Chicken Noodle Soup

 Very few things warm the soul and the body like a bowl of chicken noodle soup on a cold winter's day, or when you're under the weather.  

Ingredients:

4 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs (patted dry)

1 onion, chopped

4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

4 ribs of celery, sliced

2 qts chicken broth

2 cups water

2 Tbsp oil (canola or olive)

1/2 tsp thyme

3 bay leaves

1 clove garlic, minced

8oz (half a bag) of wide egg noodles

1 Tbsp parsley

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Over medium high heat, add oil to a Dutch oven, or heavy bottomed soup pot.  Then place the thighs skin side down in the oil.  Cook thighs until golden browned skin (3-5 minutes) and then flip for an additional two minutes.  Remove to a plate.  Discard the majority of the drippings reserving 2-3 tablespoons.

2.  Add onion to drippings; cook and stir over medium-high heat until tender, 4-5 minutes. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add broth, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Bring to a boil. Return chicken to pan. Add celery, carrots, bay leaves and thyme. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until chicken is tender, 25-30 minutes.

3.  Remove chicken to a plate or cutting board to cool.  Add noodles; covered, over low heat until noodles are tender, 20-22 minutes.

4.  When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones. Shred meat into bite-sized pieces. Return meat to stockpot. Stir in parsley and lemon juice. Adjust to taste with salt and pepper. Remove bay leaves.

Serve with some crusty bread and ENJOY!

Nana's "Bott boi" or Pie in a Pot

Bott boi

    Growing up in South Carolina I didn't get to see my Nana in Pennsylvania very often.  When we did make the trip north it was always an exciting time as a young boy.  Shoot! It was even exciting when I took my own boys up to Pennsylvania when they were smaller.  One of the special parts was that Nana's house was usually the "hub" of family gatherings and that meant feeding large numbers.  Bott boi, a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe, was one of those crowd-pleasers that also went a long way to feeding large groups. It's basically a "pie in a pot" instead of a pot pie.     

    I can remember Nana giving my mother the 'recipe' and how-to's even though my mother was a great chicken pastry maker!  Bott boi -- chicken pastry....  two slightly different variations of the same meal.  The differences lie in some of the additional ingredients of bott boi.  Bott boi, can be made with ham, beef, lamb, turkey, chicken and usually contains potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions.  Chicken pastry is made with... well... chicken and pastry strips.

    This year is the first time I have attempted the recipe.  I have now made it twice in the last two months of 2020 - a year to remember, or forget!  I think it's one that I'll work to teach my daughter and daughter-in-laws if they wish to keep with some family tradition comfort food. 

"Noodle" Ingredients- (prepare noodles first so they can dry)

3.5 cups all purpose flour

3.5 Tbsp. shortening

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1.5 cups of water

Allow noodles to 'dry' for at least an hour

Mix together flour, salt and shortening as preparing a pie crust - (little crumbles)

Beat egg and mix with water

Add liquid to dry ingredients a little at a time and keep mixing.

Separate into three portions, and on a floured board or surface roll out to 1/4 inch thickness (think Kraft singles) then cut into squares.  Use wax paper or floured cloth to allow these to 'season' (dry)

Pot Ingredients-

2 split chicken breasts (skin and bone)

4 thighs (skin and bone)

*** (I used a small fryer whole)

1 onion, peeled, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

4 yellow potatoes, peeled and sliced

salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot place chicken parts, onion, celery and carrots, add water to cover.  Bring to a boil on high heat, then reduce and allow to simmer about 30 to 45 minutes.  

Remove chicken from the skin and bones. Cut up chicken and return to broth. Discard skin bones.

Alternately add potato slices and 'noodles'.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Cover tightly and cook at moderate boil until potatoes are tender and noodles are fluffy.  Add parsley flakes, give it a stir and serve!

Remember, make plenty because stews and soups are ALWAYS better the next day.

Enjoy!

Chicken Vegetable and Noodle Soup

 

     We are on our third day in a row of SNOW DAYs, and for South Carolina, that’s a lot of days in a row.  It started as sleet and freezing rain, then a couple inches of snow on top.  That’s not bad and certainly shouldn’t cause any major problems if you’re north of the Mason Dixon line. We are well south of that line down here so this type of storm - we shut the state down. Truthfully, a Snow Day in the south can provide more life application educational opportunities for children than a week of schooling!  

     We also run out for milk and bread, (as well as beer and wine to deal with cabin fever).  Having lived through South Carolina’s BLIZZARD of ’73 when we received 36 inches and six foot snow drifts that lasted for 10 days – milk and bread are very important when you have no electricity.  I remember vividly my mother cooking a large pot of vegetable soup on a Coleman gas stove.  My dad and I then loaded the soap on our sled – the same sled Natalie is playing on today – and hauling it through the blizzard to friends and neighbors to give them a hot meal.

     That memory of my parents, and the fact that many are already without power, urged me to make a large pot of soup.  Although I love my mother’s recipe for vegetable soup, I opted to make Chicken Vegetable Noodle soup.  Soup on a cold and wintery day just warms the soul.  This soup is a two part process, but it’s all around a pretty simple recipe.

Part One – Boiling the Chicken and making broth

Ingredients –

1 whole chicken (rinsed and cleaned out)
Water to cover chicken by about an inch
1Tbsp. dried basil
1Tbsp. onion powder
1Tbsp. garlic powder
¼ cup kosher salt
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp. whole peppercorns (or 1 Tbsp of ground black pepper)

 

Directions-

Place the chicken in a large pot and cover with the water.  Add all the other ingredients.  Heat over high heat until it starts boiling, then reduce to medium.  Cook for about 25 minutes.

Remove bird to a bowl for cooling; strain broth into another large pot using a tea strainer or cheesecloth.

When the bird cools pick the meat off and discard the carcass.  Tear the meat into bite size chunks (sometimes I use a knife on the breasts).

Part Two –

Ingredients –

The following have no measurements.  I just add what I feel needs to be in it according to my preference and taste.  Most are more than a cup, but it's your soup!

Baby carrots, cut into thirds
Frozen corn
Frozen green peas
5-8 leaves of kale, stems removed and finely chopped
1 large sweet onion, peeled and chopped
Options- (I sometimes add these too)
¼ cup of pearl barley
Sliced mushrooms
Frozen cut green beans
Elbow noodles (These are cooked in a separate pot, drained, rinsed and added to bowls just prior to serving soup.  Leftover noodles can be placed in Ziploc storage bags and refrigerated for the next meal.)

Directions –

Add chicken and all veggies EXCEPT onions and mushrooms to the broth and heat over medium high heat.  In a skillet add a Tbsp. olive oil and heat over medium high heat.  Add onions and mushrooms.  Cook until softened; about five or six minutes, then add to pot.

Bring soup up to a slight boil, and then reduce heat to simmer. Allow to simmer for an hour or so.

To serve, place noodles in your bowl, cover with hot soup and stir gently. 

Enjoy!

**Note- Soup is ALWAYS better the second day!

 

Chicken Under Pressure

 

For Christmas this year my bride gave me a pressure canner.  Now you may be saying to yourself, “What kind of gift is that?” but it was a kitchen toy to me.   You know we guys like to have a toy to open and tinker with at Christmas, so this was mine!  See the kitchen for me is a huge chemistry set to play with and this was just another instrument.

A pressure canner is needed to reach the high temps needed to can and preserve low acid foods and meats such as chicken vegetable soup.  The hot water bath method of canning is great for jellies, jams, pickles and other high acid foods, but boiling water will only be at the boiling temperature. 

So one of my first runs on the pressure canner was to make Chicken Vegetable Noodle soup.  Now the trick here is that the noodles don’t go in the soup until I’m ready to eat, even when I’m not canning.  I boil my noodles separately, and then add the hot soup over the noodles in each bowl.  

The first step is the chicken.  I boil one whole chicken in a pot filled with water.  I add spices such as, onion powder, garlic powder, dried basil, dried thyme, celery salt, and salt and peppercorns.   Boil the chicken for about 30 minutes, and then turn off the heat and allow the pot to cool down for about an hour.

Remove the chicken, pick the meat and discard the carcass.  Break, or chop the meat into various bite size sections and set to the side. 

Straining the broth process

Using another pot and strainers or cheesecloth, strain the broth to remove all the tidbits of seasonings and chicken.  It may take a couple of strains.  When you are done, you will have a nice pot of chicken broth.

Now for the ingredients

1-2 sweet onions, chopped
1 bag of frozen corn
1 bag of frozen peas
1 bag of frozen cut green beans
1 bag of frozen butterbeans
1 bag of baby carrots, chop carrots into thirds
Our picked chicken and our broth

Using five sterilized quart Mason jars, divide the chicken between them as evenly as possible.  Next, using a ¼ cup measure, add all the ingredients as evenly as possible among the jars.  Working one item at a time until all the items are gone and the jars are filled.

Now fill the jars with warm chicken broth, leaving a one inch head space at the top.  Use a plastic spatula or plastic knife to remove air bubbles and maintain that one inch head space.

Place the lids and screw down the tops on the jars.  Follow your pressure cooker’s instructions to process the soup.  Mine called for 11 lbs. pressure for 90 minutes.  The soup was and still is wonderful!
 

 

It seems to be a bit of work but it actually went pretty fast.  Now I have several quarts of soup ready when I want it without all the work during the week.  Just cook some noodles and heat a jar of goodness to top it with.

Take care!

Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

This wonderful tasting dish cooks while you work!  It's a simple dish that is very versatile for many different meals.  Once this is cooked there are so many variables to making different meals. 

You could add some black beans and corn with a Tbsp. of cumin to make a Southwestern stew.

You could use it as a pulled BBQ-chicken sandwich meal.  I took the last bit of chicken and mixed with some leftover wild rice to school for lunch one day - YUM! So many ways to use this meat.


Ingredients -

5-6 boneless chicken breasts

16oz. jar of your favorite salsa  (My favorite brand is CHEAP- I use Harris Teeter or Southern Home brand and always stock up when it's on sale.)

What to do-

Prepare chicken by trimming away excess fat and place in the bottom of the slow cooker.
  *- I use the Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners, but you can spray the interior of the cooker with non-stick cooking spray.

Top the chicken with the salsa.

Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

When the cooking is complete use two forks to 'shred' the chicken and stir the mixture.


(Editor's note- 1/16/14: Add some black beans (rinsed and drained) to the salsa.)

You can now stuff burritos, or spread over a bed of tortilla chips and top with cheese and other toppings for some serious healthy nachos.

ENJOY!