Roasted Chicken Soup

So we have started a new tradition with our family (does 3 years count as a tradition?) and do Iron Chef competition. My sister is one team and I am the other. This year I wanted to do something a little out there and a little different. So I did a Roasted Chicken Soup and Deconstructed Chicken Cordon Bleu. I wanted to create the recipes myself, or at least give them my own twist.

I saw a recipe in the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook and decided that I wanted to take it's simple way to roast chicken, and make it into a soup. I wanted a rustic, hearty soup with a roasted flavor. I was told that it was GREAT!! So, here it is, the recipe.

1 little note, the recipe called for bone-in, skin on, chicken breasts, I couldn't even find them in the store. I didn't really know how much I needed and how much it would make, so I did 1 package of thighs with bone and skin and then 2 chicken breasts. I also wanted to more than just breasts, so I added the thighs. It was a little too much chicken.


4 chicken breasts (should be bone-in, skin on, but boneless skinless worked fine)
Olive oil
1 1/2 lbs. red potatoes (4 to 5 medium, cut into 1 inch wedges
1/2 pkg. of baby carrots, cut into small chunks
3 shallots, sliced into thin slices
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
Salt and Pepper
Pinch of red pepper
5 cups chicken stock

Heat the oven to 450 degrees and adjust the oven rack to the lowest position. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Transfer the chicken, skin side up, to a baking dish and bake until the thickest part of the breast registers 165 degrees, about 15 to 20 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, toss, the potatoes and carrots with 1 tbsp of oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave until the potatoes begin to soften, 5 to 10 minutes (i did 15 minutes), toss the mixture with the plastic still on, half way through. Pour off the fat from the chicken pan. Add 1 tbsp oil back in the pan and put heat back on medium heat, until shimmering. Add the shallots, softened potatoes and carrots in the pan. Cook and stir occasionally, until golden brown and tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Deglaze the pan with the juice from the roasting chicken, and chicken stock.
Shred the chicken and add to the stock, also add the potatoes, carrots and onions.
Serve immediately.

I am sorry if the directions are a little unclear. That has never been my strong point. It is really tasty, and hearty. I hope you enjoy.

In case you wanted to know, I won! Not that I want to gloat, but it is the only competition I get competitive about.

Alfredo Sauce

This one is for my mother. She really likes Alfredo sauce. This is a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, one of the websites I like to use when searching for new recipes for class. I am not so much a fan of this sauce, but it is a relatively cheap (food is expensive and I want to do as many recipes as possible, but have to find ways to save money, hence, the kids use margarine and milk not cream) and easy sauce for the class to make (the kids only do 1/2 of this recipe).

½ cup butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
2 cup milk
¾ cup Parmesan Cheese
Dash of black pepper

Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and parmesan cheese
and stir with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth
out the lumps. Stir in garlic powder and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches
Desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, toss with hot pasta to serve.

It also works well for white sauce pizzas!

Whole Wheat Biscuits and Gravy

I realize that all health benefits go out the window when you make the gravy, but the kids need to make a whole wheat product and basic roux and what better way to combine the two. Remember I want to get them cooking in the kitchen and they are teenagers, it is pretty hard to get them to eat totally healthy if they are not used to it, I have tried it with my brothers, they always know!

Fluffy Whole Wheat Biscuits

½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp margarine
½ cup milk

In a med bowl, combine flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt; mix well. Cut in butter
until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk just until moistened. Put onto a
lightly floured surface; knead gently 8 to 10 times. Roll to ¾ inch thickness; cut with
a biscuit cutter and place on an non-greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to
12 min or until lightly browned. Serve with gravy.


Sausage gravy
1/3 lb sausage
2 cups milk
2 ½ tbsp of flour

Brown sausage in skillet. As soon as sausage is brown, turn to med
heat. Add flour by the tbsp, stirring constantly. Let the flour turn
brown before adding another tbsp (if you don’t your gravy will taste
like flour). After you added flour, add milk and stir with whisk.

Plus, you don't have to serve it with the gravy, they are great with honey!

Mom's Rolls

I must say thank you to my mother for teaching me all I know about cooking. It is because of her love of cooking that I think I have such a great love of it also. Here is her roll recipe that I made today. They were REALLY good!

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (softened)
2 cups of warm water
1 cup of warm milk
2 tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
6 - 8 cups flour

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs and mix well.
Add water, milk, yeast and about 3 cups of flour. Mix well.
Add salt and 3 more cups of flour. I like to use my bosch mixer for this and at this point add a little bit of flour at a time until it cleans the bottom of the mixture twice. Knead well in the mixer for about 2 minutes. You don't want the dough to stick to your fingers, but still soft.

Let the dough sit and rise until doubled in size. Pinch of balls of dough, based on how big you want the rolls to be. Place them on a parchment lined sheet pan. Cover with clean towel and let double in size.

Bake at preheated 350 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Caramel Brownies

This is the one for the ladies at work. I let them know about this little blog and well, this is their favorite, so I am posting this one right away.

1/3 cup evaporated milk
50 light caramels

1 box of german chocolate cake mix
1/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup softened butter

1 package chocolate chips

Unwrap the caramels and add 1/3 cup evaporated milk in a small saucepan. Melt the caramels over med-low heat stirring often until melted. Set aside.

In large bowl, mix chocolate cake mix, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and butter just until mixed together, do not over stir. You will have chunks of cake mix still and that is fine. Grease a 9x13 pan. Place half of the cake mix on t he pan. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the brownies. Pour the caramel sauce over the brownies. Crumble the rest of the mix on top of the caramel mixture. Bake for another 15 minutes or until mostly set. Let cool. Place in the fridge until firm. Cut and enjoy.

Places I want to go see

Here comes my foodie part of my blog. I watch all sorts of shows that showcase different restaurants and write them down so sometime if I ever get to these cities. Let's face it, when I travel, one thing I look at is where can I eat. So here is a partial list I have made so far. I am sure it will grow with time.

Bark - Brooklyn, NY
The Meatball Shop - Manhattan (lower east side), NY
Shake Shack - Manhattan (Madison Square Park), NY
Buttermilk Chanel - Brooklyn, NY
Ted Drews Frozen Custard - St. Louis, NY
Doughnut Plant - NYC, NY
Michaels Genuine - Miami, FL
Don Peppe - Queens, NY
Topolobampo - Chicago, IL
WD 50 - NYC

This is just a partial list. I will have so much more. Don't you worry. Guess which city is one I would love to go to soon? NYC, I love that place!

Cornflake Crunch Tenders

This recipe is one I like to show a low-fat way to do fried chicken. I love the flavor of these and do them at home a lot. It is easy and quick and delicious.

1 chicken breast cut into 1 1/2 inch strips
1 cup finely crushed cornflakes (the finer you can get them the better)
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg white
1 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet.
Combine cornflakes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Beat egg whit in another shallow dish.
Dip chicken in egg, then cornflake mixture. Place on greased cookie sheet.
Drizzle chicken with butter.
Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until chicken reaches an internal temp. of 165 degrees.

Shepherd's Pie

This is one of my favorite shepherd's pie recipe. I got if off kraftfoods.com, then scaled it down. I scale all my recipes down for kitchens of four. I don't like to give them a feast. I would have a lot of left overs.

1 lb red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 lb ground beef
2 tbsp flour
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1/2 cup beef broth
1 1/2 tbsp ketchup

Place potatoes and garlic in large saucepan: add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain; return to saucepan. Add sour cream; mash potatoes until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup cheese.

Brown ground beef in large skillet. When cooked, stir in flour; cook 1 minutes. Add vegetables, broth and ketchup; cook 5 minutes or until thickened. Spoon into 8 inch square baking dish; cover with potatoes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 18 minutes; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Bake an additional 2 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Fajitas

Here is one of Nick's favorite meals. The kids really liked this one. They made the tortillas a little thick, but you can only get them to listen to what you say so much.

Tortillas

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tbsp shortening
1/4 to 1/3 cup HOT water

Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water, mixing until absorbed. Knead gently and add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 5 even-sized pieces. Roll into balls on the floured surface, cover and let rest for 5 minutes. Roll each ball on a lightly floured surface to a very thin circle.
Lightly spray a frying pan and place over high heat. Fry the tortillas individually on both sides until bubbles form on the surface and are lightly browned.

Chicken Fajitas
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1 lb chicken cut into small strips

Place in a large ziplock bag and mix together until all the chicken is covered. Let sit for 5 to 15 minutes.
Saute in large skillet with small amount of olive oil over medium heat. Cook until lightly browned and no longer pink in the center.

I also like to saute cut up onions and peppers in olive oil with a small amount of salt. Serve together on tortillas with cheese and salsa.

Low Fat Chocolate Cookies

Here is a low fat recipe we made today. I shouldn't put it on here, cause I haven't made it for myself, but it turned out pretty okay for the kids, even with all the errors they made. They need some help reading directions sometimes.

Combine:
¾ cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
Set aside

In another bowl combine:
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp sugar
And slowly beat in:
1 tbsp + 1 tsp oil

Beat in:
2 tbsp applesauce
1 egg white
½ tsp vanilla

Blend until smooth.
Add the flour mixture and blend until dough is just combined.
Add ¼ cup chocolate chips. Spoon the dough into small 1 inch balls, place on
A lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 17 minutes. Don’t over bake.

New Blog

Here it is. My blog for recipes. Thanks to my mom for inspiring me to do it. I already have a blog where I post a lot of the pictures I take and family stuff, but food is my thing, so I am going to dedicate this blog to food. I am a food teacher and LOVE it. I am however always getting requests for my recipes from other teachers, so here is a good place to put them.
I also want to work on trying new things and really develop my own thing. The greatest thing I would love to do is start a restaurant, so let me know what you think of the things I create so I can see if I am onto something.
Enjoy! Just don't tell my students.