Leftover Chicken??? To the Soup Pot With It!

Forgotten, Left for Dead Leftovers Given New Life

One of the things that a Chef always has in the back of their head when planning their menu is, "What am I going to do with any food that hasn't sold?"  In our home lives, you and I call these leftovers.

You know how it goes, you get a roast chicken which is awesome the first night.  Then you might warm up a little bit more the next night or have some on your salad.  But by that third day...(sigh), chicken again?  Meh, no thanks.  So we let it sit as we have moved on to the next meal, leaving poor Mr. Bird in the fridge to slowly decompose until we sacrifice it to the garbage can, throwing away our precious hard earned dollars with it.

If a Chef did this consistently he would be out of business or fired.  We rarely look at it from a dollars and cents view when we're at home.  Its chalked up as money spent and our tired taste buds simply can't microwave another bit of that chicken.  But don't lose out on revitalizing a quality ingredient into another dish.

One of the best way to utilize ingredients in the kitchen is...that's right, soup.  Most of your grandmothers would tell you in a heartbeat to make some soup out of the chicken.  My wife had slow roasted a whole chicken with onions, garlic, and chipotle peppers a few days back.  We had tacos one night, quesadillas another night, tacos again...you get the picture.  So as the days are wearing on, we are always conscious of the fact that we have a chunk of chicken in the fridge.  Taco'd and quesadilla'd out, we are looking towards what we can do to finish this guy off.  Well, we saw that we have a rainy and cool weekend ahead.  And I don't know about you, but most of my weekends are spent running around, doing errands and the like.  Stopping to fix lunch isn't necessarily on my "to do list". 

"Let's make a batch of Chicken Tortilla Soup and eat on it through the weekend," I thought to myself.
Have I mentioned my wife and I love soup? Even though Spring is just about here and the temperatures are rising, there is a couple of cool days left that you may need a little warm up.  So, utilizing ingredients we had around the house and in the pantry, I whipped up a good amount of the soup.  So let me share my recipe I came up with to use up leftovers, save myself money, and make my weekend a little easier.

Be forewarned.  Chicken Tortilla Soup is kind of like chili or spaghetti meat sauce.  Arguments rage about "authentic" and "the right way" to make these dishes.  Facts are facts, everybody does it different, and truth be told, I wasn't going to make a trip to the store for an ingredient or two for the sake of authenticity.  So here it is, Quick Chicken Tortilla Soup with leftover chicken, probably inauthentic, but delicious nonetheless.  Enjoy!

Quick Chicken Tortilla Soup
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Small Onion, chopped
3 Garlic Cloves
Generous Pinch of Salt and Pepper
1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Chili Powder(we used chipotle powder for smokiness)
1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 28oz can of Diced Tomatoes, including juice
1 quart(32oz) Vegetable or Chicken Broth
1/2 cup Corn kernels, frozen is fine
2 cups Leftover Pulled or Diced Chicken
1 Tbsp Chopped Cilantro
Sour Cream
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheddar or Jack Cheese
Fresh Jalapeno
Lime Wedges

Heat oil in a large sauce pot or soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until they begin to caramelize, add garlic and salt/pepper and cook for 1 minute more.  Add cumin and chili powder, stir to incorporate(add more chili powder if you like it spicier.) Cook for 1 minute more.

The spices should be very aromatic at this point, be careful not to burn them.  Add your tomato paste and incorporate well into the onion/garlic/spice mixture.  Add half of your broth and stir the mixture well to incorporate the tomato paste into the broth.  Make sure you get all the little bits of stuck on food on the bottom of the pan. 

Add the remaining broth, tomatoes, and corn.  Bring to a simmer, then add your chicken.

Bring the soup back to a simmer, then reduce to medium low heat and let simmer gently for 30-45 minutes.

Turn off heat and add the cilantro and stir.  Serve with the accompaniments listed, whatever amounts you like. 

Easy.  As I said earlier, I wasn't going to the store again for some of the extras.  You can see in the picture that we only had the chips at home, so we went without all of the other accompaniments that we would normally use.  Turned out phenomenal.  We will eat on this all weekend long with happy bellies. 

If I was shopping though I would probably include a poblano pepper for a little more zing or even a green bell pepper.  but feel free to play with it and make it your own.  The beauty in the art of cooking is that the fundamentals never change, we just modify to make things our own.  I hope you are inspired to learn more about cooking and continue with us on this journey.  Enjoy and be sure to pass along with those you love.

KD

7 Things You NEED in Your Kitchen!

You're just not doing it right until you have these in your kitchen!

 

 

First off, I don't believe it's possible to have an all inclusive list of "must haves" in your kitchen.  If that were the case we'd have everything from avocado pitters to citrus zesters and all things inbetween.  But I really started thinking about it, what are the must haves in my kitchen?  Outside of regular tools and gadgets like knives and cutting boards, cast iron pans and peelers, what do I really use in my kitchen?

 

So here is a quick top 7 of the Devine household kitchen.  We use these things regularly and would be lost without them.

 

Rice cooker. Rice cookers make it easy to have a side dish on hand. Also, real rice(not the minute stuff) is dirt cheap, less than 50 cents per serving,why wouldn't you make this a staple side dish in your house. Most newer cookers even have settings for the whole grain brown rice.  Add some spice blends and you can add variety and depth beyoned the plain old white rice many of us grew up on. 





Crock pot- I think this one is self explanatory. Use your prepped up ingredients and a nice long bath in broth or other cooking liquid and boom, dinner with no fuss in the evening.  Everything from bbq pulled pork to bolognese sauce(fancy title for spaghetti sauce).  These are of constant use year round and assure your family homemade meals any day of the week.

 

Stock or Broth! You must have this in your kitchen. Foundational for sauces, cooking vegetables and meats as well. Oh yeah, remember your rice cooker? Think your rice could use a blast of flavor?  Whether store bought or homemade(preferred and easy too!), you will really be surprised how replacing plain ol' boring water will add mountains of flavor to your dishes.

Your prepped ingredients. Did you know that restaurant chefs do not start from scratch when you place your order. Vegetables are chopped, meats are marinated, pasta is cooked, all in advance so that when you place your orders, the food is thrown together with ease and much much much quicker this way. Having trouble getting food on the table during the week?  Spend 30 minutes doing all of the leg work the night before to make the next day's meal a snap.

Whole chickens- my personal go to ingredient. Why? In a word, versatility. You can do anything to a chicken and her parts. Also, you get ingredients from a whole chicken. Stock from the carcass, crispy skins for salads, rendered chicken "butter" to add to rice and potatoes, I could go on. Also, there is a certain pride in roasting a chicken properly and having meals to eat off of for the better part of the week.

Your meal plan. As I say often, if you get to, what's for dinner, you're sunk. Might as well figure out which value meal you're getting now. Planning is KEY to a successful food plan. If you don't know what you're eating, then you don't know what to buy at the store, it's a vicious cycle really. No really it is. Your food budget will be sunk and your family will be eating from paper bags and take out containers for their whole life.  Here's a link to a slew of templates or design your own.

Food Saver/Vacuum Packer.  Do you know how chefs can get boneless skinless chicken breast for under $1/lb? Because we buy a lot of it at once. Most times we get 40lb cases. That's a lot of chicken. And while I don't suspect that any of you will buy that much chicken, the lesson remains the same, when you buy in bulk you will save. So what do you do with the truckload of chicken you just got at Costco? Freezer bags? Nah. They don't really preserve food well for any longer than a week or two. The food saver or other similar apparatus preserve the quality of meats and other foods by removing all of the air out of the bags. Air is the main culprit behind freezer burn, nip it in the bud, freezer pack!

 

Consider adding some or all of these items to your "must have" list and continue to build your tool kit for kitchen success.  Do you have favorites?  What can't ou live without?  Comment below, I'd love to hear from you. 

All the best!

 

KD 

Chorizo, White Bean, and Kale Soup



Hearty enough for dinner, this soup will satisfy everyone in
your family.

I love soup...no I don't think you understand.  I'm a soup lover from way back.  I remember eating in the dining room back in college and requesting copious amounts of bread to sop soup up for my meal.  I'm a sopper from way back also.  Soup is the heart of peasant and home style cooking, which happen to be my forte.  I love the rustic nature of soup and the fact that there is a pool of ingredients which magically combine to make one of the most delicious dishes that you just don't get many other places in the kitchen.

So my wife actually made this soup last night and I had to share.  The great thing is that you can sub your favorite sausage, a different green instead of kale, and a different bean if you like.  The recipe holds true.  Hope you enjoy.

Chorizo, White Bean, and Kale Soup

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 links of Chorizo Sausage,diced or removed from casing
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. of dried thyme
3 ribs of kale, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
1 tsp of tomato paste
32oz(1qt) of broth/stock, any kind beef, chicken, vegetable, etc.
1 small can (14oz) of cannelinni beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley(optional for garnish)

In a large stockpot, brown the sausage in the oil over medium high heat, continuing to break it apart as it browns. 

When the sausage is mostly brown, add the onion, garlic, kale, and thyme and saute until softened.  Be mindful not to burn the garlic, it will give off a very bitter flavor.

Once the onions begin to soften, add the tomato paste and incorporate into the sausage and vegetable mixture.  It will begin to brown, as this starts to happen add about half of the broth.  Stir well and be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot for any browned bits of food. Add remaining broth.

Add the beans, stir and bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for 30-40 minutes.  Sprinkle chopped parsley over soup and serve.

Optional:  I love toasted bread cubes and adding them to the bowl and pouring the soup right over top and letting all of the deliciousness seep into the bread.  Mmmmmm...

Traditionally this would be considered a wintry soup.  But it's hearty enough for a meal anytime of the year.  Play around with the recipe.  You like andouille sausage or hot Italian?  Go for it.  Black beans more your thing?  Substitute it out.  Go crazy, make it your own!

Happy Cooking, KD.