Simple Chicken Marinade with Maple Dijon Mustard

Maple Marinades

In most cases, we prefer to develop our own homemade marinades, often utilizing our farms maple syrup as the sweet element in the recipe. Sometimes though, we get very busy here at the farm, trying to deliver maple products far and wide and find ourselves short on time to get creative for dinner. For years now, we've been selling Vermont Epicurean's phenomenal maple based marinades.These glazes are the best, and available from our online farm store. It's not unheard of that in a a pinch, someone here at the farm takes a marinade from the stock shelves to take dinner to the next level. These glazes are the absolute best. Our family has been using the Vermont Epicurean for over a decade and we haven't found anything better on the market. If we haven't tried it, we aren't offering it!

The VT Epicurean let's you get to grilling in minutes. Not just a marinades, try it out in your favorite stir-fry. Made with natural, high-quality ingredients you can count on in every bottle.

Maple Dijon Mustard

In our opinion the most versatile of the flavors, this sauce gets high marks from us for its utility. Chicken, fish, pork, all accept this sweet and savory sauce. We're big fans of Dijon mustard from France and the maple in this sauce combined with the mustard seeds provides a sharp flavor. The people at Vermont Epicurean suggest that it also makes for a good salad dressing or over veggies before sauteing. They even claim it pairs well with cheddar cheese. We're sure it does, and will update this blog as soon as we have edible testimony.

This past weekend we made chicken quarters with their maple Dijon sauce.  The night before we opened a bottle and generously coated the chicken, then put it to bed in the refrigerator. The next day we put the chicken on the pellet grill smoker,  basting for the last 15 minutes with more marinade.

We have a couple of "dippers" in our family, so a side of sauce in a ramekin is a must.

Smoked or Grilled Chicken Quarters in Maple Dijon Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken quarters (cut however you prefer)
• 1 bottle of Vermont Epicurean Maple Dijon Sauce

Directions:

• Coat chicken in 1/3 to 1/2 of a bottle of marinade (as desired)
• Marinate overnight (my preferred technique) or just before cooking

• Place in a pellet grill at 275 for 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Finish at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes until a desired internal temperature of 170-175 degrees F (This will give you nice color and a slight char)
• Baste with sauce approximately 15 minutes before the finish.

Alternate Grill Directions:

• Preheat grill to 375 degrees F.
• Place chicken on grill for 45 to 60 minutes until a desired internal temperature of 170-175 degrees F.
• Baste with sauce approximately 15 minutes before the finish

NOTE: The FDA recommends chicken be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. However, for dark chicken meat we have found that 170-175 provides the best level of flavor and tenderness.