Brunswick Stew

Growing up in the South I have always had a love for Brunswick Stew. The mix of barbecued chicken, pork, & beef mixed with corn, tomatoes, and lima beans just can't be beat. If you've never had Brunswick Stew from a deep south BBQ joint you are truly missing out. This recipe is my attempt to match come as close as possible to the Brunswick Stew at your favorite BBQ joint. It's easy and delicious!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 4 - 6 hours
Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1 can BBQ pork
1 can BBQ beef
2 (16 oz) packages of Lloyds BBQ (pork, chicken, or beef; use any combination you please).
1 can creamed corn
1 can white shoepeg corn
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 cups lima beans
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Turn the heat to low and cook for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally. (Yes that is all the instructions... incredibly easy right?!?) 

Serve with corn bread and a large glass of sweet tea! And there you have it, a true southern classic!

'Til next time,
Caroline  

Homemade Chicken Broth

Photo Credit: A Food Centric Life

This statement may come as a surprise to some of you but I have had a series of failures when it comes to making chicken broth. My first attempt was downright awful. The broth tasted like dirty water and had me skeptical that I would ever find a recipe that met my standards. I stumbled upon this recipe from the blog A Food Centric Life. If anyone was going to prove my negative experiences with homemade chicken broth wrong it was going to be this recipe. So I loaded up on the ingredients and got to work and it quickly proved to exceed my expectations. The broth was delicious, full of flavor, and easy to make even considering the long cooking time that it calls for.   
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours
Servings: 10 cups of chicken broth

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (~4 lbs.)
3 large celery ribs, roughly chopped
2 - 3 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 dried bay leaf
1 handful of parsley leaves and stems
1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
2-3 fresh thyme sprigs
4 quarts of water

Rinse and pat the whole chicken dry. With a sharp knife, remove the leg and thigh pieces and cut them in half. Next cut off the wings. Cut through the center breast bone of the chicken. You should have two halves of the body now. Cut the breasts free and cut them in half. Cut the remaining part of the body in half. You will want to remove as much skin as possible after you have cut apart the chicken. 

Add the chicken into a large stock pot and fill with 8 to 10 quarts of water. Bring the chicken and water to a simmer. Impurities and grey foam will begin to rise to the surface at this stage of the cooking process. Do not be alarmed, this is what is supposed to happen. Skim the foam and impurities off the surface and discard it until it is gone or almost gone. 

Once the impurities and foam have been removed, add the vegetables, herbs, and whole peppercorns to the stock pot. Keep the pot at a low simmer and simmer for 6-8 hours. Add hot water to the pot if the water level gets low.

Strain the vegetables, meat, and bones through a fine wire colander. Strain the broth into a large stainless bowl that is floating in ice water. I filled up my sink with ice water and rested the bowl in the ice water. Stir the broth to help speed up the cooling process. 

The broth will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days or can be frozen for up to 3 months.

I hope that this broth exceeds your expectations like it did mine!
'Till next time,
Caroline

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, one of my favorite things to order is Chicken Tortilla Soup. The main ingredients usually involve chicken, fried tortilla strips, a hearty broth, avocados, cilantro, lime, and onion. After that there are a ton of different spins on the recipe ranging from adding corn, black beans, rice, and so on. Here is my spin on this popular Mexican soup. 

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 30-45 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients: 

6 corn tortillas

vegetable cooking spray

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 jalapeno pepper (optional)

1 yellow onion

3/4 cup diced carrots

3 garlic cloves

1/3 cup cilantro

1 Tbls. ground cumin

2 Tbls. chili powder

2 bay leaves

6 cups chicken broth

1 rotisserie chicken

1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles

2 avocados

2 limes

1 small red onion

Queso Fresco, crumbled for serving

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Slice the 6 corn tortillas into very thin strips. 

Spread the tortilla strips on a cookie sheet and spray them lightly with vegetable oil cooking spray. Bake the tortilla strips on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes. About every 5 minutes, give the strips a stir to ensure even baking. 

While the tortilla are getting crispy, slice your carrots, yellow onion, and garlic into a small dice. 

In a large stockpot over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the oil has heated up, add your chopped onion, carrots and garlic to the stockpot. Remove the the seeds, chop, and add 1/2 to 1 jalapeno at this point if you like a little extra heat. I used 1/2 jalapeno and it was just enough heat.  Saute the vegetables for 5 minutes. 

After about 5 minutes and the vegetables have started to get soft, stir in the cumin, chili powder, and bay leaves. Allow the spices to cook with the vegetables for about 1 minute. 

After you have cooked in the spices for 1 minute, stir in 1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves and cook for an additional minute. 

After the spices and cilantro have become incorporated into the vegetables, stir in the whole can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. 

Stir and cook the tomatoes in for an additional minute. 

Once everything has been incorporated, stir in 6 cups of chicken broth. 

Bring soup up to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. 

While the soup is cooking, remove and discard the skin from the rotisserie chicken. Shred the meat and set it aside. 

After simmering the soup for 5-10 minutes, stir in the chicken and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes. 

After the soup has finished cooking, stir in salt and pepper to taste. 

Garnish soup with diced red onion, cilantro, avocado, a squeeze of lime, crumbled queso fresco, and the toasted tortilla strips. 

Enjoy!!

'Till next time,
Caroline

Chicken Stew

This is my all time favorite soup and is where my love of soup originated. This soup is a family tradition and without fail, I always crave it when I am sick. The only problem with this stew is trying to convince others of its holy-moly healing powers with such simple, some might say, oddly-paired ingredients. I have been so looking forward to making and sharing this soup here on the blog. Go ahead, try it and let it warm your heart and wrap you up in its goodness.

Ingredients:

3-5 Chicken Breasts

Milk

Butter

Salt & Pepper 

Saltine Crackers

Bread & Butter Pickles

* I realize that saltine crackers and sweet pickles are actually garnishes but for this recipe, they are staples to the experience. Chicken stew without lots of saltines is like chicken dumplings without dumplings. If you don't like pickles that is fine but the crackers are a must!

 Boil your chicken breasts 25-30 minutes until done.

You want to save the broth from boiling your chicken. I sit my colander in a bowl and separate it that way.

 Let your chicken cool and then shred. When I don't have much time I run cold water over the chicken while shredding to speed up the process.

Put your shredded chicken back in your stock pot. Pour broth until it almost covers the chicken. You won't use all of your broth but hang on to it in case you need it later.

 Now, add 2 cups of milk and a half a stick of butter. You want your stew to look pretty white so you may add more or less milk here.

 Once your butter melts, add your salt and pepper. Now, I love pepper and honestly, more pepper than you normally add is best for this stew. Additionally, I don't use a lot of salt when I cook but this recipe definitely needs it. I tell you that so that you don't second guess yourself when continuing to salt and pepper here.

Your stew is now ready. Crumble lots of saltines and add on top. Because the saltines plump up in the stew, they thicken up the overall texture.  

'Till next time, 
Natalie

Chipotle Chicken Soup

Photo Credit: Katrina Runs for Food

When it's cold outside all I want to do is wrap myself in a big cozy blanket, sit next to the fireplace, and eat a hearty bowl of soup. A bowl of soup that warms you from the inside out. You know the kind I am talking about! It has the right amount of heat, is hearty, and makes you want to take a nap after you finish eating. 

Searching for the perfect recipe was quite a challenge. You can't just type in "soup to eat by a fireplace that makes you want to nap" in Google and expect to get a good result. So I headed to my favorite websites when searching for recipes: FoodGawker, Tastespotting, Pinterest, and Foodnetwork. 

I am an extremely visual person when it comes to finding recipes. Food has so many visual components to it and you usually eat with your eyes first. I'll admit that if a recipe doesn't have a picture with it I am usually very hesitant to try it. While on FoodGawker, I found this recipe for Chipotle Chicken Soup. It has the perfect combination of chicken, vegetables, and heat from the chipotle peppers. Check out this fabulous recipe on the blog Katrina Runs for Food. Oh and did I mention it is gluten free! Definitely a plus! 

'Till next time,

Caroline 

Natalie's Rockin' Ramen

Ramen Noodles. No doubt a cheap American staple that I perfected during my undergraduate and graduate school years. This is for all you broke-as-joke college students and new grads. Let's not kid ourselves, d-hall can get old after a while and a $.25 Ramen package might just be the fix. If you close your eyes and dream a little dream, you may even think your back at home for a moment with this yummy fave.

The truth is sometimes you want soup but you want it in drive-thru time. The added protein in this pantry find makes it a much more balanced health option than regular ol' Ramen.

Here you have it.

Ingredients:

1 small can of chicken ( I used half of the 12.5 oz shown in the picture below)

1 package of Maruchan Ramen- chicken flavor

2 eggs (1 whole and 1 just egg white)

Salt, pepper and a little oregano to taste

Prep time: 1 minute
Cooking time: 4 minutes
Serving: 2

Pour 2 cups of water in a pot and bring to a rolling boil. While waiting, scramble your eggs and add salt and pepper.  Once boiling, add your noodles and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

As you noodles simmer, add your chicken seasoning, shredded chicken and eggs. Let cook for 30-45 seconds allowing the eggs to cook before stirring. 

Stir and top with a little oregano. This is definitely a comfort meal of mine that I enjoy with pita chips.

'Till next time, 

Natalie

Buffalo Chicken Soup

Buffalo Chicken is my all time favorite pizza. There's nothing better than chicken and hot sauce.  So why not turn my love of Buffalo Chicken (dip, pizza, etc.) into a soup? So I did. I hope you enjoy this Buffalo Chicken Soup as much as I did.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

4 cups of 2% milk

2 cans of cream of chicken

1 can of cream of onion

1 8oz container of sour cream

1/4 - 1/2 cup of Louisiana's Hot Sauce

3-4 cups of chopped or shredded chicken

Combine all ingredients in a medium to large stock pot.  Stirring occasionally, bring to simmer over medium high heat, reduce to low once simmering.  Cook for 40 minutes.

I used three 9oz frozen chicken packages from Purdue, but you could just as easily use a rotisserie chicken.  I just used skim milk because that is what I had in the fridge, but I would recommend using 2% milk. Since I love hot sauce, I used 1/2 cup, but feel free to just use as little as 1/4 of a cup.

Garnish with cheese and bacon bits.  Serve with tortilla chips. 

You could easily turn this into a slow-cooker recipe.  Combine all ingredients in the crockpot, cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours.

'Till next time,

Matthew

Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Mmmm. Olive Garden does a lot of things right but I have to say that their chicken gnocchi soup paired with salad and breadsticks is AWESOME! Thankfully, my family consists of a bunch of Italian wannabe's, so we frequent our local Olive Garden often. This is what I order almost every time. There are many recipes that try to copycat this decadent soup and if I must say so myself, this one here came pretty darn close.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, boiled
4 Tbsp of butter
16 oz. of evaporated milk
4 Tbsp of olive oil
18 oz of chicken broth
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
3 garlic cloves minced
1 medium onion, chopped fine
Carrots (.5 cup if chopped in food processor, 1 cup if shredded)
2 cups of fresh baby spinach chopped
16 oz package of gnocchi
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Let's get started.

Chop your celery.

And now your garlic.

I put my carrots and onion in the food processor to get them very fine.



 

Coarsely chop your spinach.

Take your butter and olive oil to saute your onions and garlic. Once transparent, add your flour and stir for about one minute creating your roux.

Now add your evaporated milk, chicken broth, carrots and celery. Stir occasionally.

I took my kitchen sheers to my boiled chicken to get the right pieces. Not too shredded and not too chunky. I also added salt and pepper before adding to the soup.

Now add your chicken and spinach.

Cook your gnocchi according to package directions, drain and add to your soup base. I bought wheat gnocchi because I was feeling healthy. Olive Garden uses the white and I will probably try that next time.

This soup turned out great. My version was a little thicker than Olive Garden's but I liked that better. If you like a runnier consistency then I would recommend adding more chicken broth or even water. I added a good bit of salt and pepper based on our preferences. I sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and it was the perfect blend! I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

'Till next time,

Natalie 

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup. It doesn't get any more basic or traditional than that.

I was searching for a new chicken noodle soup recipe and found one with five stars and great reviews.  This soup also included a recipe to make your own broth. Awesome right? Wrong. This chicken broth was quite possibly the worst broth I ever tasted. No lie. It wasn't too watery, or lacking in flavor - the flavor was just off.

Looking back on it, the soup would have been great with some store bought chicken broth or a different broth recipe. The chicken, vegetables and noodles were all amazing. It was the broth that ruined it all.

I've revised the recipe to solve the broth problem. I recommend using canned chicken broth and a rotisserie chicken. Stay tuned for a future post all about broths: chicken, beef and vegetable.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium carrots, sliced into 1/2 inch. pieces

2 celery stalks, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch. slices

4 fresh thyme sprigs

1 bay leaf

2 quarts of canned chicken broth

8 oz. dried wide egg noodles

1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I recommend rotisserie chicken)

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 handfull fresh parsley, finely chopped

In a medium stock pot heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, carrots, celery, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook the vegetables for about 6 minutes until they are softened.

Once softened, pour the chicken broth into the stock pot and bring it to a boil. Add the egg noodles to the stock pot and cook according to the package, about 5 minutes.

After about 5 minutes, stir in shredded chicken and continue to simmer for a few more minutes to heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with cilantro before serving. 

'Till next time,

Caroline 

Nacho Cheese Chicken Chowder

Photo credit: Better Homes & Gardens.

Recently, I've been searching for an interesting crock pot recipe. There is nothing better than throwing ingredients into a slow cooker and having delicious soup ready when you come home from work. I stumbled upon this Nacho Cheese Chicken Chowder soup from Better Homes & Gardens. It seems so simple: chicken, corn, tomatoes and cheese soup.  Almost as easy as Honey Boo Boo's sketti.

Ingredients:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 14 1/2 ounce cans Mexican-style stewed tomatoes  
1 10 3/4 ounce can condensed nacho cheese soup
1 10 ounce package frozen whole kernel corn (2 cups)  

Shredded Mexican-style or cheddar cheese for garnish

In a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker, stir together chicken, undrained tomatoes, soup, and corn.

Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours or on high-heat setting for 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Sprinkle each serving with cheese. Makes 6 servings.

Some of the reviewers stated that the soup did not have enough kick.  I would recommend some hot sauce (and seriously - everything is better with hot sauce) or maybe even a little bit of hot Rotel.

‘Till next time,

Matthew

Southwestern White Chicken Chili



Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

This holiday season my family got together to celebrate early for Thanksgiving and to do some serious shopping. We were also celebrating my cousin's birthday and wanted to have a big meal together without slaving over the stove for hours.

We decided to have baked potatoes and soups! My aunt took dibs on chili and I pondered for several days what my soup of choice would be, afterall, it needed to pair nicely with a baked potato. I came across a recipe for white bean chili, made some changes and discovered this little gem. I can honestly say this is one of my new favorite soups.

When my staff came over last week, I made this soup again and it was a hit. I hope you enjoy as much I did!


Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth

1 (18.75 ounce) cantomatillos, drained and chopped

2 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes

3 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles

1.5 teaspoon dried oregano

1.5 teaspoon ground coriander seed

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

6 ears fresh corn

3 pound diced, cooked chicken meat

3 (15 ounce) cans white beans

salt and black pepper to taste

I made soup to feed 16 comfortably and had plenty leftover. Divide everything above by three if you are feeding a family of four.

A quick look at our ingredient list.

Boil your chicken breast and place in the refrigerator to cool so that you can easily shred.

Chop your onion and garlic. I used a food processor to chop mine fine and quickly.  Add your onion and garlic with olive oil in your stock pot. Cook until translucent. If you are cooking the same amount as me, I would use the largest stock pot you have.

Add your chicken broth, spices, green chilis, tomatillos and canned tomatoes to your onion/garlic mixture. I also added a pinch of sugar at this stage. A hint on the tomatillos...these are odd little boogers and dicing them is not as easy as you would think because they just fall apart. I ended up holding two at a time in my hands over the pot and squeezing the juices and pulp out but discarding majority of the actual skin of the tomatillos. Either way you choose to add them, diced or squeezed, will work just fine.

While your flavors are marrying in your pot, remove your chicken from the refrigerator and shred with your hands. Some people put their chicken in a food processor and this is fine but I think it shreds the chicken too fine. I don't like chunky chicken or super fine chicken so I hand shred mine.

I absolutely love fresh corn and given the opportunity, I always chose fresh over canned or frozen. Take a good knife and slowly cut down the sides.

Drain your white beans and add your beans, corn and chicken to your mixture.

Drink of choice this week: Bud Light Lime. There is just something about a beer and southwestern food. 

My new phone case: please note how nicely the design matches the color palet of this blog. I literally squealed when I saw it.

Yummy. I think this soup is best with fresh avocado, a little sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla chips. Enjoy!

Here's my staff enjoying this tasty dish!

'Till next time,
Natalie