For my local farmers' market, I have always enjoyed venturing into the St. Lawrence market as my ideal spot for locating great local ingredients.
For my choice in a local market, I have chosen the Brown Brothers Meats shop for its amazing quality in meat and commitment to using products from local Ontario farms.
Brief Overview Brown Brothers Meats had originally opened up in the St. Lawrence market and has remained in its original location since 1895! It was originally ran by the Brown Brothers for 60 years until the business was eventually bought by Tony & Pat Gasparro. Despite the business losing its original owners, Brown Brothers Meats has maintained their old reputation for various quality meat and poultry. The company has remained loyal to local Ontario farms in their choice of meat to maintain the tradition and quality standards that the original Brown Brothers had established.
My Own Experience After viewing the product they had on hand, I now have a much larger respect to support local food markets. These small businesses put a lot of labour in order to produce quality product for the community and it should be something more well recognized by the city. By supporting these local markets, it would boost our local economy and help us strive away from the large, global, and money-hungry superstores!
My Recipe For my recipe, I had decided to make Baked Teriyaki Chicken Legs with a homemade teriyaki sauce. I had chosen to bake my chicken legs in an oven because chicken legs contain a lot more fat (being a "dark meat") and can retain being moist and tender using a dry heat method without the need of extra fat or support.
For the teriyaki sauce, I had used: 125ml Kikkoman Soy Sauce 125ml Mirin 1/2 cup of white sugar 1 clove garlic, crushed Crushed ginger
On a side note, mirin is a type of rice wine which contains a lower alcohol content but higher sugar content compared to sake. Teriyaki Sauce The teriyaki sauce was made by simply adding all ingredients together into a small pot and reducing until thick and syrupy. It came out with a great consistency and sweetness perfect for basting and marinating the chicken. A concern when making the teriyaki sauce is heat control. Due to the high sugar content, the sauce can easily burn if cooked on too high of a temperature.
Cooking Process Once my teriyaki sauce had cooled down, I brushed the teriyaki glaze on both sides of the chicken leg and placed it in a preheated 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 40 minutes or until the juices had run clear. Midway through the cooking process in the oven I had basted the chicken legs once again with the glaze to achieve an even darker colour in the end.
The pictures above show the before and after stages of the chicken legs after being marinated and after being cooked in the oven
My Reason For This Recipe I chose a teriyaki glaze because it brings a unique sweet, sticky, and savory flavour element. It also adds a dark richness to the chicken that a dry rub or BBQ sauce wouldn't do. Since chicken legs are dark meat and have more fat compared to the chicken breast, a dry heat cooking method would be excellent at no sacrifice of any moisture in the meat. The teriyaki glaze also helped the chicken retain further moisture while providing an appealing colour. Some improvements that could be improved in this recipe would be to marinate the chicken for several hours or overnight to further enhance the flavours and to baste the chicken another time during the cooking process to further caramelize the chicken thus achieving more flavour and colour.