Tortilla Soup

If you read this blog regularly (I know, it's just my parents who do this...), you know that we love soup. One of our favorites is chicken tortilla. It's always a bit different, as each pot of soup is a work in progress right up until the last, but here's the basic recipe we use.

1 white onion, chopped
3 ribs celery and its leaves, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
Salt and pepper
4 chicken bouillon cubes and 5 c. water, or 5 c. chicken stock
2 T. dried cilantro
2 T. dried parsley
1 t. dried garlic
1/2 t. dried cumin
Dash chili powder
Pinch red pepper flakes
Dash cayenne
1 c. fresh salsa
1 can corn, drained
1 can pinquitos, drained
2 packets hot sauce (is this ghetto? I love adding this to soups!)
2 c. cheese, shredded
1 avocado, diced
3 c. crushed tortilla chips
4-5 chicken breat tenders, optional

Mix onion, celery, pepper, carrot, spices, and water in stock pot. Add chicken bouillon or stock. Boil for 25 mins. Add salsa, corn, beans, and hot sauce to pan. Cook another 5 mins. If you want, you can throw in 4-5 chicken breast tenders when you start the vegetables. Sometimes we do, and sometimes we don't. If so, take those out and shred the meat, returning it to the pan to cook for another few minutes.

Remove soup from heat and serve with cheese, avo, and chips. Some like to add sour cream, but we usually don't. This soup never fails to make the evening--it's so hearty and warm.

Curry Broccoli Chicken

Every family has "that" casserole that may not sound so great but is absolutely genius when you taste it. In my family, it's our curried broccoli chicken. Few things make me so happy after a long day, and while this is a family staple that's been passed from cook to cook, the basic recipe is always comfortingly familiar.

We all have a few variations on this theme, but here goes it:

14 boneless, skinless chicken tenders, cooked
2 crowns broccoli, chopped into florets and steamed
2 cans cream of chicken soup, condensed
Juice of 1 large lemon (to taste)
1 c. mayo
1 c. sour cream
1 c. parmesan cheese
Curry powder to taste
Big crock of steamed rice (10-15 cups, depending on how much your crowd likes rice.)

Mix soup, lemon juice, mayo, sour cream, cheese, and curry powder to form a sauce. Arrange broccoli and chicken in greased 13 x 9 pan, and pour sauce over top. Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until bubbly. Warning: This is going to be cheesy and creamy.

Serve chicken mixture over rice, perhaps with a lovely green salad. Yum!! Sometimes, I vary this recipe a bit and add in other mixed veggies (carrots, peppers, and spinach, for example). Other times, I use lower fat mayo and sour cream and soup mix. Sometimes, we eat it with brown rice or over noodles. You get the idea--curry, lemony delight....can't go wrong.

My recommendation: Enjoy this dish and its many variations, and get some fresh curry powder! This will be one of those family favorites you won't be able to stop eating. Enjoy.

Chicken & Biscuits

Today, the freezer inspired me. How often does this happen? My freezer mainly likes to store a lot of ice--in the ice bucket, on top of things, as a protective coat and mittens on the Haagen-Dazs...

But today it actually housed a few treasures that I turned into Desperation Dinner. A few months ago, we made a delicious chicken pot pie, and neither of us grew up eating this very All-American dinner staple. So I thought, why not give this a whirl again?

This Taste of Home recipe was my inspiration (great magazine--you should check it out). Originally, I got a little ahead of myself and thought, Oh, I love these little cups, and they'll be easy to make. While they clearly seem easy to make, and I'm going to try them soon, I found myself without cupcake tins tonight. (That's a whole other post--where did they run off to?) So I made a big lazy pan of chicken and biscuits rather than the pot pie cups.

Here's the recipe:

4 c. frozen leftover homemade leek and onion soup
1 c. frozen leftover homemade chicken gravy
2 huge boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 t. herbs de provence
1 t. thyme
1/2 t. sage
Sprinkle majoram
1 bay leaf
2 c. chopped carrots
1/4 c. chopped green onions (white parts)
1 c. frozen corn
2 c. frozen peas
2 c. chopped green beans
1/4 c. frozen spinach
3 T. cream cheese
5 T. cream
2 T. mayo (Are we having a heart attack yet? Use light or fat free condiments if you'd rather!)
Salt, pepper,and garlic powder to taste (Generous sprinkles!)

Put soup, gravy, 2 c. water, and chicken in stockpot to simmer. Add herbs.

(Appealing picture, isn't it?) Cook til chicken is cooked and you have a gravy consistency. Pull out chicken to shred. Add veggies and cook for 10 more minutes with lid on. (Should be boiling or close to it.)

Fish out bay leaf. Add cream, cream cheese, and mayo. Mix chicken back in. Then pour chicken mixture into greased 9 x 13 pan.

This is where the lazy part comes in. I'd love to tell you that I labored away making biscuits because Doug was going to be home after a long day of manual labor with a big appetite and because I'm that kind of person. But in reality, we have three tubes of refrigerator biscuits left from the monkey bread we never made. We're those kind of people. The "find three tubes of biscuits in the back of the fridge" type.

So what happened next was me placing individual biscuits on top in even spaces with a little garlic powder on top. Prettay, prettay good. Put into a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes. But watch the biscuits closely, like they're your children or your cat who likes to get on the neighbor's roof.

This is clearly kitchen sink pot pie, but you get the idea. If you don't have 4 c. of leftover soup from the leek experiment you did four weeks ago, you could use another homemade soup or boxed or canned. When I get little glops of leftover gravy, I put the tidbits in one container in the freezer, and over time, it builds up to a respectable gravy pile. Like money in the bank. If I didn't have it, I might make a bit on the fly or add some canned cream of chicken soup in its place. (Heck, you could go to KFC and buy their gravy--I won't tell anyone.)

The veggies are totally up to you. This is what I had. Normally, I'd add in celery. There was a brief flirtation with the artichoke hearts in the freezer, but we didn't end up dating tonight. The amount of peas is very subjective, and on and on.

Bottom line: This recipe got a lot of frozen veggies and my leftovers out of the freezer, so this is turning out to be a winner day, you know?  The real dark horse in this dish is the herbs de provence--they add a little mellow complexity that really makes you feel like you accomplished something at the end of a long day. Add a quick tossed salad (whisk balsamic, olive oil, jam, and spicy mustard in bottom of bowl; toss in greens, nuts, fruit, and cheese), and you've got a delicious meal. This not eating out business is starting to be a little more fun.

What did everyone else have for dinner? Any suggestions for pot pie or chicken and biscuits?