Southwestern White Chicken Chili

My husband and I just got back from a soirée in Arizona where the weather was hot and my craving for Mexican food was a bit overwhelming. Now that we are back in Kansas City, the air feels chilly and today seemed like the perfect day for soup. Like all my soups, it was created based on what was in my cupboard at the time. I decided to create a white chicken chili since I had never done it before and I happened to have white beans on hand. Halfway through cooking, I decided to give it a more pronounced southwestern taste to answer my tex-mex craving and added black beans as well.



As I never measure anything I create, the rough estimate of my soup recipe is below. The good thing with soup is that it is easy to fix if it doesn't taste quite right.

1 1/2 lbs of chicken, chopped and cooked in 1 tbsp of veg. oil
2 Tbsp of southwestern chipotle pepper seasoning mix
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 stalks of celery, chopped
5 cups of chicken broth, or water with chicken bouillon
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of great northern white beans (rinsed)
1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 can of chopped green chilis
1 Tbsp white pepper
2 cubes of cilantro bouillon (seriously, this stuff is amazing and can be found in a little box in the hispanic food section of the grocery store)
1 Tbsp cumin
Other ideas I had that would be good but I didn't have on-hand: red or green pepper, sour cream, fresh cilantro

Mandatory add-ins: (these REALLY made the soup terrific!)
Shredded Mexican Cheese (mine is a mix of cheddar & monterey jack)
White Rice (we had this leftover from our chinese dinner last night)
Tortilla Chips, broken on-top of soup

Chop the chicken and cook it in the veg oil, seasoning with salt & pepper. Halfway through the cooking add the southwestern chipotle seasoning.

In a rice cooker or separate pan, cook rice according to your usual methods, set aside.

Meanwhile, in a soup pot add olive oil, onion, garlic & celery. Cook until soft. Add water or broth. Mix in cream of chicken soup (to thicken the soup) & green chilis. Bring to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce to simmer and add beans, cooked chicken, cilantro bouillon, white pepper & cumin.

When serving, put about a 1/2 cup rice in the bottom of bowl, pour soup over top. Top with cheese and chips. Enjoy!


Beverage Tip: Ginger ale is a great pairing with this dish as the ginger is a compliment to the spicy flavors in the soup.

Quick Sweet & Sour Chicken

Stir-frys have become my "go-to" dish when I don't have a lot of time but I want something delicious and my stir-fry did not disappoint tonight. I was inspired by the very ripe pineapple that I needed to use and the red and green peppers in my fridge.

I forgot to take a picture before we ate, so here is a picture of the leftovers I packed into the fridge:


I cooked my chicken in my usual and favorite way, as mentioned in the chicken soup post below. I then added in the chopped peppers and pineapple and let them soften up a bit.
I had a secret weapon that I was able to pull out of my freezer, the leftover orange sauce from the orange chicken I had made a few weeks ago.

For the benefit of all of us, I will record my recipe for the orange sauce here. If I don't put it here I know I will lose the recipe and regret it forever.

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
2 tablespoons
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
To thicken: mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water and add in to sauce

Add everything together and bring to a boil. Let cool for 10 minutes

I mixed in the sauce and let the flavors combine for about 5 minutes and served it over a bed of basmati rice. On the side I served garlic green beans which were a perfect accent and also tasted great with the orange sauce.

The end result accidentally tasted EXACTLY like the sweet and sour chicken bowl from Teriyaki Stix, without the gross chicken fat that I always seemed to get. ;)

Quick and Easy Dessert: Apple Strudel

I want to preface this post by saying I am NOT a baker. However, last week we watched a chef on Food Network create an Apple Strudel. Alexander was literally drooling and I decided it didn't look too hard and filed it away as a "someday treat". Someday came sooner than I expected tonight. After Alexander had gone to class, I decided I wanted to make him a surprise. I looked through my kitchen and found that I had fillo dough in the freezer and fresh green apples. It was perfect for a strudel!



I decided no recipe was necessary, so I just made it up as I went along using what I remembered from the show last week. I pulled out the dough and let it thaw on the counter for an hour. I then thinly chopped 2 green apples and mixed them with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Once the dough was thawed, I lined a cooking tray with wax paper (though I would have used parchment paper if I had it). I then took a piece of fillo dough and laid it out and brushed it with melted butter. I then took another piece of dough and repeated it until I had 10 sheets of layered dough with butter between them all. I then took half of the apple mixture and spread it in a across one section of the dough and then rolled the dough up. I brushed butter on the top and sprinkled slivered almonds and white sugar over the top. I copied these steps exactly for the second strudel, but I added in dried cranberries.

I popped them in the over at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes (I'm sorry, I didn't time them, so this is a guess). They came out looking beautiful! Honestly though, the one with the cranberries was WAY better tasting. :)

30 Minute Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

As I was getting ready for a stressful catering job on Saturday, I decided that I could really use some comfort food but I didn't have the time or energy to devote hours to creating the perfect gourmet food. No worries, I pulled out my no-fail, 30 minute Chicken Noodle Soup. This dish has no recipe, it is created out of whatever happens to be living in the fridge and cupboards at the time. However, I will say that this particular batch was exceedingly tasty.



I took 2 chicken breasts and chopped them up, seasoned them with salt and pepper and cooked them in a bit of vegetable oil. The oil combined with the salt gives the chicken a really nice little crust that is super flavorful and keeps in the moisture.

In my soup pot, I started with a quick simmer of chopped onions, celery, garlic and red pepper in butter. Once they were softened, I added chicken stock (no, it's not homemade stock, but I'm willing to trade that for a 30 minute meal) and add the cooked chicken. I like to add a bit of creaminess and extra flavor in to my soups, so I sometimes use a condensed soup like cream of chicken. This time I added cream of celery soup.

Any type of noodle tastes great in this soup but I am a bit traditional and lean on the egg noodles. On Saturday I happened to have German egg noodles in my cupboard, so I used them. They are not as wide as what we usually think of as egg noodles, but they are thicker and have a nice, rough homemade texture.

After rummaging through my fridge and freezer, I pulled out some frozen stew vegetables and gave them an extra chop before throwing them into the pot. I finished the soup with a seasoning of oregano, basil and pepper.

Just a note, although I LOVE soup, my husband is not a huge fan. He is willing to eat one bowl, but would rather not eat an entire pot of it. Keeping that in mind, I keep my liquid level quite low, almost like a stew. Once that goes into the fridge, the noodles soak up the broth and the leftovers end up being like a creamy chicken and noodles casserole rather than a soup, which Alexander really enjoys. It's quite easy to rehydrate that again with chicken stock should I want soup again.

Spicy Carbonara

I threw together this dish after going through the fridge and pulling out everything we needed to use before it went bad. I call it a Spicy Carbonara. It features linguine, red peppers, chicken, chili oil, red onions, garlic and half and half.



I chopped up the chicken and cooked it for about 5-7 minutes in a small bit of olive oil, sprinkling it with hot chili oil and chipotle bouillon. I then put in half of a red onion, half a red pepper and some minced garlic. After about 3 minutes, I stirred in half and half and chicken bouillon. I thickened it with a bit of cornstarch and let it boil until the consistency was just right. I then dumped it over my cooked linguine. Before serving I sprinkled cracked black pepper and bits of bacon over the top.

This was a successful experiment with a good kick! We are definitely going to make this again. :)

Asian Inspirations

This past weekend I decided to pull out the ol' Asian guns and really impress some friends that were coming over for dinner. I chose to try new recipes and overall I was quite pleased with the results. I created Pork Lettuce Wraps, Orange Chicken and Chicken Lo Mein served with Basmati Rice (I know it's not Chinese, but I love the flavor!). The Lo Mein was not bad, but not quite on par with what I was looking for so I won't post about that here. However, the rest of the food was divine!

I made the lettuce wrap filling out of ground pork, seasoned with chili oil, onions, garlic, hoisin sauce and soy sauce. I served it with fresh crisp lettuce leaves for the perfect texture and flavor. Just writing this makes my mouth water!



The orange chicken was marinated and breaded and served in an orange sauce made from orange zest and juice. I mixed in some stir fry veggies for a yummy healthy addition.



Overall the dinner was an absolute success! I will keep working on the Lo Mein recipe until I get it just right. Oh, and dessert was a warm chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing. Yeah, I think that pretty much cinches up my gourmet chef title. ;)

Jägerschnitzel - Schnitzel with Noodles

These are a few of my favorite things...

I cooked up an awesome German dinner for my hungry German husband this week that was really tasty! I turned boring old pork chops into schnitzel and served it up with noodles and an amazing bacon mushroom sauce.

For those of you who don't know what schnitzel is, it's just German for cutlet (and no, it has absolutely nothing to do with sausages). It can be made of veal, pork, chicken, or really whatever you want. The version I made is called Jägerschnitzel (pronounced Yay-grr-shnitz-el) which means "Hunter Cutlet" and is so named because of the mushroom gravy. Other types of schnitzel include the famous Wienerschnitzel (Vee-ner) or "Viennese Schnitzel" that is breaded and served plain with a slice of lemon, and Zigeunerschnitzel (Tzi-goy-ner) or "Gypsy Schnitzel" that is served with a spicy paprika and red bell pepper sauce, (which I am going to have to make next, because it sounds delicious!).

I've decided to share the love and post my improved directions below. You are welcome! :)



Ingredients:

6 pork chops
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons mustard
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1/2 diced yellow onion, approximately 1/2 cup
1 pkg mushroom soup mix (I used a German variation featuring chanterelle mushrooms)
2 teaspoons Maggi or Worcestershire sauce (I recommend Maggi for all gravies)
Vegetable oil, for frying
2 cups half and half
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Directions:

Pound pork chops between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to 1/4-inch thickness. In a shallow medium bowl, mix together 3/4 cup flour with salt, pepper, garlic and paprika. In another shallow medium bowl, combine egg, milk and mustard. Put the bread crumbs in a third medium shallow bowl. Dredge pork slices first in flour, then in egg wash, and finally in crumbs. This works best if you do it like Alton Brown and have a dry hand and a wet hand. Let set on a baking sheet fitted with a cooling rack for 5 minutes.

In a medium saute pan over medium heat cook the bacon and onions until crispy. Pour half and half into a small saute pan and mix the soup mix into it. Add maggi, bacon & onions, and season with a couple of shakes of salt, parsley and pepper. Depending on your desired thickness, you may want to add more/less half and half. Keep warm.

Heat 1/4-inch oil in thick saute pan. Once heated, add pork and cook evenly on both sides, about 3-5 minutes for the first side, 3-4 minutes for the second. Remove to platter when done. To serve, cover pork with sauce. Either egg noodles or mashed potatoes would be an excellent addition to this dinner.