Homemade White Chicken Soup Recipe

When you think about “homemade” it is hard to not to think about some good ole homemade chicken soup.  I have made chicken soup from scratch but normally cut some corners by using some precooked chicken and skipping the whole chicken stock process.  This time I decided to do things closer to “how my grandma would make it”.

Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

Ingredients

• 4-5 lbs of chicken breasts (skin on)
• 6 cups of water
• 1 large onion (peeled and cut in half)
• 3 bay leaves
• 12 whole black peppercorns
• 1 celery stock broken in half (3 stalks set aside)
• 1/2 lb of baby carrots
• 3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• chicken bouillon powder or concentrate to make 6 cups of chicken broth (about 1/4 cup chicken bouillon powder)

Directions

• Add chicken to pot and fill with water to just cover chicken
• Cook over high heat to bring water to boil, reduce heat and cover then simmer for 30 minutes
• Skim off and fat floating on top (with chicken breasts there shouldn’t be too much here)
• Place remaining ingredients into pot and simmer for 1 hour

• Strain solids and dispose everything but chicken which when cool enough to handle cut into bite size pieces

 

Homemade White Chicken Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• Homemade chicken stock (see above)
• 1/2 pound baby carrots (sliced)
• 3 stalks celery (halved and sliced)
• 1 tsp chopped parsley
• Cooked chicken (chopped in bite size pieces)
• Wide egg noodles

Directions

• Return stock back to pot and add carrots and celery to pot.   Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

• Add the chicken and parsley to the pot and serve over cooked egg noodles.

Note: You can also add the uncooked at the same time as chicken/parsley and boil for 10 minutes (or until noodles are soft) though this is way to much for our family to eat in 1-2 sittings so we normally freeze about 2/3 of this for a few easy meals later.

Last Minute Dinner: BBQ Chicken Pizza

I have not always been great at planning a heads and here is a perfect example.  With a quick scan of the refrigerator and bread box I found the following original creation that turned out pretty good.

For the crust I went with these new Oroweat Sandwich Thins, they are only 100 calories for both sides and seemed pretty pizza crustlike.

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Next I applied a thin layer of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and topped some BBQ chicken leftover from the previous day which I chopped up into small pieces.

Last I sprinkled some Italian and cheddar cheese on top and baked on a cookie sheet for about 8-9 minutes at 350 degree F until cheese is thoroughly melted.

I chose to skip the ranch drizzled on the top, but my wife said it tasted great.  Sometimes improvisation works out pretty good anyone else have a similar story for a 5-10 minute last minute dinner?

Happy Fourth of July

Simple little cake made from angel food cake, strawberries, blueberries and a bit of whipped cream.  This tastes great and though not completely guiltless, I know I can do much worse…

How to grill a steak

There are many ways to grill a good steak, here is my proven way to grill a great steak.  Just as a warning this method takes a little longer to cook so plan ahead, you don’t want your hungry “customers” forcing you to speed up the process resulting in a lesser steak.

1. Season steak generously with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper on both sides of steak.
2. Leave steak on counter to come up to room temperature and let seasoning get into the meat for 20 minutes.  Do not skip this step it is critical…
3. Add water soaked wood chips to disposable aluminum small bread loaf pan and place below grill grate.
4. Close grill and preheat grill on high
5. Add meat to the grill and close cover, after 5 minutes flip over the steak and close cover for another 5 minutes.
6. Reduce heat to low and move steak to upper rack and close grill.  Check every 5 minutes to see if the meat is at the proper temperature for how you want it cooked.
1. Rare: 145F
2. Medium: 160F
3. Well: 170F
7. Once you hit the right temperature place the meat on a cutting board to cool for 10 minutes.  This is when things get hard, you are hungry you can smell the steak but if you cut into the meat early much of the delicious juices will be lost.  Trust me it is worth the weight.
8. Enjoy