Creamy Chicken Dijon Soup

I morphed leftover chicken dijon I made for dinner last night, into a soup! This time I opted out the mushrooms, and added in cauliflower, which I morphed leftover cauliflower into cauliflower puree. Having the leftover dinner made the steps for this "souper" easy!

Ingredients:
Leftover chicken dijon dinner
1 1/2 - 2 C. chicken broth
1/2 C. half n' half
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard (optional)
S & P to taste

Appliances:
Immersion blender
Sauce pan
Large mixing bowl

Directions:
1. Medium to large sauce pan depending upon amount of leftovers. For me it was a large sauce pan. Add in leftovers, broth and mustard, stir everything to incorporate broth and dijon. Heat on medium-migh heat, until boiling, then reduce heat to simmer for 30 mins. Add in half n' half 10 minutes before removing off heat, stir pot to evenly distribute cream.

2. Pour contents of sauce pan into mixing bowl, and blend away with immersion blender, until everything is evenly blended and creamy. Once at your desired consistancy, be sure to taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Add soup back to sauce pan, on low heat for 10 minutes, remove off heat, and serve!

2 steps! Basic idea for sharing this is to let you know how easy an immersion blender is, and clean up is very easy! I've seen people puree their soups in an actual blender, that makes for more clean up. Once you get the idea of how to easily make creamy soups, ideas will come flooding. You cannot go wrong with chicken broth, veggies, cream and seasonings!

Bon appetit!

Raspberry Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This dish really awakens the taste buds. I made this for Christmas Eve, as it makes a lovely holiday dinner, but a few tweaks can make it enjoyable all year long. My husband loves this dish, and requested this be for our 1st married Christmas Eve dinner, which I was delighted to make, and more so delighted by his enjoyment!

Ingredients:
2 boneless chicken breasts
2 shallots or 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/3 c. seedless raspberry preserve/jam
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. pepper-reserved for glaze
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a medium sized skillet on med-high heat, a tad to the med side-you want the skillet hot, but not too hot as you have oil heating, and chicken might sizzle and splatter. Add in your shallots or red onion, sauteeing them till translucent, about 4-5 minutes, you don't want them to crisp up and turn brown, so attention here is key. Once translucent, remove from pan and set aside in a bowl.

2. Keep pan on same heat, add in a touch of oil if needed. Pat chicken breasts dry with paper towel, rub on salt, pepper and thyme, a generous amount of salt and pepper might be needed, if more than the recommended thyme is needed, add a bit more as well. Hover hand over skillet to test heat, if you feel good warmth, throw the chicken breasts on. Begin browning chicken, about 5-6 minutes on each side. If you wish to cover pan with lid, this helps in lessening the splatters, and helps chicken to keep juices inside. Turn chicken over, using tongs works best for me to keep arm at a distance from sizzling pan, using a fork works well, but be careful.

3. While chicken is browning, get your portions of vinegar and raspberry preserve ready, and the reserved pepper. Once chicken breasts are golden brown, and making sure white on the inside, NO PINK!, remove chicken, place onto a plate and cover with another plate, and wrap this with a towel, to ensure no heat escapes, keeping the chicken moist.

4. This next step goes by pretty quick. Turn the heat on the skillet down to low-medium heat. Add back in your chopped shallots or red onion, reintroduce them to the pan, getting them warm again. Add in the raspberry preserve, balsamic vinegar and pepper. The heat of pan will melt the preserve. You are creating the glaze now, so you might use a spatula. Stir the glaze for about 1-2 mins. Now you can uncover your chicken, plate them, and pour the glaze over the breasts, et voila!

How to tweak this? Instead of raspberry preserve, try apricot preserves, and instead of balsamic, use white balsamic, this would be lovely on a spring or summer night!

What to serve on the side? Although I didn't mention what another burner was doing, I bought Safeway Select 4 cheese risotto, and it is fabulous-I do this because so much going on, but I do make risotto, and will post that another day. Buying boxed 4 cheese risotto relieves you of stress of constantly stirring and adding in liquids. I also added in frozen baby peas to add a splash of color (keeping with a holiday appearance), and added a sprinkle more of parmesan I happened to have on hand. I've also served this dish with garlic mashed potatoes. Broccoli or asparagus on the side gives the vegetable component, as well paired with a baby spinach salad with balsamic dijon vinaigrette. You be the chef and decide what you want to serve.

Bon appetit!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I believe some old fashion recipes are important to have in a cooking repertoire. Chicken noodle soup is one of them, because it is not just tasty, but nutritious, healthy, and helps soothe whatever is ailing anyone, with all the vitamins from the veggies and the protein from the chicken. I know that this recipe will carry me many years to make for my family, whether for sick little ones, to warm the tummy, or as a to be cherished comfort food. Prep is simple, crockpot does majority of the work, ingredients simple.

Ingredients:

1 whole fryer chicken
2 cartons Kitchen Basics Chicken Broth
4 large celery stalk sticks-3 chopped, one cut in half
3 large carrots-2 chopped, one cut in half
2 yellow onions-1 quartered, one chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 package whole wheat flat noodles (or whatever type of noodle you prefer)
Seasonings: salt, pepper, sage, rosemary, mustard seed, thyme (have all on hand and add to taste, gonna need to season this generously, but to your standards and desires, I love flavor, so I was very generous-especially salt and pepper!)

Appliances:
1 large oval crockpot, large enough to hold chicken and the broth
1 Large skillet

Directions:
1. Let's start with the mirepoix (pronounced meer-pwa). Put the skillet on med-high heat, add in olive oil. When you feel the warmth on your hand hovering over the skillet, add in the chopped onion, chopped carrots, chopped celery and minced garlic. Distribute the mirepoix to incorporate the oil, and continue to saute, lowering heat if needed-no browning. All veggies should become soft and translucent. Might take 15 mins to get desired consistency.

2. Turn on crockpot to high.

3. Next, combine 1 Tbsp. each of the seasonings to make a dry rub, and rub this onto entire whole chicken-wash your hands afterwards!! Place quartered onion, carrot cut in half and celery stalk stick cut in half, and insert into the empty chicken cavity, legs should be tied-I found the chicken at Fresh & Easy, already ready to use, no yucky cleaning out cavity, and already tied perfectly. Place chicken into crockpot, add in the broth. Add generous salt and pepper to the broth, and let this all sit for 3-4 hours, turning chicken over once or twice-broth might not cover chicken, and that is ok, but turning it to coat it is key to tenderness and flavor.

4. After 4th hour, remove chicken from pot, remove onion/celery/carrot from cavity and disgard. Remove string. Chicken should be fal off the bone tender. Begin pulling meat from bones, disgarding fat if desired as well, using tongs and fork. Once meat off all bones, using two forks, shred meat into strands, leaving some whole pieces if desired. Once shredded, add back to crock pot, taste broth for savor level, and reduce heat to low for 2-3 hours.

5. Finally, add in noodles in last 1/2 hour, remember to taste broth again to see if salt/pepper needed, prior to noodles and after. If too salty, add in some water.

6. Remove from heat, let stand for 15 minutes off of heat, in a soup terene for example then serve. This is so delicious, and will receive praise and cheers.

I will attempt to make leftovers into various international soups, such as adding Asian ingredients for a "pho". Once you have this base, you can morph left overs into your desires.

Bon appetit!!

Easy Coq au Vin

This is a French dish, and I will pronounce it hear for you: "coke o van" (however, you want to anticipate the n in van, like the n is in your throat, but don't pronounce the n.) Coq au vin began as a dish when the country folk of France had their rooster, and when he could no longer crow, this was the end of his life, but a good one, because he was bathed in wine and good vegetables! Here we are 2009, and most of us don't live in the country and/or have a rooster crowing us awake at 4:30 in the morning. So, I have simplified it, and instead of using our new Le Creuset dutch oven, I used our new 6 quart crock pot, that is oval in shape, rather than a narrow cylinder pot. Le Creuset says this can be done in a few hours, crock pot says 8, I say 6 hours, first two on high, last 4 on low...you decide what is best for your schedule.

Ingredients:

8-10 baby new potatoes (yellow in color, not red)

3-5 slices of bacon, chopped (or chopped prosciutto is fine as well)

2-3 boneless chicken breast fillets

2 large carrots, sliced in medallions

1 bushel green onions, chopped

1 carton baby bella mushrooms (found near the salad bags in your grocery store)

1 small bag of frozen pearl onions, found in grocer's freezer department (or you could chop a medium white onion)

1 1/2 cup Burgundy wine (I couldn't find this so I used Mouton Cadet Bordeaux-it has to be red!)

1 cup chicken broth (Kitchen Classics is best)

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp sage

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

*note: season to taste, you might want to add more spices as you cook

Directions: The cooking can be done many ways, I used 4 recipes to create this one, and it worked fine for me! In a skillet on medium-high heat, brown bacon with green onions. You want the onions to sweat, so if med-high heat is too much, and you find your onions are burning, not browning because of bacon, lower it immediately! Once bacon is well cooked and onions are translucent and soft, discard into a bowl lined with paper towel, however KEEPING the bacon grease in the pan-this is what you brown the chicken with. Season the breast filets with the spices, mix the spices in a bowl if you wish, and sprinkle/rub over both sides of the breast. Add in the breast filets to the still hot skillet, maybe a splash of olive oil if needed, however, you don't want to cook them thoroughly, just make them goldeny brown on outside, they are absorbing the bacon drippings and onion flavoring at this point-a few flips per minute might do the trick. You might want to bring the heat a tad up doing this, make the pan sizzle a bit to really make the chicken have a crust and look a beautiful golden color.

Turn your crock pot on, add in carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, pearl onions, add in the chicken, top everything with the bacon and green onion mixture, and add in the chicken broth, stir it all up. Set your crock pot to high for 2 hours. Stir occasionally to make sure all ingredients are coated with the broth, like once per 1/2 hour. After 2 hours, add in the wine, mix all ingredients again, and now you will put your crock pot on low for 4 hours, again stirring every 1/2 hour. Mixing the wine now and the bacon scented broth, this is when you are where you want to be, it smells divine! Do not worry if your mushrooms look black, by the way, they are not burnt, this is how they look when cooked and absorbed with wine.

About 2 hours before the last hour, taste the broth. Should be really savory. This is when, per your palette, you decide if needs more salt, pepper, a dash of this and that. If taste is a bit bitter, add in a table spoon of dijon mustard, and a splash more of the wine in the last hour-this is what I did, as I always have dijon on hand (psst, I suggest you do the same).

In the end you should have a really hearty stew type of dish. Chicken will be so tender you can shred it with forks, and maybe do this the last 1/2 hour to let the juices mingle with the chicken that has been soaking for about 5 1/2 hours, it will be totally tender and juicy!

Serve up in a bowl, if you wish to have more of a stew, and have some bread on the side to help soak up the juices-we had a whole grain sliced artisan loaf from our grocer's baker, which we will use for sandwiches this week. Baby ciabatta rolls work fine as well if you have them available in singles, or a pack for the whole family.

This is simple. Other recipes call to flambé the chicken in cognac before adding to crock pot: I will not temp this until I have a stainless steel kitchen! It is a beautiful dish, although a crock pot, and should be watched every 1/2 hour, it is simple. I would not leave this to cook and leave your house for 8 hours, like other crock pot recipes suggest, but is very manageable and is very cheap, in my opinion. You can research and find recipes if you're serving to 6 or more guests, but this for even 2 people, made enough for us both to have left dinner tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy this. Bon appetit!!

Chicken Ravioli à la tapenade

I concocted this very simple and thoughtless dish tonight after viewing what remained in my fridge and freezer. This is a good way to clear out things in the fridge.

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms

1/4 cup tapenade (store bought)

1 cup frozen chicken ravioli

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp grated parmesan

1 tsp red pepper flakes

S&P to taste

1. In small sauce pan, heat water to a boil. Once boiling add in frozen ravioli.

2. In medium skillet, add in olive and heat on medium heat. Once pan thoroughly heated, add in onions and garlic, saute down till translucent. Then add mushrooms, saute for 5 mins, mushrooms should be soft and decreased in size a bit. Stir in tapenade, salt and pepper to taste. Tapenade brings a salty punch, be weary if you wish to add more salt.

3. Once ravioli finished, using slotted spoon, pull ravioli out and add to skillet, tossing onion, mushroom, tapenade mixture with raviolis. Sprinkle in parmesan and red pepper flakes, et voila! Simple and delicious! I had some of the mixture left over, so now I have one tupperware with leftover, rather than 4 different containers, to reheat for lunch tomorrow.

Note: Any variation of pasta you have will work fine, the chicken ravioli is just what I had in the freezer, and needed to be used up before freezer burn hit it. Also, mushroom mixture would go great over fish, adding capers and lemon zest!

Bon appetit!

Chicken Dijon

This a constant staple in our kitchen, and with the ingredients involved, it may become yours! I learned this from a dear French friend, over 10 years ago, and its been a winner every time.

Ingredients:

2 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts

2-3 cups broccoli florets

1 small yellow onion, slightly chopped

1 large zucchini (2 small if you can't find a large one) sliced into medallions

2 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms

1/2 cup white wine (whatever wine you are going to serve)

1/2 cup chicken broth

(if you don't prefer to use wine, 1 cup chicken broth)

2-3 Tbsp. dijon mustard (depending upon your desired intensity, I prefer more, and I prefer Maille, available at most supermarkets.)

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Herbes de Provence (if you don't have this handy: sage, rosemary, thyme)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

One skillet is all you need! Pick a rather large non-stick skillet. Heat Olive Oil on medium heat. Once throughly heated, add onions, and saute until translucent. Before cutting chicken, massage the spices onto both sides of chicken breasts (1 Tbsp of Herbes de Provence and S&P), a light dusting, or to your preference. Cut the chicken into 1 inch thick cubes, and add to skillet. Immerse the seasoned chicken cubes with the onions, let the flavors play together, this takes about 10 to 15 mins. When you notice the chicken cubes are a lot of white on the outside and bit pinkish on the inside, add the wine and chicken stock, gently stirring so that flavors gather. Let simmer for 5 mins. Add in Dijon mustard, I do this with a spoon, and really concentrate on making sure the mustard is distributed with the broth and wine, coating the chicken and onions. Once all well coated, add in the broccoli, zucchini and mushrooms. If you feel more liquid is needed, add in more stock and maybe more wine, as I would do! Its a happy party, why not? If you feel you need to add more Dijon, go ahead, you want the Dijon flavor to be noticed. Stir occasionally, making sure all veggies are reducing, allowing the "dijon broth" to be absorbed, which these guys are good sponges, hence why they are apart of this dish! Once all veggies tender, chicken is done, you are set!

Sides:

The best sides are rice or potato, whether in the form of wild rice, risotto, or garlic mashed potatoes, you'll want something starchy on the side to soak up the remaining juices, or just a baguette! Also, if you add a spinach salad with the vinaigrette dressing I have on this blog, you have a menu to serve guests! I don't do desserts, by the way (btw), I'll try that in the fall/winter when it isn't terrible to turn on the oven! Bon appetit!