Spicy, Drunken Cranberries & Protein of Choice
These cranberries or some version of them has become a holiday staple. I love the combination of heat from the chile powder( chipotle if you can find it), the honey and molasses to tame the tart of the cranberries and orange liqueur to make it interesting. Bourbon, rum or brandy will also work.
You’ll need fresh cranberries, a large pot, a cast iron or stainless steel skillet, a sheet tray and an instant read thermometer.
Choose a protein that you can pan sear – steak or pork chop are pretty straight forward, but you could also choose fresh fish.
Look forward to cooking with you on Sunday!
Kitchen Essentials
Here’s a list of some of the essential items you are going to need for this recipe as well as other items that I very highly recommend.
For this recipe:
- Large pot
- Cast iron or stainless steel skillet
- Sheet tray
- Instant read thermometer
Other highly recommended items:
- Food thermometers:
- Cutting boards:
- Mineral oil for cutting boards:
AuthorJim BrownChipotle chile powder, orange liqueur, honey and molasses make these cranberries a big hit during the holidays. We'll also pan sear a steak or a pork chop and roast some asparagus while these are cooking. Yum!
Kitchen Essentials
- Large pot
- Cast iron or stainless steel skillet
- Sheet tray
- Instant read thermometer
Prep
No prep needed.
Ingredients
Let's start by preheating the oven to 400 for the asparagus.
We're going to get the cranberries started because they're going to cook while we cook the protein.
Rinse the cranberries and discard any suspect looking ones.
Put them in a heavy bottomed pot and add about an inch of water to the pot. I was going to say to cover the cranberries but initially they float.
Add the molasses, the honey, the chipotle powder or regular chile powder, the orange liqueur, the cinnamon sticks and the juice from a lime. Also add a generous pinch of salt and pepper.
We're going to bring this up to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer.
Once we have our cranberries simmering we'll turn our attention to the asparagus and the protein.
We'll cook the asparagus on a sheet pan in the oven. We're going to quickly snap the tough ends off to the asparagus, toss it with some olive or avocado oil and salt and put on a sheet pan in a 400 degree oven.
We'll use a cast iron skillet or stainless steel skillet for the protein. The meat will cook pretty quickly - about 3-4 minutes per side. I look for about 120 for Steak and about 130 for Pork Chops because their temps increase while they rest. The time required to cook will be influenced by how long the meat has been out of the fridge and how thick it is.
I usually default to 3 minutes per side and then check the internal temp with an instant read thermometer.
Our asparagus should be done about the same time as our meat and the cranberries should be getting close to ready.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
