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!

Versatile Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup with turkey bacon

    This hearty soup is versatile.  For example, it is great served as a main dinner with some crusty bread, or it can be part of a soup & salad/sandwich offering.  You can also vary the ingredients.  This time I used turkey bacon, but next time I will be using a smoked turkey sausage sliced thin.  Instead of kale, substitute chopped spinach. Like most soups & stews, it's much better the next day!

Ingredients:

• Slices of turkey bacon, or thinly sliced smoked turkey sausage
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2-3 carrots, peeled, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 tsp. cumin powder
• 3/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1lb bag of lentils, rinsed
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 2 quarts of chicken broth, or vegetable broth     (I used one of each)
• 1 bunch kale, stems removed, chopped (about 4 cups)
• salt & pepper to taste (a dash of red pepper flakes when serving is nice too

Directions:

In your soup pot or dutch oven, cook your bacon or sausage with a Tbsp of olive oil for a couple of minutes.  As it starts to brown, add remaining oil and onion, carrots, celery and salt & pepper.  Sauté over medium high heat for a 5-6 minutes to soften veggies.  Turn down heat if they start to brown to soon.  Next add the garlic, cumin, coriander and turmeric, cooking another 2-3 minutes stirring to blend.

Add lentils, tomatoes, broth and a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.  Increase heat bringing soup to a boil.  

While soup is heating up, chop the kale and add to the pot. Once boiling, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 30-40 minutes.

The soup is now ready to serve this way, but to make a thicker broth, I use an immersion blender for a few pulses in the pot and stir to mix.  If you don't have an immersion blender, remove a cup to cup and a half to a blender and puree.  return to the pot and stir.

* Not everyone in the house likes the same level of "heat".  I add a few shakes of red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of sour cream to my bowl.

Enjoy!

 

Split Pea Soup with Smoked Turkey Sausage

Split pea soup is a family favorite, and there are many variations that we enjoy.  Tonight we tried our first using smoked turkey sausage, and it too is a big hit.  It's a wonderful meal on a cold night with a bit of homemade bread.

Ingredients- 
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped to your liking
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into slices
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
1lb bag of dried split peas
12 oz. smoked turkey sausage, sliced into ¼ inch rounds
6 cups of chicken broth
1 tsp. kosher or sea salt
¼ tsp. pepper (or more to taste)
2 Bay leaves

Directions-
In a heavy bottomed pot, or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat.  Add sausage and brown for 5 minutes or so.  Remove sausage and set aside. 

Add onions, carrots, celery, and cook until tender - about 5 minutes.  Stir in broth, peas, salt, pepper, and bay leaves and bring to a boil over the medium high heat.  

Once boiling, add sausage and reduce heat to medium-low.  Allow soup to simmer, stirring occasionally until peas are tender. (40-50 minutes) 


Remove and discard bay leaves.  

Serve with bread or cornbread.

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!

Simple “Egg-Drop” Soup

Day two home with the flu has not been fun at all.  I dread tomorrow even more as the sore muscles from all the coughing and hacking is going to be painful and the fever is draining all my energy.

This is my ‘fast-food’ for the flu menu.  My bride has been taking great care of me.  Yes, I am the typical male when sickness hits- I want my mommy and to be pampered.  I guess since I can’t have my mommy, my bride has stepped it up double time.  She and Natalie went to the school for the Book Fair Festivities and ate at the school.  She offered to bring me something back, but I said I’d fix something simple. 

This is simple and something I fix when it’s cold and want soup in a hurry.

Make sure you drink plenty of fluids too!

Ingredients-

2 15oz cans chicken broth (reduced sodium and 99% fat free)
2 large eggs, room temperature then beaten in a small bowl or glass
2 scallions or green onions, sliced (separate the white parts from the green)
1 cup or so of sliced mushrooms  (I like baby bellas for this)
1 Tbsp. of butter
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

What to do-

In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, add butter and olive oil.  When this is hot add mushrooms and white parts of the onions.  Cook these for about five minutes stirring often. 

Add the broth and stir well to get the good bits off the bottom.  Heat to a slow boil and then reduce heat to medium-low

Give the pot a good stir to get the mixture revolving well.  Slowly add the beaten eggs trying to keep the stream thin.  Once all the egg is added give the pot another vigorous stir and allow to cook for about a minute or two.

 

Get your bowl and spoon and dish up half the contents.  Top with a few baked goldfish crackers or oyster crackers.

Enjoy.

* I'm fortunate that my strain of flu is not the "other" brand going around our fair city.  I was blessed to not have the "stomach bug".  The high-fever, coughing, hacking, aches and pains, congestion and severe headache is the one I got.

If you have the "other" brand, you must force the fluids.  Just heat the chicken broth alone with some bay leaf in it and allow to simmer for ten minutes or so.  Then remove the bay leaf and drink the warm broth in small sips.

Nana's Bean Soup (Family Recipe)

    A cold day and a bowl of hot soup are a great match.  Digging into my Nana’s recipe box once again, I found this family favorite.  I vaguely remember her making this soup as we rarely visited Pennsylvania during the cold months – I always stayed a few weeks during the summer!  I do however remember Nana teaching my mom this recipe.  It was one of my parent’s favorites.  Funny that as a child I didn’t care for soup so much but as an adult I absolutely love it, and these family recipes are the best.  Even though I didn’t eat the soup as a child, the smells that fill the entire house bring back all those memories of family togetherness….

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs. dried Navy Beans (rinsed and soaked overnight)

1 small head of cabbage (finely chopped)

2 ham hocks or ham bone with some left over ham. (I usually use the latter)

3 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)

1 large onion, chopped

Water to cover ham bone or fill ⅔ pot 

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.    Place ham bone/hocks in large soup pot add the water, set on stove on high. 

2.    Add beans, onion, potatoes, cabbage and salt and pepper to taste. 

3.    Bring to a boil, then turn to simmer for 3-4 hours.

4.    Stir occasionally, add water if necessary.

ENJOY!