Chicken Chili

I love the fall season. It is not freezing outside yet and the colors are absolutely beautiful! This is also a good time for soups, stews and chili! This recipe is quite good. I am not sure where I got it from. I had never tried Chicken Chili and I would see it occasionally in a blog or on a cooking show so when I was flipping through my recipe binder (years of collecting), I came across this recipe. It was fate so I made it.  This was very comforting and slightly addictive. I liked that it was creamy with a little kick of spice.



Chicken Chili
Serves 6-8

2 pounds diced chicken, about 3 cups (white or dark, cooked or not, whatever you have)
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder - not garlic salt)
2 (two) 15.5 ounce cans Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (or any light colored bean - great northern, pinto, black eyed peas)
4 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (more if you like it hot)
8 ounces sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 (one) 4 ounce can green chilies (optional)

Garnish:
sour cream
shredded cheese (pepper jack, cheddar, etc)
chopped scallions
chopped cilantro

Heat a heavy-bottomed soup pot over med-hi heat. If using leftover chicken, skip this first step. If using uncooked chicken, lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper; saute in a little oil until browned (no need to cook completely at this stage). Remove chicken; reserve. In the same pan, saute onions until slightly browned; add salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne, oregano, and cumin. Continue to cook for a few minutes to "bloom" the flavor of the herbs. Add chicken stock, chicken, beans, and optional green chilies to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, heavy cream, and parsley. Garnish and serve.

Chicken Torilla Soup

This soup has such an intense flavor the picture does not do it justice! Last year my daughter came over to make a Chicken Tortilla Soup that her friend had made just a few days before. He had told her that his family always makes this soup and it is the best. So she memorized everything he added to the soup and could not wait to share this recipe with me. Especially once she tasted it and it was so good! When we were finished making the soup, we all sat down and with every bite each one of us kept saying how good it was. If you are used to the creamy version that Max & Erma sells, just stir sour cream into your soup and you get a creamy base with wonderful chunks of chicken, tomato, corn, carrots and celery. This recipe can be easily be cut in half; just put the whole can a corn in. You can also save time by using the tomatoes that include Jalapeno peppers or hot chilis. I have done both of these and the soup is still wonderful. The full recipe will easily feed eight to ten. When I half the recipe I get five servings.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
8-10 servings
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrot, diced
2 lbs chicken, chunked
1 can corn, drained
2 lg cans chicken broth
28 oz crushed tomatoes
1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1 tbsp garlic
2 tbsp cumin
2 tsp chili pepper
1 tbsp lemon pepper
Hot sauce, to taste
¼ flour

Cook onion, celery and carrots in a little oil and butter until tender. Add chicken and cook through. Add corn, broth, tomatoes, peppers, and spices. Bring to boil and then turn down to a simmer for ½ hour. You can adjust spices to taste. I sometimes add a little more cumin and lemon pepper. You can add hot sauce and chili pepper to add more heat. Mix ¼ cup flour with water for a thickener. Add to soup and bring to a boil. Serve with cheese, sour cream, green onion and crispy tortillas.

Crispy tortillas: cut tortillas into thin strips. Spray with cooking oil and lightly salt. Cook at 350 for 5 minutes until crispy. Watch these, they will burn easily.

Print Recipe

Enjoy!

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

It started snowing here again this week and I have been freezing. Last night I planned out a menu for the week so that I could do some productive grocery shopping this week instead of willy-nilly shopping and having anything in the house to eat. I think we will have quite a few good meals this week with many new recipes that I have not tried before.

The soup recipe in this post was given to me by my sister-in-law Dodie. She actually sent me eight recipes and I am dying to try them all. This soup was so quick and easy to make. As it was cooking it smelled incredible in here and Baylee kept asking when it would be done. The soup is very thick with the first several bites picking up the Italian sausage and as you continue to eat it, the flavors of the tomato, beans, spinach start to come out. I put some of the leftovers in the freezer to see how it freezes. We loved this and TJ has already planned to have it for lunch tomorrow.




Pasta e Fagioli
1 lb sweet Italian sausage, removed from casing
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes
46 oz chicken broth
10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup uncooked bow tie pasta
1 15 oz can of cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
Parmesan Cheese

Brown sausage, drain fat. Add onion and garlic and saute for 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with their liquid and break them up with a spoon. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add in spinach, uncooked pasta, and beans. Simmer for 15 minutes as pasta cooks. Serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

Print recipe

Enjoy!

Wedding Soup

When I married my husband it did not take long for me understand how important making a good wedding soup was to the family. His sister Dodie's soup was excellent and I was not sure I could make soup, let alone a good soup. My husband always talked about wedding soup, he would order it at restaurants and then say it was not right, not like the soup his sister's make. One morning he decided he was going to make the soup. He went to the store and bought the ingredients, consulted with his sister, and then started on his day long adventure to make the soup. He cut vegetables, boiled and boned a whole chicken, and meticulously made perfect little meatballs. It literally took 10 hours for him to make the soup! It was delicious! Seriously though, I thought I do not have time to make this soup!!

Several months later, I came across the recipe and I decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, in an hour and half I was able to make the soup, do two loads of laundry, and clean up the kitchen. I did take a few short cuts but the results were the same.....delicious soup!!

This soup is very good. The flavor is smooth and the soup is hardy so you do not need much else to make it a meal. I have never really cared for spinach, but in the soup it is subtle so I really enjoy it.

Italian Wedding Soup

SOUP

Whole 4 lb chicken, or 2 chicken breasts bone-in, or 4 boneless breasts - (This is where you can save time)

1 onion chopped - I use a very large yellow onion

1 1/2 cups chopped celery

1 cup chopped carrots

2 32 oz containers of chicken stock

10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

MEATBALLS

1 lb ground beef or turkey

2 pieces garlic, chopped fine

1 tbsp parsley

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/3 grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

1/3 cup bread crumbs

DRIZZLE

3 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Boil chicken in large pot with enough water just to cover chicken. Add in about 1/2 cup of the onion and little salt. When chicken is falling off bone, or is cooked through, remove from pan and shred. Add the chicken back to the pot, add stock, onion, celery, and carrots.

While this simmers, mix all ingredients for the meatballs and make tiny little meatballs. We like them the size of marbles. When they cook in the soup they are very tender and melt in your mouth.

Bring soup back up to a boil and drop in meatballs. Add spinach. Reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes. This is a good time to add 1 tsp of Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Beat 3 eggs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan in a small liquid measuring cup. Bring soup back up to a boil and drizzle the cheese and egg mixture into the soup, stirring occasionally. Cook soup for at least another 15 minutes before eating.

This soup can stay on low heat for a long time and the flavor or texture will not be effected. This soup freezes well. You can re-heat in microwave, or on stove top and it tastes like it was just made.

Print Recipe

Enjoy!

Lots of Snow and Veggie Soup

The snow keeps coming down and I don't think it will stop soon. It will quit for a couple hours but then it starts again. They say this will happen for most of this week! I am definitely not a snow girl. I get cold fairly easily and would rather not go outside to brave the weather!

I was happy that veggie soup was on my menu for this week. Vegetable soup is kind of a personal soup. You can never make it exactly the same everytime and everyone has different preferences as to what makes vegetable soup good. Some people enjoy the broth based soup with big chunks of vegables and others like to take can of vegatables, juice and all, and dump them in a pan with a little bouillon and pasta. I like a tomato base soup that is hearty and spicy with lots of vegatables and meat. My Grandma used V8 juice in her soup so I never make vegatable soup without adding a couple of cups. We also like it spicy so I added a little over a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. My husband said it could have used more, but it had a nice kick that was enjoyable.

This recipe makes plenty, we had it for dinner, I had some for lunch today, and I was able to put 2 quart size bags in the freezer! Sometimes I double the recipe and use my stock pot. The recipe below fit in my 6 qt cast iron dutch oven. It was YUMMY! I hope you like my vegatble soup version!

Vegatable Soup

2 lbs stew meat
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 Tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Seasoning Salt
2 tsp pepper
32 oz Beef Broth
14 oz canned Corn, drained
15 oz canned Cut Green Beans, drained
15 oz Petite Diced tomatoes (I used the ones with Green Chilis)
8 oz canned Lima Beans, drained
15 oz canned Peas and Carrots, drained
2 cups V8 Juice
2 cups potatoes, diced
Red Pepper Flakes or Hot Sauce to suit your taste, optional

In a heavy botton pan place a little olive oil, meat, Italian Seasoning, onion, celery, Worchestershire Sauce, Garlic Powder, Seasoning Salt, and pepper. Cook until onion and celery are tender and meat is browned. Add broth, canned vegatables and V8 Juice. If you choose to spice up the soup, you can add Red Pepper Flakes or Hot Sauce at this time. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer covered for about 2 - 3 hours. Add potatoes about one hour before serving.

Print Recipe