Given how close we are to year’s end, I have the rest of this small skillet year planned at this point, and I know that next week’s recipe is going to be time-consuming. So, I went with something simple this week.
I realized after the fact that though it was called “skewerless stovetop kabobs” from Taste of Home that it’s basically just fajitas with a few more vegetables. But, you know what, it’s been a long year and it’s fine.
Skewerless kabobs ingredients.
This was in the vein of some of my favorite simple recipes, in that it uses fewer ingredients by including salad dressing. Easy flavor works for me.
I did change the recipe in one notable way: it called for pork tenderloin as the meat but that seemed like an expensive and fancy cut for something that was ultimately going to be smothered in Italian dressing. So, I just went with chicken, making it even more like a fajita. I also left off mushrooms, and added a little more vegetables.
While it wasn’t the most exciting of dinners, it did the job. It fed us, it was healthy enough, and it was quick and easy to pull together.
Simple and scrumptious.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into ¾ in. cubes
½ c. Italian dressing, divided
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 c. cherry tomatoes, halved
Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
In a medium skillet, 8- to 9-in., cook the chicken over medium-high heat in half the dressing until cooked through. Remove from pan.
In the same skillet, cook the vegetables in the remaining half of the salad dressing until the vegetables are tender. Return the chicken to the skillet, heat through, and enjoy!
Once I started enjoying cooking, chicken cacciatore was one of the first things I asked my mom to teach me how to make, even though the recipe came from my paternal grandmother. Mom’s way has always been the way I knew it.
Chicken cacciatore ingredients*. (*Wine and oregano not pictured because I forgot.)
I’ve also found ways to incorporate it into pretty much every dish that I’ve used since starting to make it into a weekly blog. It’s been in a casserole. It’s been in a Dutch oven. OK, it never made it into a bread or a pie. But this year, thanks to Rachael Ray, I had a way to make it into a small skillet.
Her recipe wasn’t too different from how it’s traditionally made, in that it had mushrooms that I’ll never use. However, because it’s meant to be a sandwich, it skipped the less common sandwich topping of artichoke hearts. I refused to use mushrooms or skip out on one of my favorite vegetables.
So, mine was a little different, and used slightly smaller amounts so that I could have it all fit in my little Le Creuset. It was, like some of my previous attempts, a bit close to full, but workable. My little skillet is 9 inches; this is perfect for 10, but 9 inches will work with some more careful stirring.
Since I made it my way, and my sweetie tested it first, it was no surprise that this worked and tasted delightful. However, it was no less delicious for being one of my favorite meals and working according to plan.
Steam for effect. Or, really because I needed the pic so I could eat it sooner.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
1 lb. chicken, sliced or chopped
~2 T. olive oil
6 to 7 oz. marinated quartered artichoke hearts
1 bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
½ c. red wine (or broth)
1 (14 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. dried oregano
1 t. crushed red pepper flakes
2 to 3 T. flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 sub rolls, for serving, or some cooked pasta, for serving
Provolone cheese, for topping the rolls (or frankly the pasta, if preferred, provolone is never bad)
Directions
Heat oven to broil if making sandwiches. Alternatively, prepare pasta if using.
Heat half the oil in a 9- to 10-inch skillet on a stove over medium heat. Add the chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes until mostly cooked through. Add the remaining oil, and then the onions, peppers, and artichokes, and cook until the vegetables have softened, about another 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano, crushed red peppers, and cook for another minute.
Add the wine to deglaze the pan, and then add the crushed tomatoes and parsley. Cook for another few minutes until the tomatoes are simmering and the flavors have melded. Once ready, remove from heat.
Pile about a quarter of the chicken mixture into a sliced sub roll, and cover with one to two slices of provolone (as preferred). Repeat with as many sandwiches as you’re planning to serve immediately. Place the sandwiches on a sheet pan or aluminum foil or both, and place in the oven on the top rack, and broil for 1 to 2 minutes (keep watch!) until the cheese has melted and the edges of the bread have turned golden, and enjoy!
Week two brings another test of what my little Le Creuset can hold.
And once again, I turned to Jamie Oliver’s wonderful “5 Ingredients” cookbook. So, I know, I know, I keep going on about it, but this week especially demonstrates how versatile and useful it is. Because, scandal, I used way more than 5 ingredients in this list. In fact, I mashed up two recipes, and then still added more. I’m calling it a mustard chicken mashup.
Mustard chicken mashup ingredients.
In doing so, I also tested the limits of the 9-inch braiser.
Tl; dr, I might have gone a tad overboard, but it all still worked out.
If you have a 10-inch skillet, this will be fine; if you are using a 9-incher, perhaps do scant amounts or stir very carefully.
As its name suggests, this recipe has some mustard and chicken. It also has some veggies, some cream, and Worcestershire. I stole the carrots and Worcestershire sauce from a 5-ingredient beef recipe that also called for mustard, but the chicken recipe sounded easier, and creamier.
And aside from some careful stirring, it all worked out really well. My only regret, actually, is that the stone ground mustard was rather mild and I had hoped for it to be stronger. If you love mustard like we do, I recommend getting a stronger mustard or mixing stone ground and Dijon mustards. I liked the way the stone ground looked mixed with heavy cream, but I wanted more of a kick.
Other than that, it was a perfectly wonderful and quick two- to three-serving dinner, especially when served with the smashed potatoes my sweetie made in our new Instant Pot. I also thought about serving it with rice, but potatoes were perfect; plus, then I get to have a mashup and smashed potatoes.
Easy as pie, but tastes like creamy mustard. Noms.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
1 lb. chicken, sliced into thin strips
1 carrot, thinly chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced
6 oz. Brussels sprouts
⅔ c. heavy cream
½ c. water
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. stone ground mustard (or to taste)
Pepper, to taste
Olive oil
Directions
Add some oil to your Le Creuset (or 9- to 10-inch skillet), and stir in the carrot, onion, and Brussels sprouts. Cook over medium heat about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, to slightly soften. Add the chicken slices, and cook another 3 to 5 minutes until the chicken is mostly cooked through.
Then, add the mustard, cream, water, and Worcestershire. Add pepper to taste.
Bring to a boil, and then simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the liquid thickens slightly into a sauce and the chicken is cooked through.
Season with additional pepper or mustard as desired. Serve with smashed potatoes or rice, or on its own, and enjoy!
As we wind down the year, I have to admit 2019 has not been the best. There have been some highs for sure but, man, the daily slog of life has taken its toll this year.
But as we approach the shortest day of the year, and then the day after when the sun shines a little more each day, I’m reminded to be grateful for all the little things that add up to big stuff.
This week that meant taking a mental break from the news. My podcasts were mostly pop culture and holiday themed. My television viewing mostly consisted of Rifftrax and MST3K. The little bit of news that did seep through included the fact that we finally impeached the motherfucker.
One other thing that helped keep my mind off of it all was the days-long process to make the most epic of comfort foods, chicken noodle soup.
Chicken noodle soup ingredients.
Don’t let the “days-long” scare you. The first day was making a broth, which was about 5 minutes of effort and an hour of down time, and can be done in advance (I often make it and freeze for future use). The second day was baking a whole chicken, which was about 10 minutes of effort (including deglazing) and 1 ½ hours of down time, which can also be done in advance.
The last day was a little more labor intensive (I watched most of the Grumpy Cat Christmas movie while I cooked), but that included some cleaning, my required blogging pictures, and some dawdling. Still, picking apart a whole chicken takes time and so does chopping the extra vegetables that make my ideal chicken noodle soup.
The recipe is based off of a very fancy Saveur recipe that I’ve made before but I added some things to make it fit my ideal of the dish. Including the fact that it is mostly a chicken noodle stew by the time I’m finished. I still kept their parts, just also added some of my own.
There’s a little bit of broth poking through. Right?
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, about 3-4 lbs.
2 T. olive oil, plus more for sauteing
Salt and pepper, to taste
12 c. chicken stock, divided
1 large onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 c. frozen corn kernels
1 t. crushed saffron threads
12 oz. egg noodles (I had a 14 oz. package and threw in the whole thing plus an additional cup of broth)
Crusty bread, for serving (optional)
Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a 9 x 13 inch dish (a Dutch oven would probably work, but a casserole dish is what I used), rub the chicken with the olive oil and then season well with salt and pepper. Bake the chicken until golden brown and tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Carefully transfer the chicken to a cutting board and reserve the oil, etc, in the baking dish.
Once dish is slightly cooled, pour 2 c. of the stock into the baking dish and scrape with a wooden spoon to deglaze the bottom. (I waited until both broth and dish were pretty cool, and still had no problems, and then poured it into a separate container than the rest of the broth before bringing the whole dish together the next day.)
Once chicken is cool enough to handle or the next day, pick meat from the chicken and tear or chop into bite-sized pieces. You can discard the skin and bones, or freeze them, like I do, for a future chicken stock.
When ready to complete the soup, saute the onions, celery, and carrots in a little bit of oil for about 5 minutes in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Then, pour in the remaining 10 cups of stock and add in the 2 c. from the deglaze (which will look like gravy if you’ve refrigerated it overnight, like I did) as well as the chicken pieces. Add the corn and saffron to the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and continue to cook, uncovered, for about 15 minutes until the stock is slightly reduced.
Add the egg noodles and cook for an additional 10 to 12 minutes, until cooked through. Season the soup with more salt and pepper, if desired. Enjoy, and happy holidays, dear readers!
I’m slowly getting back into the groove of things since being back from vacation. I imagined it would be quicker but exhaustion got the better of me as did the daily grind.
So I decided to start back up with the kind of weeknight dinner that takes little effort and barely follows a recipe. I went with udon noodles with chicken and broccoli, or the more vague “Asian noodles,” which was the not-the-most-culturally-sensitive Google search I did to get the vague idea of ingredients for a sauce.
Udon noodles ingredients.
That blog post, like my own, makes clear that this recipe can be adapted to anyone’s tastes. Don’t like broccoli? Try carrots or spinach or a combination of veggies. Want to add peppers? Go ahead. Don’t want chicken or are vegetarian? Skip it or add tofu.
The same is essentially true of the sauce. I went heavy on the sesame oil because I love it and I have it. I also added a bunch of ginger (from a jar because I was lazy) that wasn’t in the recipe; I just like a lot of ginger. I skipped out on the cilantro to save my sweetie, but I think it would have been pretty tasty as an addition.
That’s to say, you do udon.
To hurry things along, I cooked the udon separately while I prepared the chicken, vegetables, and sauce, but if you’re in no rush and want this to be a one-pot dish, you can cook the noodles in the Dutch oven and leave to drain while preparing the rest of the dish.
I still want more; it disappeared too fast.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
14 oz. udon noodles, cooked to package directions
1 lb. chicken, sliced or chopped
3 c. broccoli (or about one grocery store package with 2 to 3 heads), chopped
1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts sliced
⅓ to ½ c. soy sauce (less sodium is good)
¼ c. toasted sesame oil
1 ½ T. ginger, minced (I used the jar stuff)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. rice vinegar
Sambal oelek (chili paste), or Sriracha, to taste (I used about ½ T.)
3 T. sesame seeds
Vegetable oil, for sauteing
Directions
Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat, and saute the chicken until mostly cooked through before adding the broccoli and green onions, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, and sambal oelek or sriracha, and stir to combine.
Once the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are cooked to desired consistency, turn off stove top and add the sauce. Stir to combine and then add the cooked noodles, and continue stirring. Remove from heat and add the sesame seeds, stirring again. Taste and add more soy sauce or sesame oil as desired, and enjoy!
I was feeling a bit lazy this week. I knew what I wanted to make but I didn’t know how to make it and didn’t want to spend hours researching.
I just typed chicken and dumplings into the ol’ search engine and clicked on the first couple that popped up. The one that laid out the amount of prep time (25 minutes) and total time (just over an hour), won out. So, thanks Delish!
Chicken and dumpling ingredients.
Everything about it was simple, and that included making my own homemade dumplings. I’ll say it did take me a little longer than an hour total, probably like 1 hour and 20 minutes, but I’m not the most efficient person in the kitchen, and I care more about simplicity than speed.
I just fired up Good Omens (Yes, I am rewatching it often), and poured some wine, and it was all in all a pretty nice little weeknight meal.
Even better, it was also delicious. Despite heading into summer, it doesn’t feel terribly heavy. The dough is airy, the rest is mostly chicken. While that’s a little oversimplified, and there is plenty of creamy goodness throughout, it didn’t feel too hearty for the time of year.
*drool*
It was practically perfect for what I wanted.
Here’s what I did, practically perfectly following the recipe (sans the speed):
Ingredients
For the soup
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 t. dried oregano
2 t. dried thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 c. chicken or vegetable broth (I use homemade; if you don’t, try low sodium broth)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 c. heavy cream
Chopped parsley for serving, optional
For the dumplings
1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1 ½ t. salt
1 large egg
⅔ to ¾ c. buttermilk
2 T. melted butter
Directions
For soup
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery, and cook until slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Add in the oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic, and stir together for about 1 minute.
Add the broth and the chicken, and bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer covered until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes more. Remove the chicken and shred using two forks.
For the dumplings
While the soup is simmering, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter. Whisk together with a fork until combined.
To bring together, and finish
Add the shredded chicken back to the Dutch oven, and add the heavy cream. Return to a simmer. Then, drop spoonfuls of dumpling mix into the pot. Cover, and cook on low until the dumplings are cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Stir to mix up, add parsley to the pot (if using), and enjoy by the ladleful!
When I was making my Grandma Crippes’ chicken cacciatore recipe, I was reminded of another of my favorite dishes. It involves many of the same ingredients, but it’s completely different.
This recipe was one of my favorites dating back to college, where I’d regularly order it at the student union. When I got out of college, I missed the rosemary chicken artichoke pasta so much that I decided to make it myself.
Rosemary chicken artichoke pasta ingredients.
Luckily as a pasta dish, and one that was literally put together in front of me for years, it was real easy to suss out the ingredients. As a young recent college grad, though, I still consulted with my mom and we came up with a recipe that I’ve been using ever since.
Mine never tasted exactly the same, but in fact, it was better. It was homemade and my artichokes are marinated. Plus, I may go a little overboard with rosemary, which suits my tastes even better.
It’s also incredibly easy to make, if not quite as instant as the student union dish. But if you boil the tortellini in the Dutch oven, it easily can be another one-pot pasta dish.
All in all, it’s perfect.
And I’ll work on making fewer pasta dishes here soon.
So pretty, and tasty too.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
1 bag frozen cheese tortellini (I like the tri-colored stuff because it’s pretty), cooked according to package instructions
1 onion, chopped
1 lb. chicken breasts, chopped
2 T. oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh rosemary, chopped, to taste
1 (14 oz) large jar marinated quartered artichokes hearts, drained
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 jar alfredo sauce (I get the one with garlic, but you can do traditional or whatever you like)
Directions
Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and chicken, and saute until the chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Add in some of the rosemary (I like to add more as it nears completion too), and salt and pepper, as the chicken is cooking.
Once chicken is cooked, add in the artichokes and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, continuing to stir occasionally. Add in the tomatoes and cook another 1 to 2 minutes, until just warmed. Stir in the sauce and heat until boiling (it should happen quick with a good Dutch oven).
Add back in the pasta and more rosemary (if desired), stir to combine, and enjoy!
My Grandma Crippes would have been 84 on Monday, so to honor her memory I made one of her lovely recipes. And then, because I’m a terrible grandchild, I tweaked it a whole bunch and made it in a Dutch oven.
I’ve made her chicken cacciatore recipe several times before but it’s always been as a casserole.
Chicken cacciatore ingredients.
And, to be honest, I’ve always made a bastardized version based on my mom’s version of Grandma’s recipe. My mom tells me the recipe originally included mushrooms but no one in my immediate family liked them growing up so they got scrapped in my mom’s making.
This time I made even more changes, and probably should have made even more. But I kept the heart of the recipe in tact, which is tomato sauce, marinated artichoke hearts, and sauteed chicken. Aside from removing the mushrooms, I added onions and extra artichokes.
The change I should have made for the Dutch oven is to tweak the sauteed chicken by either not dredging it in flour or cooking it in canola oil rather than olive. What happened was a nice blackened layer of flour-y oil coated the bottom of my Dutch oven when I made it this way. Hotter oil or no flour would have fixed that.
Fortunately, it was still fine. The burnt layer was still there after it came out of the oven but didn’t impact the flavor any — just made the house smokier for a bit.
I do like this Dutch oven method, though, because it was a one pot meal. I even made the angel hair pasta in it first while I did the other prep work. I didn’t combine it all at the end because that is not how it’s been served in my family, but it’s possible … though I’d add less than the full 1 pound mentioned below.
*drools for eternity*
Anyway, here’s what I did:
Ingredients
1 (14.5 oz.) jar marinated artichoke hearts
1 ½ to 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch chunks
1 c. flour, for dredging (optional)
Oil, for sauteing
1 large onion, chopped
1 (28 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
¾ c. Chardonnay (or dry sherry)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used more)
Basil, chopped or torn, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
Parsley, chopped to taste
1 lb. pasta, cooked according to package instructions, for serving
Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the Dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat. Drain the marinade from the artichoke hearts into the skillet, and add oil. Dredge chicken chunks in flour, if using, and brown until golden. Do this in a couple batches, depending on the size of your Dutch oven.
Remove the chicken from the Dutch oven to a plate.
Meanwhile, add more oil as necessary and saute the onion, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, artichoke hearts, crushed tomatoes, wine, and the spices to the Dutch oven. Cook until boiling, stirring occasionally.
Add back in the chicken, and stir to mix.
Cover the Dutch oven, and bake in the oven for about 30 to 35 minutes until bubbling and flavors are mixed. Let cool slightly, serve over cooked pasta (preferably spaghetti or angel hair), and enjoy!
When I knew I was doing Dutch ovens, I knew that I needed to buy a Dutch oven cookbook for guidance and ideas throughout the year. But I found it was real easy to come up with the first few things I needed to try so I put it off.
Finally, though, I went ahead and got “Cook It In Your Dutch Oven” from America’s Test Kitchen. I patted myself on the back for how many of their ideas were things that I’m planning to make this year already, but my jaw dropped (not literally) when I came across the pot pie recipe.
This pie lady never thought of making a pot pie as a not-quite-pie, but definitely all pot.
Chicken pot pie ingredients.
The recipe was for spring vegetables, but I damn well know what goes in a pot pie and I know it’s wintery AF.
First of all, the lattice top crust that makes up the top (spoiler: there’s no crusty bottom) is with puff pastry and I am so bad at dealing with puff pastry. I muddled through but it was frustrating.
Second of all, the recipe called for chicken thighs. I got a mix — 1 lb. each of chicken breast and chicken thighs — but I didn’t realize that trimming raw chicken thighs is frustrating and nearly impossible. I should have known by now, but I mostly work with breasts, or thighs that are cut after cooked.
Third of all, seasons. The substitutions I made worked real well for a winter pot pie, but it didn’t occur to me until too late that some of the ingredients made more sense in a spring recipe rather than winter, and I should have probably scrapped them. They are the optional ingredients below — tomato paste and lemon zest (the original also calls for some lemon juice from about half a lemon). I think they’d work better in a real spring recipe (with asparagus instead of potatoes, and tarragon instead of parsley) than this one, though they didn’t manage to ruin the whole thing.
What I’m saying is, despite my mistakes, and despite the modest frustration, it was still good. Because pot pies are good. And errors can be corrected so that pot pies are even better.
I’ll probably never love working with puff pastry, but honestly, a good hearty (or even spring!) pot pie is worth it.
It sure looks pretty, but it also tastes pretty great.
Here’s what I did (with recommendations for what I should have done):
Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
6 T. butter
1 lb. (about 4) leeks, white and light green parts, sliced
4 carrots, cut into ½-inch pieces
3 celery stalks, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 lb. potatoes, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 c. frozen peas
4 cloves garlic, minced (I used the jarred stuff)
½ c. flour
1 T. tomato paste (optional)
3 c. chicken broth, more as needed
½ c. heavy cream
1 t. soy sauce (we were out so I used Bragg liquid aminos)
2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (or thighs if you’re a masochist)
1 egg, beaten
2 T. dried parsley flakes or chopped fresh parsley
1 T. lemon zest (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Cut a sheet of parchment paper to match the outline of a Dutch oven lid. Set aside. Roll puff pastry sheet into about a 15- by 11-inch rectangle, and then cut (a pizza cutter works great) into 10 1 ½-inch wide strips. Place 5 strips parallel and 5 strips perpendicular on the parchment paper round you created.
There are fancy techniques to do this more efficiently, but weave the 10 strips into a lattice top into whatever is easiest for you. Cut the strips to fit onto the parchment paper round.
Move your lattice top puff pastry using the parchment paper to the up-turned lid of the Dutch oven, and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the pot pie.
Move oven rack to the lower middle position in the oven, and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Meanwhile, melt the butter on the stove top over medium heat.
Add the leeks, carrots, celery, and potatoes, and cook until the leeks are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for another minute. Then, add in the flour, slowly, and stir for another minute. Add the tomato paste, if using.
Then, stir in the broth, scraping up browned bits as necessary. Add the cream, and soy sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook until the mixture thickens, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Stir in the chicken pieces, and continue to simmer for a couple minutes before removing from heat.
Put the the up-turned lid with the puff pastry on top of the Dutch oven (still up-turned and do so carefully!), and brush it with the egg mixture (I also added a tablespoon or so of water). Sprinkle with salt, if desired.
Transfer the pot to oven and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until the puff pastry is puffed and golden, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Remove pot from oven and carefully transfer the parchment and pastry to a wire rack and remove lid. Stir in the peas, and let sit until heated through about 5 minutes. Add more broth if necessary. Add the parsley flakes and lemon zest, if using, and stir in salt and pepper to taste. Plop (carefully!) the puff pastry on top of the filling, and enjoy!
My sweetie and I had a tradition of smoking meats at Thanksgiving and Christmas until our smoker got stolen a couple years ago. Mercifully, we were able to get another one this year and pick up right where we left off.
The best part for me is, of course, the food. But a nice secondary benefit is I have one less thing taking up space and time in my kitchen. My sweetie handles the meat. I handle the sides and dessert.
I won’t bore you dear readers with all that we made at the two holidays even though I’m still drooling over them. But after Thanksgiving, I told my sweetie we were doing an extra bird at Christmas because I had plans for using it to kick off the new year right.
And ringing in my new If It Fits I Cooks project for 2019: the Dutch oven.
The wild rice and smoked chicken soup is an Amy Thielen recipe, though I varied it slightly because I already had a favorite creamy wild rice and chicken soup.
Chicken and wild rice soup ingredients.
My most important contribution is the addition of slivered almonds for added texture that blends with the wild rice well. Oh, and I used leftover (frozen) carcasses from the Thanksgiving chicken to make a smoky broth that added a little something.
Like most soups, this is difficult to mess up but it is time consuming. Wild rice always takes forever. Chopping veggies — something I weirdly enjoy but many don’t — is also a chore. And then of course simmering long enough for all the flavors to meld.
But it’s January and there’s not much else to do. This is the part where I’d usually say there’s the added benefit of keeping the stove going and warming up, but if you live in central Iowa, that has uh not been much of an issue so far this winter.
Happy New Year lovely readers and I hope you’ll follow me on this foodie adventure again in 2019!
Nom Nom Noms.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
2 c. chopped smoked chicken (I didn’t measure but it was roughly the breast meat)
¾ c. natural wild rice (uncooked)
6 T. unsalted butter
2 leeks, sliced
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ c. white wine (preferably Chardonnay)
¼ c. all-purpose flour
8 c. chicken stock (homemade is best!)
1 c. heavy cream
½ to 1 c. slivered almonds, to taste
2 dried bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Add the rice (cleaned, if necessary) to 1 ½ c. water and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 25 to 45 minutes. (The wide time range is because mine never seems done at 25 minutes, but it’s good practice to start checking around then and taste testing — it goes in at the end of the soup-making so it needs to be done by the time it’s added.) Strain off any excess liquid.
Meanwhile, in a large Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, carrots, and a little salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes, adding the garlic near the end of the saute time. Add the flour slowly and stir until combined, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil (this happens quick in a Dutch oven).
Add the stock, the cream, and the bay leaves. Bring to a simmer. Add the chicken, and cook at a bare simmer for 30 minutes uncovered to meld the flavors together. Add the cooked wild rice and almonds and simmer the soup for another 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves, serve, and enjoy!
