Southern Love in Your Tummy: Aunt Ginny's...

As I mentioned before, Aunt Ginny was the epitome of a good southern cook, and so therefore, she did have in her repertoire, a recipe for barbeque sauce. This is not your regular sauce; it is a sauce that is very popular in North Carolina - vinegar based. The following recipe is for chicken, which is what my sister Pam and I thought we were getting one year at the Goodman family Christmas gathering. Pam was very pregnant with her first child, Matt, and thought the "chicken" was so good she ate three pieces. We both loved it, and when we asked aunt Ginny about how she made the barbequed chicken, she informed us it was not chicken, it was rabbit. Visions of Thumper and cute cuddly bunnies ran through our heads, and we were a bit taken back at the news. We got over it though, since it was so good. Her version with chicken is just as good and more practical (and leaves you with less visions of cute little bunnies being converted into the quite tasty food you've just eaten). Pam and I have learned to ASK what the meat is before serving ourselves at Goodman family gatherings - there has been bear and venison at the table as well over the years. I have managed to dodge both of those!

Aunt Ginny's Bar-B-Que Chicken

1 chicken, cut in quarters

1 cup vinegar

3 lemons, quartered

1 stick margarine

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground red pepper

Boil ingredients, except for chicken, for 30 minutes, until lemon rinds are soft. Add chicken and boil in sauce for 15-20 minutes. Let set in sauce from 2-4 hours, refrigerated. Remove chicken from sauce and put on hot grill; turn and baste frequently with sauce until done, 45-55 minutes.

Now, add some good potato salad and baked beans and you definitely will have a bit of Southern Love in Your Tummy! This chicken is so good you won't have leftovers! Ya'll come back now, cause there are more great recipes to come!

Check out all of Monica Zenberg's great recipes in her series: Southern Love in Your Tummy

Comments: 11

Jennifer Hodge Dec 30, 2005, 5:53pm EST

This sounds fabulous. I don't mean to sound greedy, but do you happen to have a recipe in the family archives for potato salad and baked beans? Also, I'm having a small get together in the near future. Unfortunately, my apartment is too small to serve a full fledged sit down dinner. Any ideas for a couple of hors d'oeuvres? I have a ton of cookbooks on hand, but cooking some of the recipes published by other Gather members has been much more fun. By the way, congratulations on the success of your Gather cafe!

reply to this comment

Monica Kennedy Dec 30, 2005, 8:31pm EST

Jennifer, I do have a great potato salad recipe, and I will try to post it soon. My husband;s cousin-in-law makes really awesome baked beans in a crock pot - I have not tried it yet, but this is the jist of the recipe, if I recall correctly (from 2 years ago lol). In a pan, saute 1 large white onion (chopped) with 1 lb bacon (chopped). Dump two large cans of Bush's baked Beans, mix in the bacon and onion, stir in 1/2 cup of dark molasses and about a 1/4 cup mustard. Heat it thoroughly on the stove then transfer it to the crock pot to continue cooking. The crock pot will keep it hot during the meal. It is yummy!

reply to this comment

Monica Kennedy Dec 30, 2005, 8:33pm EST

Those amounts are estimates -- taste as you go to add more or if needed -- I don't think the amounts are too much.

reply to this comment

Pam F. Dec 30, 2005, 11:48pm EST

YES -- oh, that rabbit was so good, and even after I found out it was rabbit, it tasted so good I ate it anyway. Being very pregnant for the first time, though, I had never had heart burn! I got it bad that night and I had to go to the ER because I was sure something BAD was wrong! LOL - I felt silly being told it was just heart burn! Well worth the heart burn though! This sauce is really good!

For my baked beans, I prefer to omit the molasses. I like a less sweet taste. The rest of my recipe is about the same, except I put it in a casserole dish and bake it in the oven.

reply to this comment

Monica Kennedy Mar 17, 2006, 4:04am EST

Sorry about the duplicate postings in some groups. I am not sure why it is doing this and I cannot seem to fix it.

reply to this comment

Dorine H. Jan 11, 2007, 9:26pm EST

Yesssss!!! This is good barbeque sauce, not that red sugary glop they foist off in so many parts of the country! Right on Monica!!!

reply to this comment

☃ Aunt Shanny Jan 11, 2007, 9:38pm EST

Sounds really tasty. I like bbq made from scratch too.

reply to this comment

Nancy S. Jan 29, 2007, 7:36pm EST

I am thrilled to find this recipe! My husband is from North Carolina, and he loves this stuff. I'm going to print it out and make it for him. He claims his grandmother made it with squirrel!
(I'll have something else, though, thanks.)

reply to this comment