Chicken Enchilada Soup

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law Emily, after we enjoyed some at Christmastime. It's delicious, and quite healthy too. Thanks again, Em!

Ingredients:

2 quarts water
2 T chicken boullion
3 chicken breasts
1 can chopped green chilies
1 large onion, quartered
1 red pepper, quartered
5 medium potatoes, peeled & quartered
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 butternut squash or 1 acorn squash (not easy to peel raw, so cut it in half, scrape out the seeds, then microwave for about 8 minutes until slightly soft. Then scrape the squash out of the skin and put in the pot with everything else)
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1 c sour cream
1/4 - 1/2 can red enchilada sauce
1 T taco seasoning
1 can white or Great Northen beans


Put first 11 ingredients in a large pot (water through squash) and boil until chicken is done and veggies are soft. Take out chicken and set aside. Puree the broth & veggies in one of the following ways: with an immersion blender (which would be the easiest), or strain out the soft veggies and blend them in your blender in two batches (adding about 2 cups of broth to each batch so it blends better), or in your food processor, then return it all to the original pot.

Shred chicken, then add it and the remaining 4 ingredients to the pot. Stir it, heat it up, & serve! Fun topped with extra sour cream, cheddar cheese, Fritos, fried tortilla strips, or nothing at all. Deeeelicious!


A few notes:

• I had a hard time getting the taco seasoning to mix in well without being clumpy, so next time I'll add it to the blender while pureeing the vegetables.

• I didn't include the squash or beans since I didn't have them on hand, but it was still quite yummy. Next time I'll be better prepared! Come to think of it, this would be a perfect recipe to add some canned (soft) beans to during the pureeing stage too, to hide a little extra protein in there. I would stick with light-colored beans though, to maintain the pretty color of this soup.

• I used one pint of canned chicken, which I had on hand since I recently pressure-canned 40 pounds of chicken. A full pint jar was just about the right amount for this soup.

• The recipe called for 1 tsp salt; you might want to start with 1 tsp and then add more at the end if it needs it. Mine needed a good extra teaspoon.

• Measure the water: I approximated and in hindsight I probably had closer to 3 quarts in there; it was a bit watery for my liking so next time I will measure out 2 quarts!

• Soup is not an exact science. I make a lot of soup around here and it's never the same each time; soup is a great thing to experiment with spices... just add a little of this and a little of that! Have fun with it :)

P.S. Do you pronounce it "kyoo-min" or "coo-min" ?? I have always said it the first way but I've heard plenty of people say it both ways. Having just done a little research online, both ways are acceptable and some people even say it like "comin'."

Baked Potato Cheese Soup

I came across a potato cheese soup recipe on another cooking blog but made several changes to it for dinner tonight... it turned out delicious. Very filling, and my husband had thirds! My kids liked it too.


6-8 large baking potatoes
1 stick butter
chopped carrots (see "tips" for quantities)
chopped onions
chopped celery
1/3 c flour
salt & pepper
3 bay leaves
Emeril's Essence Seasoning
Season Salt
2 c milk
4 c chicken broth (I used 2 cans which was about 3 1/2 cups but that was fine)
8-12 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
8 oz grated cheddar cheese (I did two handfuls)
1 c sour cream

Wash potatoes, prick with a fork, wrap in foil and bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender. Melt half of the stick of butter in a large soup pot. Add chopped onion, carrot, celery, & spices and sautee over medium heat until carrot is nearly cooked (not too soft but not crunchy either). Then add the rest of the butter, let it melt and then add the 1/3 c flour, stir and cook for one minute. Add milk and chicken broth slowly, whisking to incorporate the roux (butter/flour) into the liquid. Cook on medium-high until it comes to a boil. Meanwhile, peel the baked potatoes and either mash or cube them, depending on how you want the soup's texture to be. Stir in potatoes, bacon, and cheese; then taste to see if it needs more salt/pepper. Just before serving add one cup sour cream.


Tips:

• I mash about half the potatoes and cube the other half; that way the mashed potatoes thicken the soup but there are still enough chunks for a nice texture. If you decide ahead of time that you won't be mashing any of the potatoes, add more flour in the beginning, up to 2/3 c.

• Spices are of course to taste. I put in about a teaspoon of salt at the beginning, and taste it later to see if it needs more. Bacon will add a salty flavor, so you might not need as much salt if you put in a lot of bacon. The cheese will add saltiness too, so don't oversalt it in the beginning. I put in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Essence, and several dashes each of pepper & season salt.

• As for the vegetables... the recipe I adapted this from didn't call for any onion/carrots/celery so I just guess on quantities (and actually didn't put in any celery since my husband doesn't like it, but it would've tasted really good in there!) I had about two big handfuls of carrots and about 1/3 of a chopped onion.

• A soup like this really holds the heat, so if you turn off the burner and then stir in the sour cream at the end, the sour cream will help it to cool off just a bit before you serve it.

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

I got this idea from Rachael Ray but have changed the recipe slightly. But since it's a recipe from Rachael Ray it only takes about half an hour! I make this all the time when I don't have a lot of time to cook, but want to fix a decent meal for my family.

2 TB olive oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried dill
4 cups chicken broth (canned)
1/2 pound wide egg noodles
1 boneless/skinless chicken breast half, diced
1 can cream of chicken soup

Place a 2-qt or larger pot over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add carrots, celery*, and onion**. Add bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir vegetables and cook for about 5 minutes, until they start to become tender. Add other spices, then pour in chicken broth. Turn up the heat until the soup comes to a boil, then reduce back to medium***. Add noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken. Continue to cook until noodles are tender, a few more minutes; check to see if noodles are done. The chicken only takes a couple minutes to cook through. Remove bay leaves. We like our chicken noodle soup to be creamy, so at the end I add 1 can of cream of chicken soup.

Tips:

My husband doesn't like celery so I always omit it, but I add a little celery salt with the other spices.

I rarely buy fresh onions and chop them for recipes like this, or casseroles. You can buy frozen chopped onions in the frozen vegetable section of the grocery store; they're a life saver! They only cost a teeny bit more than fresh, and it saves you all those tears.

While the soup is cooking and can be left alone for a minute, I make some yummy cheese garlic biscuits, which are really fast and will be finished at about the same time as the soup is.

If you want to make it more fancy, make some homemade noodles instead of store-bought egg noodles!

"Award-Winning" Chili

2 - 15 oz cans diced tomatoes (or one 28 oz can)

1 - 15 oz can chili beans

2 - 15 oz can kidney beans, drained

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 onion, diced

8 oz can tomato sauce

1 can black beans, drained

1 can corn niblets

Brown ground beef and onion together; drain fat. In a large pot, (I use a 4-quart) dump in all the ingredients.

Now for some flavoring. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 TB chili powder -- those are the most important. Then, I also add the following but they are all optional... at least a couple dashes of each: pepper, garlic powder, cumin, seasoned salt, parsley, steak seasoning, oregano, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a spoonful or two of sugar. I don't know how much to tell you to put in of each spice, and sometimes I add a few more! I just gather up a bunch of spice jars from the pantry and go crazy with them. It's fun to experiment with spices! But as long as you add the salt & chili powder, it will taste good.

Mix in all the spices and bring it to a boil. Then turn it down to low, cover it and let it simmer while you cook some Marie Callendar's cornbread. You can find mix on the baking isle. Marie Callendar's cornbread mix is better than any cornbread recipe I've made from scratch. By the time your cornbread is done, the chili will be just right! I put grated cheese on top of my chili; you could also put sour cream. And, I make honey butter for the cornbread. A very satisfying meal.

You can prepare your chili earlier in the day and leave it in a crockpot all afternoon too; I've done it both way and it's always delicious!

FYI - this almost fills a 4-qt pan so that gives you an idea of how many it will serve. My family will eat about half of it and then I freeze the rest; it freezes just fine for a future dinner!

GiGi's Turkey Soup

A truly tasty post-Thanksgiving dish!

After you've devoured your Thanksgiving turkey, pulled all the big pieces of meat off the carcass (to save for sandwiches) and thrown away all the really yucky fatty parts (and extra skin), you are left with an unappetizing heap of bones and stuff. Freeze it in ziploc bags for later, like I always do, or make some soup right away! My Grandma makes this yummy turkey soup and it's so good. And, a nice departure from "traditional" turkey noodle soup (which is also quite tasty).

Put turkey carcass* (mostly bones) in a big pot; barely cover with water and boil (simmer) for about 4 hours, covered. Cool a little and strain into another big pot. Pick enough meat off the bones to include in the soup; about one large cereal bowl full is good. Put broth pot on the stove and add: about 3 big carrots, 2-3 ribs celery, and 1/2 an onion, all chopped. Boil until veggies are tender. (I like to strain some of the fat off the top of the broth before adding the veggies - there may not be much fat, depending on the condition of your turkey carcass.) Add: about 30 oz. canned diced tomatoes (with juice), a can of whole kernel corn (drained), 1 or 2 handfuls of rice, and a decent handful of spaghetti, broken into small pieces. Season with salt (quite a bit - think of all those tomatoes & veggies that need salting! But don't oversalt it...), pepper, season salt, sage (not much), thyme (not much), oregano, basil. Cook until spaghetti is soft. If you do this shortly after Thanksgiving, you can put in some leftover gravy and even stuffing. Yum! This makes a lot of soup, and it freezes well too! I recommend eating this delicious soup with some homemade rolls, as shown.

* If you're starting with a frozen turkey carcass, let it thaw at least partway so you can pack it into a pot better, so your broth will be more flavorful.