Soup! Perfect for cold weather but it takes talent to make. If you don't think so than you have the talent! I have written about my disdain for making it as well my attempts to make it and others who have shared with me their recipes of soup but Cory does a wonderful job describing how she produces the wonderfulness known as Soup.
Hello there friends, it's TUESDAY! Another recipe day! I briefly touched upon my new found love affair with making SOUP! This is a new love for me as I've NEVER really been a soup fanatic before I've made probably 10+ kinds of soup from scratch. Now, I can't be stopped as I fill a heavy bottomed pot or crock-pot full of broth, veggies and spices. It's a great feeling to have my boys come home from school and say "Wow, Mom what smells so good?" I tend to use my SMARTPHONE- which is a cheap one but, it serves my needs nicely when I'm searching for recipes on the ALLRECIPES.com website which can be used on a regular desktop, laptop and tablet too... I just find it convenient when I'm at the grocery store I can just pop it up on my phone and buy what I need. Last week I made a FANTASTIC cream of mushroom soup... Some people cringe at the thought of a mushroom soup. Thinking of mushrooms as being only an ingredient used for casseroles and gravy but when it's made homemade it's simply wonderful.... I also made a chicken noodle that was very yummy as well. A big hit with my kids!
To start: I made my own chicken stock which I believe to be the STAR of most soup recipes. It's NOT difficult and took little time and prep... I have NOT used a can stock to make so if you choose to use canned your results may vary. Make your own stock: 4- skin on, bone IN chicken thighs. They are usually very inexpensive and the meat offers a deeper flavor. You can cool the broth and skim the fat if you are worried about calories and overall health of your dishes. You could use chicken breast but, for full flavor I highly suggest bone-in. A chicken or turkey carcass also works well or even scrap pieces from the butcher would work.
I put the chicken in the crock-pot with COLD water add some various herbs and veggies and cover. I happened to have on hand onions, carrots, celery, and garlic so I used those. I didn't even skin the onion I just chopped it into quarters, tossed the baby carrots in WHOLE and chopped the celery with the leaves into chunks. I than added some minced garlic and WHOLE peppercorns (about 2 tablespoons). You could also add parsley, or a bay leaf. I just didn't have them at the moment.
Once covered let it simmer on low for a few hours. Would be great to let it go overnight but I went right into making soup. If you wanted to you could let it cool, skim and you then FREEZE in 1-2 cup portions to add to other recipes. Freezing into ice cube trays is another option and you can than add to gravy, or other dishes where you might use bouillon. DO NOT add salt to the broth, you can always salt the dish at the end. I discarded the veggies and split my broth for TWO soups.
I had tons of regular white button mushrooms that I needed to do something with ASAP- so I chopped them up (about 16oz. worth of them) and sautéed them with some butter, olive oil and garlic till the onions were clear. Added about 3-4 cups of homemade chicken stock and let it simmer 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I added some whole milk with about 2 tablespoons of flour to thicken.
Simmer... You can add more or less milk to taste or if lactose intolerant leave it out altogether. I took some of the chicken from the stock and shredded it and left the other just with the mushrooms so really I made 3 different soups. ! *These never made it to the freezer!
Simmer... You can add more or less milk to taste or if lactose intolerant leave it out altogether. I took some of the chicken from the stock and shredded it and left the other just with the mushrooms so really I made 3 different soups. ! *These never made it to the freezer!
For the next soup, I had a couple of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts and I just tossed them in the broth and let them poach. I removed and cut them into bite sized pieces and added, some bite sized celery, carrots and onions and let it simmer 20-30 minutes. I also added some peas at the end and some really tiny egg noodles (added maybe a cup). If you have big noodles I would cook them first and add after otherwise they might soak up all the wonderful broth.
If it's still not chicken flavored enough for you - by all means add a chicken bouillon. I added a KNORR chicken concentrate... super easy and super delicious.
Well that's it 3 different soups with 1 stock.... I probably could split the chicken soup and made a chicken and brown rice version as well... So many options. Well I hope you try some of my recipes and have good results. Or alter the recipes to your own family’s tastes. In either case happy cooking!
New Post!Tasty Tuesday with Cory! One Stock, Three Soups goo.gl/fb/3o4gY #tuesdayswithcory #tastytuesday
— MryJhnsn (@mryjhnsn) October 23, 2012
