Hearty Chicken Tortilla Soup

This makes a huge pot of soup.  Enough for several meals.

 

Ingredients:

2-3 tablespoons oil
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 10 ounce can Ro*Tel diced tomatoes & green chiles
1-2 5.5 ounce can tomato juice 
Several cups chicken broth or stock
3 carrots, sliced rather thick
3 celery ribs, sliced rather thick
2 yellow squash, cut in half lengthwise and sliced rather thick
2 zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced rather thick
1 pound cooked chicken

 

You will also need:

Stock pot

 

Method:

Heat oil in stock pot over medium heat.  Cook onion in oil until translucent and beginning to brown just a little.  Add garlic, paprika, chili powder, cumin, coriander, and Mexican oregano.  Cook briefly until fragrant.  Add diced tomatoes, Ro*Tel, tomato juice and 2 cups of chicken broth.  Add carrots and celery and stir everything to combine well.  Add more chicken broth if needed.  Cover and bring to a simmer.  Cook (simmer) on low for about 1 hour until carrots and celery are tender.

Add squash, zucchini and chicken.  Add more broth and/or tomato juice if needed and to suit your own taste as to the ratio of liquid to vegetables.  (Some like lots of liquid.  My man likes the vegetables and meat to be more prominent.)  Cover again and continue to simmer until the squash and zucchini are very tender (at least 30-45 minutes). 

If you need to leave at any point during the cooking like I did, you may cover the pot and place into a 325°-350° oven.

Taste and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, place some broken tortilla chips in the bottom of a bowl and top with grated cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese.  Ladle hot soup over the cheese and chips.  Top it off with a little more grated cheese and some slices of avocado.

Mole Chicken and Rice

The more you cook, the more comfortable you become with flavors, combinations and techniques. The more comfortable you become, the more you are able to improvise and cook without any kind of a recipe. That’s what this dish was for me. It was a dish that I threw together based up on techniques and flavor combinations that I have picked up along the way over the last several years.

And you know what? It was really good.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil or butter
1 onion (chopped)
1 celery rib (chopped)
2 carrots (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (minced or pressed)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
Coarse kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 can Ro*tel tomatoes & green chilies
1 cup mole sauce*
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
1 1/4 cup long grain brown rice

3-4 chicken breasts (bone in, skin removed)
3-4 tablespoons all purpose flour
Seasoning salt (like Tony Chacheres's Creole seasoning)
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

*If no mole sauce is available, you may substitute something else like some tomato paste and chili powder or omit completely.

You will also need:

Oven safe skillet with lid
Heavy skillet (like cast iron)

Method:

Sauté onion in oil or butter over medium-high heat in oven safe skillet to soften, then add celery and carrots and sauté a few minutes more. Add garlic and stir while cooking for just a few seconds. Next, add Mexican oregano, cumin and coriander and stir while cooking until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Salt and pepper the mixture. Next add Ro*Tel tomatoes, about 1/2 cup of mole sauce, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil and add rice. Let the mixture boil on the stove top until chicken is ready to add.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Season flour with seasoning salt, kosher salt and ground pepper. Lightly coat chicken breasts in flour and pan fry to lightly brown in a separate skillet (cast iron). (I did this in some bacon fat and it was awesome!!!)

Once lightly browned on all sides, place chicken directly on top of the boiling rice/vegetable mixture. Cover with a lid and place in a 375 F oven. Bake for close to an hour until chicken is done (170 F) and rice is tender. Remove from the oven and use the remaining mole sauce over the top of each chicken breast and return to oven to heat for just a few minutes. (Or, you may try adding the mole on top of the chicken earlier. It was just a last minute thought for me.)

Note: Resist the urge to reach in and periodically stir the rice. From my understanding, constantly messing with brown rice will make it sticky and gross. Don’t do it. Just let it bake on it’s own and it’ll turn out great.

"Not So WAY More Homemade" Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe is a little more like food assembly (a la Food Network's Sandra Lee) but it's good and quick for a weeknight dinner solution. I will be posting my real HOMEMADE version of this soup soon.

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken (from grocery store)
Olive oil or butter for sautee
1 onion (rough dice)
2-3 cloves garlic (minced or pressed)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can creamed corn
1 can whole kernel corn (drained) (optional)
1 can Ro*Tel diced tomatoes
1 can [regular] diced tomatoes
Chicken broth/stock to taste


You will also need:

Stock pot
Tortilla Chips
Pre-shredded Mexican cheese blend


Method:

De-bone at least half of the roasted chicken and coarsely chop it into bite sized chunks.

Open all cans (tomatoes, soup and corn).

Heat some butter or oil in a stock pot over medium high heat, add diced onion and sautee for a few minutes. Add garlic and cook for just a minute. Then and chili powder, cumin and coriander and stir while cooking until fragrant. Add in coarsley chopped chicken and stir around to coat the chicken in the spices just a bit.

Now comes the easy part. Empty all cans into the pot... cream of chicken soup, creamed corn, whole kernel corn, Ro*Tel and diced tomatoes. Stir around and begin slowly adding chicken stock/broth until it reaches the thickness/thinness that you desire. Heat until all is completely combined and thouroughly warmed.

Serve in a shallow bowl. Assemble by breaking up some tortilla chips in the bottom of the bowl, sprinkling generously with cheese and ladeling the soup over the top. I like to sprinkle a little extra cheese right on top.

Spice Rub

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons each:
Whole cumin seeds
Whole coriander seeds
Whole mustard seeds

3 teaspoons each:
Whole Allspice
Whole Peppercorns

1 ½ cups brown sugar
4 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt
2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon each:
Curry powder
Ground ginger
Cayenne pepper
Dried rosemary (crushed)
Ground cinnamon


You will also need:

Non-stick sauté pan/skillet
Spice grinder or spice dedicated coffee grinder


Method:

Measure each of the whole spices (cumin seeds, coriander seeds, allspice, mustard seeds and peppercorns) in to a small non-stick skillet and place over medium – medium-high heat. Shake the pan periodically to move the seeds around. Toast the spices in this manner until fragrant and you see a few wisps of smoke rising from the skillet. Remove from heat and pour the spices in to a different bowl or container to cool. Set aside.

While the toasted spices cool, measure the remaining ingredients (brown sugar, seasoned salt, paprika…. etc) and place in a bowl.

Once the whole spices have cooled a bit, place them into your spice grinder or spice dedicated coffee grinder and grind into a powder. Add them into your bowl and mix to combine while mashing up the clumps of brown sugar as you mix.


It can be used on Ribs, Brisket, Chicken... whatever.

Jambalaya

The great thing about Jamalaya is that it has a few basic ingredients and the rest of it, you can just make up as you go. But here's what I do, some of the time, kind of, in a general sort of way.


Ingredients:

Chicken for filling (click to see recipe) (chunked or shredded)
1 pound smoked sausage (or andouille or other sausage) (halved and sliced)
1 pound uncooked shrimp (thawed if frozen, peeled & deveined)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 celery stalks (chopped)
2 carrots (chopped)
1 green bell pepper (seeded and chopped)
4 cloves of garlic (peeled and chopped)
3 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
Reserved liquid from Chicken for filling
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 bay leaves
4-6 cups water or chicken broth
4 cups long grain white rice - or - 3 - 3 1/2 cups brown rice
Salt (to taste)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley


You will also need:

Stock pot with lid
Hefty spoon


Method:

First prepare the Chicken for filling while reserving the cooking liquid (which is a beautiful deep red color) in a separate bowl and discarding the aromatic vegetables.

In the same stock pot, saute the sliced smoked sausage until it has a nice browned color on both sides. Remove from stock pot and set aside in a separate bowl.

Still in the same stock pot, heat olive oil and add onion, celery, carrots and bell pepper and cook until onions are beginning to soften. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant (30 seconds-1 minute). Next add the reserved cooking liquid from the chicken while scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pot. Then add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves and 4 cups of water or broth. Then add your rice (I suggest a little less brown rice as it seems to absorb more liquid and takes longer to cook than white). Bring to a boil.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 325. Once the rice is boiling and your oven is hot enough, cover and put the whole thing in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make sure that your shrimp is peeled and deveined. After the 15 minutes, add in your shrimp, sausage, chicken, and more liquid as necessary.

Here is where some options come in.

-If you are serving immediately, I'd suggest to continue to bake until the rice is fully tender, but you still want a little bit of liquid.

-If you are taking this with you somewhere like a potluck where it could potentially be in a crock pot for a while, I'd only cook until the shrimp is done then remove it from the oven (so just a few minutes). That allows the rice to continue to cook while it is in the crock pot and prolongs the time before it just becomes a sticky over-done rice mess.

Remove bay leaves and garnish with parsley before serving.


Made with brown rice:




Made with white rice:

Chicken for filling

This is a great way to cook chicken that you'll use in another dish. You can use this in tamales, jambalaya, enchiladas, chile rellenos or any number of things.


Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
1/2 cup Paprika*
2 tablespoons Chili powder*
2 teaspoons Dried oregano*
1 teaspoon Celery salt*
1 teaspoon Ground cumin*
1 teaspoon Ground coriander seed*
Kosher salt*
Ground pepper*
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 celery stalks (cut up)
2 carrots (cut up)
1 onion (peeled & quartered)
Water

* Don't hold me too much to these amounts. I just dumped some in until it looked about right. I didn't measure a single THING.


You will also need:

Medium bowl
Stock pot or dutch oven
A little wine to deglaze if you have it


Method:

In medium bowl, combine paprika, chili powder, oregano, celery salt, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Rinse and pat the thighs dry with paper towels. Toss in the spice mixture to coat fully and allow to sit for about 30 minutes.

Heat oil in stock pot or dutch oven over high heat. Once hot, reduce heat to medium-high, add chicken skin side down and cook for approximately 3 minutes. Turn chicken over and cook for 3 additional minutes.

If you have some white wine sitting around that nobody is drinking, splash just a little (1/4 cup or so) in to deglaze all the spices cooked to the bottom of the pan. Allow that to simmer and reduce for a few minutes. Add enough water so that the chicken is not quite completely covered up. Throw in your aromatics (celery, carrots & onion), bring to a boil, cover and place in a 350 F oven.

Cook for 20-30 minutes, until chicken is done and easily comes away from bones. Remove from oven, remove chicken from liquid and allow to cool before removing from the bone. Reserve the cooking liquid to use in another dish as needed.

~~~

The spice mixture. Like I said, I dumped some stuff in & didn't measure anything.




Stir the chicken until well coated in the mixture. It's kind of hard, but they need to be well coated.




Once you add the thighs into the pot skin side down, you can pour what's left on top so that all the spice mixture is used. Flip after 3 minutes or so.




Throw in some aromatics and some water & stick that thing in the oven. Don't think about it again for a good while.




The result is very flavorful chicken that will stand up to being shredded and used in a myriad of ways. I bet you could even just do some shredded chicken tacos if you wanted.

"Buffalo" Wings

These are not "authentic" because I prefer a light breading to naked wings.

Ingredients:

Chicken Wings
Flour seasoned with salt and pepper
Oil
1/2 - 1 cup Hot pepper sauce (i.e. Tabasco)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter

(You'll notice that I'm not very specific on my amounts... you're getting an idea of how I really cook. I rarely measure anything... except when I bake. Baking is an entirely different animal.)

Prepare the wings by removing the tips and separating them at the joint with a knife or kitchen shears. Dry them thoroughly with paper towels. Coat each in the salt/pepper seasoned flour and place on a wire cooling rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate (uncovered) for at least 30 minutes. Do not discard remaining flour yet.

Melt the butter and 1/2 cup of hot pepper sauce in a sauce pan over medium to low heat. Add more hot pepper sauce as desired for increased heat.

Before removing wings from the refrigerator, pour some oil in a Dutch oven or stock pot and heat it on high heat until it's, well, hot. Once the oil is hot, remove the wings from the refrigerator. Give them one last pass through the flour, then (gently) place them in the *hot* oil. Let them fry for a few minutes. They'll start to float but don't take them out until they are golden brown. Remove to a paper towel lined rimmed baking sheet to drain slightly. Immediately toss with wing sauce in a large bowl.

Serve with blue cheese dressing, beer, and a side of football. It doesn't get any better.

Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli

from Cook's Illustrated (Jan/Feb 2005)

4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts trimmed of fat and cut crosswise into 1/4" slices
1 small onion, chopped fine (2/3 cup)
Salt
6 medium garlic cloves minced or pressed (2 tbsp)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp roughly chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp all-purpose flour (I tend to use a little more - like 2 tbsp)
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bunch broccoli (1 1/2 lbs), florets trimmed into 1" pieces (6 cups)
1/2 lb penne, ziti, cavatappi, or campanelle (I used bow-tie tonight)
2 oz finely grated Asiago cheese (1 cup), plus extra for serving (you can substitute Parmesan)
1 jar (7 - 8 1/2 oz) oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into 1/4" strips (1 cup)
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
Ground black pepper


Bring 4 quarts of water to rolling boil, covered, in stockpot.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp butter in 12" skillet over high heat until just beginning to brown (about 1 min). Add chicken in single layer; cook for 1 minute w/o stirring, then stir chicken and continue to cook until most, but not all, pink color has disappeared and chicken is lightly browned around the edges (about 2 min longer). Transfer chicken to clean bowl; set aside.

Return skillet to high heat and add 1 tbsp butter; add onion and 1/4 tsp salt and cook, stirring occasionally until browned around edges (2-3 min). Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, thyme, and flour; cook, stirring constantly until fragrant (30 sec). Add wine and chicken broth; bring to simmer, then reduce heat to medium and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until sauce has thickened slightly and reduced to 1 1/4 cups (15 min).

While sauce simmers, add 1 tbsp salt and broccoli to boiling water; cook until broccoli is tender but still crisp at center (2 min or less). Using slotted spoon, transfer broccoli to large paper towel-lined plate. Return water to boil; stir in pasta and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water; return pasta to pot.

Once sauce is thickened, stir remaining 2 tbsp butter, Asiago, sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, and chicken into sauce in skillet; cook until chicken is hot and cooked through (1-2 minutes). Off heat, season to taste with pepper. Pour chicken/sauce mixture over pasta and add broccoli; toss gently to combine, adding pasta cooking water as needed to adjust sauce consistency. Serve immediately, passing additional Asiago separately.