnancies - I would have gleefully embraced the whole "pickles and ice cream trope".
For now, I just make it explicitly clear in my online grocery order that is has to be this specific brand of baby dills, no substitutions and when I pickup my order and they tell my they "could only fulfill 3 out of four jars because that was all that was on the shelf and wow I must really like pickles", I just smile and nod.
I'm getting somewhere with this long, rambly story, I promise!
A by-product of all these jars of pickles is pickle juice which is not particularly crunchy. I use a tablespoon once in a while in homemade mayonnaise or a splash in tuna salad but mostly these jars of pickle juice accumulate in the fridge (it seems so useful!) or go to the pigs (mmm sour!).
Recently I recalled an exasperated conservation between some friends of ours and a huge jar of pickle juice lurking in the back of the fridge -
"Why are we even keeping this?"
"I was going to make a chicken!"
"But it's been months!"
Intrigued, I filed that conversation away but when I found myself having the exact same exchange with Nathan, I knew I needed to actually figure out how to use pickle juice to make chicken.
And I did and it was amazing! And even better, Nathan said he would never grumble about the pickle juice again if I always used it up to make chicken. The kids loved the novelty of "pickle chicken" and the pickle-loving balance in our home has been restored. Whew!
Want to learn how to make your own pickle chicken? Stay tuned! I'll post the recipe tomorrow - it also incorporates my 4 favorite tips for how to roast a whole chicken on a weeknight.
Start saving that pickle juice!