Adopted Chicken Noodle Soup

This soup recipe was given to me by a friend -- one of those types of friends who's pretty much family.  Hence "Adopted" soup.  It's not as fast as my other recipe, but boy is it tasty!  This is definitely something to make when you're snowed into your house or have a pile of company coming over for dinner.  It's not difficult, but it does take some time.  I modified the original recipe just slightly from the original.

1 roasting/frying chicken

3 carrots, chopped (Original calls for 2 lbs of baby carrots, go ahead and do that if you love a ton of carrots)

3 ribs celery, chopped (Original calls for a small celery bunch, chopped)

1 medium onion (Original calls for 1 sweet onion, outer layer pulled off)

2-3 tbs or more of Kosher Salt 

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

(McCormick’s Season All -- optional)

(6 packets of boullion from chicken flavored ramen -- optional)

½ bag of wide egg noodles or a batch of home made noodles

2-3 tbs fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Directions

1. Prep the chicken.

Pull out the innards. Pull/cut off the skin. Trim the fat.  I recommend using a pair of kitchen shears if you've got them.  It makes quick work of the skin and is less dangerous (at least if you're as uncoordinated as me, anyway). Wash it nice and clean with running water.

2. Put the chicken in a big pot and cover completely with water.  When I say big, I mean pretty big.  I use my large stock pot so that I've got some room to work with.  Toss in the kosher salt.  I used 2-3 tbs as a general measurement, but I usually do a handful and a half (I have small hands, however).  If you want to add the seasonall, go ahead and do it now.

3. Set the pot to boil and hang around. The remaining fat and grease from the chicken will float to the

top. Skim it off using a fine mesh skimmer-thing.  You know the kind.  The scummy stuff will really start floating up right before the water starts to boil, so don't wander off!

4. Toss in the onion as the water boils.  If you don't like much onion in your soup, you can just cut it in half and toss them in.  Just fish it out when you remove the chicken.  If, however, you like onion, feel free to chop it as fine as you care for and fling it right in.  Let the chicken cook until the legs fall off from the breast when you attempt to pick it up out of the broth.  This usually takes about 35-45 minutes.  Keep an eye on the water level and add a bit more if it starts getting too low.  Pull the chicken out and set aside on a plate.

5.  Give the broth a taste and add more salt if you feel it needs it.  If it's too salty, don't panic.  You can just add more water.  Alternately, instead of adding more salt, you can use some of the chicken flavored ramen packets.  Toss in the carrots, celery, and garlic.   Bring the pot back to a boil.  Other things that might be good to add: fresh thyme or minced ginger.  Feel free to experiment.

6. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the meat off in little bits and toss it back in the pot.

7. Turn the soup down to simmer with a lid on it until the carrots are tender. If you chopped the carrots and celery fairly small this usually takes around 10-15 minutes.  For the whole baby carrots from the original recipe, this generally goes about an hour.

8. Boil noodles as per package directions in a separate pot. Drain.  Alternately, make your own noodles and fling them in when the veggies are just this side of done.  It might sound scary, but trust me, these noodles are easy.  You're already making chicken soup from scratch anyway, right?

9. When the carrots are tender, add the noodles, and stir the heck out of that soup.  Add the chopped parsley right at the end, otherwise it has a tendency to turn brown and look less than tasty.

10. Eat!

Plum Chicken Salad

This salad is really tasty, and it even makes its own dressing.  Balsamic vinaigrette FTW!


Plum Chicken Salad

I ended up using red leaf lettuce since I wasn’t terribly keen on paying a premium for the rather wilted “organic” spring mix being offered at my grocery store.  I’m sure anything would work, but it added some nice color and looked fancy.  The sweet plums contrast very nicely with the tangy vinegar, while the celery gives a great textural crunch.  The addition of some plum tomatoes and shredded parmesan was purely motivated by what I had in my fridge but worked anyway.

This turned out to be quite fast and easy since I had some left over grilled chicken from the week before.  Turns out the chicken freezes just fine, so I’m learning to cook a bunch up at once to save me some time.  Grilled chicken breast is a great choice since you can use it in so many things for a protein boost whenever you’re feeling like your veggies are a bit lack-luster.  

Bento! My Lunch Experiment

In an effort to shed some pounds and make sure Sister doesn’t starve herself through forgetfulness, I decided to take a shot at making bento.  What’s bento, you might ask?  It’s basically a meal in a box.  But don’t take my word for it.  Maki over at justbento.com is way better versed than I.

I’m not terribly interested in making the super cute, fancy bentos that you might have seen pictures of (as fun as those look).  My focus is more on the portion control and making sure I don’t get bored with my food.  Fortunately, Maki offers all kinds of advice and recipes aimed at nutritious, economical, and easy lunches.  She even takes into account that the traditional Japanese bento ingredients are hard to come by in most parts of the world.  Give the site a look through and you’ll probably find something tasty to try.

My first bentos have been pretty tame and barely need a recipe, but here you go anyway.

Roast Beef, Provolone, and Red Pepper Wraps (makes 2)
¼ lb roast beef
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 small bunch arugula or other leafy lettuce
4 slices provolone
2 good sized sandwich wraps (I used spinach)

Smoked Turkey, Cheddar, and Avocado Wraps (makes 2)
¼ lb smoked Turkey
½ avocado, sliced and removed from skin
1 small bunch arugula or other leafy lettuce
2-4 slices good cheddar (depending on their size)
2 good sized sandwich wraps

After having eaten both, I think I may modify the turkey recipe a bit to add some red pepper to it or at least some kind of dressing.  It’s a touch on the bland side, actually, though the smoked turkey and cheddar are a good combo.  Red pepper and roast beef are a winner for sure, and I do love avocados.

I chose a mixture of raspberries and blueberries and some cubed cheeses for my two snacks/sides.  And no, I didn’t pay a premium for those cute little pre-cut cubes in the bags.  Its way cheaper to grab some big blocks and chunk them up yourself.  I have enough for two people for more than a week.

Leek and Potato Soup

Leeks are amazing.  They are a woefully underused vegetable.  Sister is not a fan of onions, so leeks get used as a substitute in some of my cooking.  They have a subtle, onion flavor that won’t overpower delicate dishes.  If you’ve never used them before, this is a great recipe to start with.



Alton Brown's Leek and Potato Soup

I love Alton Brown.  That guy is just a boatload of fun to watch.  The fact that I get educated about food while being entertained is a big bonus.  Go find some episodes of Good Eats if you’ve never watched him.  The man also makes some incredibly tasty dishes.  

This is one I make mostly according to the recipe.  Since I usually have a surplus of chicken stock lurking in my deep freeze, I usually substitute that for the vegetable stock.  No one in my family is a vegetarian, so I can get away with it.  Alternately, you could make your own vegetable broth in a slow cooker the exact same way you’d make chicken stock.  I also try to use the tender part of the green leek tops since it gives the soup a groovy color.  Other than that, just go with Mr. Brown.  

While it’s not one of the faster recipes, almost all of your time is spent hanging around and waiting for veggies to cook.  Its a great thing to fix when you’ve got other things to do in or around your kitchen.  Do the dishes.  Clean the counters.  Bake some easy desert.  Its all good.  Leeks will forgive you if you don’t spend all your time with them.

You don’t have to use an immersion blender.  A plan ol’ blender will work just fine.  You might have to stop part way through and stir things around, but for the most part there’s enough liquid to easy the process along.

Definitely go with the buttermilk in this recipe.  It may sound weird, but the slight tang is so ridiculously delicious.  You could use that aforementioned spare time to bake some buttermilk biscuits if you’re feeling adventurous.  

This is an awesome dish to get vegetables into fussy eaters too.  The green color is exotic enough for the younger crowd to want to taste it, and its not vegetable-y in flavor.  Try this with some goldfish or cheez-it crackers.  Seriously tasty.  This gets even better the next day, in my opinion, but it has a tendency to disappear pretty fast.

Mini Meatball Soup

If you stick around, you'll find I'm a big fan of Rachel Ray's recipes.  She tends to strike a good balance of healthy ingredients, inexpensiveness, and speed.  All good things.  One of the first (and most used) cook books I purchased was her 365 days, No Repeats.

While its not in the book, I saw her make the Mini Meatball Soup on Food Network and decided to give it a try.  I won't say its my favorite soup, but its pretty darned tasty.  I can also attest that it is very good with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Mini Meatball Soup

You don't have to use the meatloaf mix for the meatballs.  I've always made do with 80% lean beef and things turned out for the tasty.

Be warned, though:  making the meatballs can be deceptively slow going.  It's much faster if you can blackmail score yourself some helpers.  If you've got kids, this would probably be a great time to throw on some grubby clothes (or aprons) and let them help you.  Put all the ingredients for the meatballs into a plastic baggy and let them squish it around -- or just throw it all into a bowl and have them mix it by hand.  Most kids seem to love this sort of messy, squishy activity.  You can then portion out the meat and let them roll the balls.  Just make sure that you add them to the soup yourself.  Getting splashed with hot chicken broth is not a happy fun time for kids.

An alternative is using a cookie scoop.  If you make cookies more than three times a year, these gadgets are fantastic.  You get evenly portioned cookies and don't have to scrap the dough off a spoon with another spoon.  I've always hated that part.

BONUS:  If you're not drowning in a wealth of homemade stock, and don't particularly care about everything being organic, you can usually pick up some nice chicken broth at the Dollar Tree store.  I think it's Kendal Farms, but the ingredients list didn't make me flash back to chemistry class, and I consider that a good sign.  It's decently tasty, can be had by the quart for $1, and seals back up if you don't use the whole thing.

Sharp as a Whip

This is going to cover some basic knife care.  If you're already skilled with your hardware, you can skip this post (unless I tend make you giggle or something -- then you can carry on).

So you've got yourself a fantastic knife -- and spent a fair bit on it too.  It might come with a nice edge, but eventually you'll find it doesn't cut as well as it used to.  So you use a knife sharpener, right?  Nope.  Because it might not actually be dull at all!

How can that be?  Well, it has to do with how sharp the knife is.  The edge on a properly sharpened blade is quite thin and over time it actually bends.  Once the edge gets out of alignment, it blade can seem dull even though its still really got a good sharp edge.  The honing steel (or rod) lets you gently put the edge back into alignment and carry on your merry way chopping, dicing, and mincing.




I'm sure you've seen TV chef's do this all the time.  The honing rod doesn't actually sharpen the blade, mind you, so if its still too dull after proper honing you might need to get it properly sharpened.





Now, you don't HAVE to go all out like this gentleman, but if you're going to shell out the dough for a premium blade, it might be worth the expensive of having it sharpened professionally.  If you're lucky enough to know someone who hunts (especially if they'll give you venison!), there's a minor chance they might also butcher some of their own meats so ask them what they do with their knives.  You could also question your local butcher or other friends who are avid cooks about good places to go.  I have a little manual sharpener that works pretty well myself, so you don't have to go the pro route.

Last thing about care: Washing.  I do not recommend tossing your good knives in the dishwasher.  Even if you picked up a stainless steel one, getting knocked around with other flatware isn't kind to the edge.  If you've got a steel blade, it can and will rust if you don't care for it properly.  A quick rinse with some dish soap and a sponge followed by immediately drying and storing is my personal method.  But stay away from those cheap electric knife sharpeners!  They really aren't that kind to your blade.

Taking good care of your knives means you won't have to work as hard to make those tasty dishes.  Less frustration leads to greater success, from my experience.  Plus, its really easy to intimidate impress guests when they see you working away on the honing steel.  You'll look like a total psycho pro!

Roasted Chicken Thighs

There's not much that's as cheap as bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs at the grocery store.  Just compare the price per pound with boneless, skinless types and you'll probably consider buying a boning knife and doing it yourself.  I don't know if I said it before, but I'm cheap.

If you want an easy, inexpensive dinner, you should consider this one.

Bone-in, Skin-on chicken thighs (1-2 per person depending on the size of the thighs)
Olive Oil
Kosher, Sea or other coarse salt
Black pepper
Alternatives: 1 garlic clove per chicken thigh, 1 sprig of thyme per chicken thigh, 1 lemon wedge per chicken thigh

1.  Crank your oven up to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tin foil.
2.  Drizzle olive oil on each chicken thigh on both sides.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides and rub everything in.
3.  Lay the thighs skin side up on the cookie sheet.
3a.  For a fancy touch, put 1 garlic clove, 1 sprig of fresh thyme, and 1 wedge of lemon under each chicken thigh.
4.  Bake the thighs for 30-40 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs.  When done, the juice should run clear when thigh is pricked with a knife and the skin should be golden brown and crispy.

You can fix this with whatever side dishes you like.  I usually pick one vegetable to steam and grab one of those cheap, flavored packages of rice or noodles.  If you want to make something fancy like risotto, this works as a wonderful, easy protein.