Homemade Egg Noodles for Chicken Soup

What did I say about the weather in my very last post?  We went from spring to Alaska force winds and snow yesterday...it was snowing sideways for a good portion of the day.   Sideways snow and chicken noodle soup is just a great partnership. 

Even better are homemade noodles.  I love, love, love how fat and chewy they are.  Yes, fat and chewy.

I won't start with a chicken soup recipe here...mine is essentially boxed broth (yes indeed), carrots, celery and chicken cooked through.  I have no issues using boxed broth...obviously.  Homemade is way better of course. 

The noodles are where the magic starts.  

You can roll them much thinner than these obviously and they'll still puff up quite a bit.  This thickness made some pretty thick noodles.   If you like them more noodle-like and less dumpling-like, definitely roll them thinner than these. 

What is is about chickie noodle soup that is so wonderful?  It just is right?!

Homemade Egg Noodles for Chicken Soup

makes heck of a lot of noodles

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup water
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp pepper
about 3 ½ cups flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat eggs and water
2. Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Pour out onto floured surface and knead well for 5 minutes.  
3. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes
4. Flour surface and roll out dough to desired thickness
5. Toss noodles with fingers to separate. 
6. Add to hot soup broth and cook for 8-10 minutes depending upon thickness

Southwestern Chicken Soup

Do you remember Ross's Thanksgiving sandwich with the "moist maker?"  Oh Ross...I miss him.  And while he and most people I know fall into the camp that is super duper excited to eat those Thanksgiving leftovers, I'm pretty much in the opposite camp. I've never been a huge leftover fan--In  my opinion, Italian is the only food that remotely tastes delish reheated.   And reheated poultry--can't stand it.   I will leftover chinese straight from the fridge before I will ever reheat chicken.

Soup is the exception. 

Yep, soup is the perfect way to eat leftover chicken or turkey. 

My friend made this soup for me years ago and it was love at first bite.  When she told me it was as easy as opening a couple of cans and jars,  I knew it was destined to become a quick kitchen staple.  Even if you love your day after Thanksgiving sandwich, this soup  is the perfect  easy and tasty way to use up the day three turkey leftovers.  

Who doesn't want easy eats after a some serious Thanksgiving cooking?

Southwestern Chicken Soup
adapted from Real Simple

Ingredients
1 teaspoon ground cumin 

1 12-ounce jar salsa verde
3 cups cooked leftover chicken or turkey
1 15-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 quart container of chicken stock
tortilla chips and sour cream for serving

Directions

1. Heat stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add cumin and stir, cooking until fragrant.
2. Pour salsa verde into pan
3. Cook for 2 minutes then add the chicken, beans and broth. Bring to gentle boil
4. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 20-30 mins.  Soup can be eaten after 5-10 minutes but I like to reduce the broth a bit.
5. Serve with tortilla chips and sour cream if desired.

Denver Broncos Chili

Truth time.  There's nothing that makes this specifically Denver Broncos Chili except perhaps that it's orange.  Denver Broncos Chili just sounds more kick-ass than "orange colored chili."  Right?  

Monday night games pose a little bit of a food dilemma--when you leave the office and slide in your front door  just a little bit before kickoff, there's no time to pull a lot of food together.  That's where packaged snackies, a previously laid out orange and blue table and deli meat and rolls come in.  A little something cooking all day in the crockpot contributes to the idea that maybe you put a little effort into it.   Chili tastes better when it's cooked in a kick-ass crockpot.  Seriously--way better. 

A crockpot for game days only?  Yes, I justified it by saying I own many other seasonal items that get used far fewer than 15-20 times a year and this just seems like game day essentials.  You can find all teams online here and limited teams online here for a little bit cheaper. 

Isn't this the happiest fall color scheme?  

And the chili?  It's really somewhere in between a green chili and a tomato-based chili.  Pureeing the base after it cooks results in a happy accident orange colored chili that's perfect for game day--the flavor though, is all green chili.  

Denver Broncos Chili

Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken breasts
1 onion, diced

32 oz box of low sodium chicken broth

2 cups of roughly diced peeled and cleaned roasted green chiles (I used half mild, half hot)

28 oz can diced tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 tsp cumin

3 whole (smaller) potatoes (this makes it easier to find them and remove them before you puree the broth)

1 15 oz can white northern beans

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients except beans to a crockpot.  Turn crockpot to low and allow to cook for 7-8 hours. 
2. Remove chicken and potatoes.  Turn crockpot to high.  Use a stick blender to roughly puree broth/chile/tomato base. 
3. Dice potatoes and shred chicken and return to crockpot
4. Drain and rinse beans and add to crockpot.  
5. Allow chili come back to temp before serving--about 1/2 an hour

Green Chile Corn Chowder

Was it just last post I was expressing sadness at our piddly Denver snow this season?  I should pay more attention to the news because I woke up this morning to a Winter Storm Warning beeping on my phone....is there any felicity in the world superior to this? (I just watched Sense and Sensibility last night and as is the norm, will quote the movie relentlessly throughout the following week)

Snow = felicity.  Big fat flakes of white snow falling from the sky throughout an entire 

day = happiness  for the soul.  Yes sirree. 

Even Brooklyn thinks so. 

Soup, stew or chili are the standards for snow days right?  I knew I wanted something thick and hearty so opted to throw a pot of chowdah on before heading outside to shovel and let Brooklyn play for 5 minutes before she whined to come back in.  That's how she rolls. 

I love the hearty creaminess of a chowder especially with bites of potatoes and corn.  When I  opened the freezer I saw a few baggies of all the green chiles I'd so painstakingly peeled, chopped and divided up into freezer baggies this past fall.  I am just like Laura Ingalls Wilder, all ready for The Long Hard Winter--if she also happened to have boxes of pre-made chicken broth.  One can only aspire to so much Laura Ingallness. 

By 10 am this morning, we only had 5-6 inches but it's been deliciously snowing all day long.  As predicted, this little one had enough after about 5 minutes and was ready for a long hard day sleeping in front of the fireplace.  

This may have been overkill considering I had corn and green chiles in the chowder, but I wanted to make cornbread with the chowder and remembered  this Pinterest recipe I've been wanting to make for ages: jalapeno cornbread poppers.  I followed the recipe for the most part except that I cooked the jalapenos for 15 minutes at 350 first just to ensure they would cook through and I used a different cornbread mix.  Sometimes mixes are just good. I'd also chopped all of the stems/tops off before I realized that the original recipe still had them on, because you needed to keep the muffin mix contained.  I just pressed the cut edges up against the side of the pan. 

The fantastic part of simmering soup is the smell throughout the house and the building anticipation.  Just a few hours of super slow simmering later, and I had a pretty large pot of sweet, salty, spicy and creamy chowdah.  The cream adds a delicious fabulousness that I think is essential to chowder and 1/2 cup really isn't all that much.  If you don't love the cream, you can also add a can of evaporated milk.  I also prefer to mash up some of my chowder to thicken it rather than thickening it with flour.  The chiles, well they were the absolutely essential--I may just resort to adding the green chiles to chowder moving forward.  

Just in case I didn't say it enough...I LOVE snow days.  Hope your days were toasty oasty!

Green Chile Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

5 slices of bacon diced

1 medium onion, diced

3 medium potatoes

16 oz bag of frozen corn

1 1/2 cup diced roasted anaheim chiles

1 32oz box of chicken broth

2 large chicken breasts 

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sliced green onions plus some for garnish

cilantro for garnish

Directions:

1. Brown diced bacon in a heavy soup/stock pot over medium heat
2. Remove all but 1 tbsp of bacon grease from pot and then add onions to pot.  Sautee for 3 minutes until translucent
3. Add diced potatoes, frozen corn and green chiles. Add garlic and black pepper and stir well
4. Pour chicken broth over veggies.  Add chicken breast and press down to immerse in broth.  
5. Cook over lowest heat for 2 hours (You can also cook this over medium heat for 1/2 hour if you want to make this on a bit more of schedule)
6. Remove chicken to a cutting board and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  
7. Use a potato masher to mash the about 1/2 of the soup.  This will thicken the soup--but make sure to leave half of the potatoes/corn/chiles in chunks. 
8. Dice the chicken and return to pot.  Taste and season with salt.
9. Stir in heavy cream (optional--kind of)
10. Remove from heat and stir in green onions.  
11. Serve garnished with green onions and cilantro

Spinach Artichoke Soup

I may have jumped the gun making soup.  Just because the calendar says it's autumn and you really, really, really want it to be autumn, does not mean it actually feels like autumn.  Making soup when it's almost 80 degrees isn't ideal.  As the kitchen fills with even more heat and you are feeling a bit overheated and thinking of turning on your AC again even, you might even wonder what possessed you to make soup on an obviously non-autumn like day.  That is until you taste this spinach and artichoke soup.  Then you'll know you had to make it because well, it's spinach and artichoke and soup.  That's enough justification for making soup in the middle of summer. 

This soup couldn't be easier.  I made it over the weekend but it was so quick and easy to throw together, it could easily be a "drag your butt in the door after a long day at the office and still have the energy to cook soup" kind of recipe. Yep, that easy.  

The ingredient all come straight from the fridge or pantry and required enough effort to roughly dump or chop.  If you wanted to leave the spinach leaves and artichokes whole and you used frozen diced onions, you wouldn't have to chop at all.  I cooked some chicken for this, but this would be a great recipe for using a rotisserie chicken. 

Love artichokes but really who doesn't?  And why not?

Cooking the flour first helps get rid of that raw floury taste.  

Spinach always makes me nervous when I add it to recipes as I wonder if this will be the one time in spinach history that it will just refuse to cook down.  But alas, my worries were for naught...it all cooked right down and made perfect little bites of spinach in a soup that was reminiscent of the dip.  Definitely a keeper of a recipe. 

A little bonus Chipmunk cuteness. 

And a little puppy curiosity wondering how much we paid for Manning again?

The look of Tebow longing...

Spinach Artichoke Soup

adapted from Cuisine at Home

Ingredients:
1/2 c. diced onions
3 garlic cloves minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained and roughly chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup dry white wine
32oz chicken broth
1 12oz can evaporated milk
8oz fresh spinach, roughly chopped
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 block (4 oz) of cream cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Sauté onions and garlic in oil in a large soup pot over medium heat until onions are soft, about 3-4 minutes. 
2. Add artichokes; sauté 2 minutes
3. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring continually
4. Deglaze pot with wine and simmer until nearly evaporated, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot. 
5. Stir in broth and chicken and bring to a boil. 
6. Reduce heat to low, add the milk, spinach and Parmesan, and stir until spinach wilts taking care not to boil soup.  Add cream cheese and stir until fully melted...if you want a lighter soup, you can leave the cream cheese out.    
7. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Crockpot Chicken Green Chili

There's nothing quite like coming home after a long day at the office, walking in and smelling dinner all ready to gobble up.  The only way that happens in this house obviously, is if I throw something in the crockpot.  Not sure why I don't more often because I do love, love, love food all ready to eat when I get home. And one of my favorite crockpot recipes is for a green chili.  It uses mostly canned items so is about as easy as recipes come.  I love the flavor of freshly roasted peppers, but in a pinch, the Hatch canned chilies will work as well.  

But look how lovely fresh peppers are....

This really is just about the easiest recipe out there.  After you spend about 5 minutes chopping the peppers, onions and potatoes, you throw them in the crockpot...

along with the Rotel, chicken broth, chicken breasts, garlic and cumin, and allow everything  to cook the day away.  Since I'm gone for longer than the 5-6 hours it needs to cook on high, I usually either cook it on low the whole day, or make it on a day Brooklyn doesn't go to day care and I run home at lunch to let her out.  Lunch time to dinnertime is the perfect amount of time to let the chicken cook through on high and let the flavors all meld together. 

This green chili is also pretty awesome for making a smothered burrito.  For a thicker chili for burritos,  take potato masher and roughly mash the entire stew after the chicken is removed for shredding.  Shred the chicken a bit finer and add back to the green chili mixture.  

Crockpot Chicken Green Chili

7-8 roasted poblano peppers  (or 1 28 oz cans of Hatch green chilies, drained)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 large potatoes diced1 lb chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
1 28 oz can hot Rotel tomatoes
28 oz chicken broth
1/2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
cheddar cheese, sour cream and or tortillas for toppers

1. Chop roasted green chilies and add to crockpot
2. Add minced garlic, diced onions and potatoes
3. Add Rotel and chicken broth. 
4. Add chicken breasts and press down to immerse in liquid
5. Cook on high for 5-6 hours
6. Remove chicken breasts, let cool slightly and shred.  Return to crockpot
7. Stir and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with chips, sour cream and cheddar if desired.

Sausage and Kale Soup

I'm on a pantry purging cleaning kick now and truthfully, I'm finding it's kind of fun to let your ingredients dictate what you make.  I have tons of beans for some reason unknown even to me, a freezer with countless packages of these all natural chicken sausages I bought when they were BOGO and a refrigerator full of kale and spinach because I've been loving on a green breakfast smoothie every morning.  With those ingredients in abundance, making a sausage and kale soup was kind of a given. 

I really love using dried beans...it's the whole "I wish I was Laura Ingalls" thing.  All you really need to make these white beans is an hour of soaking in boiling water and then an hour to cook.  This is perfect  since in my mind, soup is something you kind of throw together and let sit on the stove for hours anyway.

I believe kielbasa is the more traditional sausage used for this soup, or you could leave out the sausage altogether.

The kale looks ginormous but just like spinach, it shrinks down to almost nothing when cooked. 

And what's soup without some freshly baked rolls?  

This is a fabulous super hearty soup to make when the weather is a bit chilly.  And it's also a fabulous super hearty soup to make even if you live in the desert where the weather is not quite so chilly anymore.  The added bonus is kale and white beans make it a pretty nutritious little bowl of goodness.

The sausage floats in the soup but if you want to cook this for an additional 30 minutes, this becomes more stew like and the sausage mixes into the thickened soup.

White Bean Soup with Sausage and Kale
adapted from Epicurious

Makes one big 'ole pot of soup

1lb. dried white navy beans
2 med onions, diced
Olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
12 cups chicken broth
1 t black pepper
2 bay leaf
1 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon rosemary, finely chopped
1 pkg chicken sausage cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 carrots, diced
1 large bunch kale (about 12 oz) washed, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves chopped

1-2 tsp salt (to taste and depending upon saltiness of broth used)

Additional pepper to taste

1. Rinse beans, then cover with a few inches of water in a large soup pot
2. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes and then turn the heat off, cover and let sit/soak for one hour. 
3. Drain beans in colander and rinse well
4. Sauté onions in olive oil in same soup pot med-low heat until translucent, 5 minutes. 
5. Add garlic for another minute or two. 
6. Add beans, broth, bay leaves,  pepper, crushed red pepper and rosemary. Simmer, half-covered, for 50 minutes or until beans are tender.
7. When beans are almost tender, brown sausage over medium heat in a heavy skillet.
8. Add sausage, diced carrots and kale  and simmer another 15 minutes or until kale is done.
9. Season with salt and pepper

Homemade Cheese Its

You are all pretty awesome.  Seriously, I am truly amazed when I get e-mails asking if all is well or wondering why I've been missing because I'm completely humbled that you spend your personal time to head over here.  And then of course my guilt kicks in and I feel bad that I haven't been in the kitchen that much recently.  I have a good reason, yes I do.  Working on a little project right now that has kept me out of the kitchen for the moment but hoping to back in full swing soon.

In the meantime I thought I'd share this phenomenal recipe for a little snacky snacky treat.  I have to warn you though that these are crazy addictive.  I can make a cheesecake or cupcakes and let them grow all kinds of mold just sitting in my fridge but heaven help me if I make a salty snacky type food.  These are so salty, cheesy, can't stop eating them good.  I'll admit to thinking cheez-its are pretty tasty especially floating on top of a hot bowl of tomato soup but  don't buy them because they break the  "no Cheez with a "z" rule.  These homemade versions have all of the flavor and you use cheese spelled with an "s"...happiness indeed.  I kid you not, I could have eaten just these all day and night for a week.

I made them a little thick(about 2mm) because I was in the mood for a chewier topping for my soup but roll them out thinner and they crisp up cracker style.  I've made made them with both cheddar and parmesan and love them both equally.

Brooklyn would just like you know that these (without the salt topping) can and should be for dogs as well....from a dog who hates all cookies and biscuit type treats, that's saying something.  Stuff one of these guys way far up in a Kong and puppies will leave you alone for at least 10 mins while they work to dig it out.  I love these even more now.

Homemade Cheese Its

1 cup flour
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small squares
8 oz bag grated strong flavored cheese such as extra-sharp cheddar or parmesan
pinch of salt plus additional for sprinkling on top (optional)
Ice water

1. Combine all ingredients in food processor, and pulse until crumbly. 
2. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together. 
3. Form into ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. 
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Place dough between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper, and roll out to 1mm  thickness Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet, and, using pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut into 1 inch squares. Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake for 25 minutes. 
6. Test for crispiness; crackers may take a few minutes more to finish crisping. 
7. Remove from oven when crisp and just starting to brown. Let cool and serve.

Chipotle Pumpkin Soup

Last pumpkin post...for a little bit at least.  I have quite an assortment of squashes begging to be cooked up. 

This one's another savory recipe....and it feels pretty rich and decadent while eating it.  I actually felt guilty after  finishing up my bowl and then realized I'd just eaten a pretty healthy bowl of pumpkin, veggies and broth.  It's based on the idea of the much-loved butternut soup classic, but with some southwestern flavors and heat.

Yes, tomatillos.

Actually roast the onions at the same time but I didn't add them to the photo. 

For the pumpkin I chose the kabocha below which is one of my all time favorite squashes/pumpkins.  I think kabocha is a general term for pumpkin in japanese, but it's been a really, really long time since I studied japanese.  Regardless, I love the flavor and its availability pretty much all year long at the asian market. Slice it into pieces without removing the rind, toss with coconut oil, salt and pepper and roast.  It is so fantastic that Brooklyn and I fight over the cold leftovers straight from the fridge. 

For this recipe though, the pumpkin needs to be peeled and chopped.  Not the most fun activity, but so worth the effort.  Add a box (or 2 14 oz cans) of chicken broth and cook until the pumpkin is tender(about 15 mins). 

I realized after I took the whole food processor step that it was unnecessary as I was going to blitz the entire soup with my stick blender.  

Add the chipotle,  tomatillos, tomatoes, onions and garlic to the cooked pumpkin and broth and then use a stick blender to puree.  

Serve with yogurt, avocados and some tortillas on the side--I love these Trader Joes Veggie Flaxseed tortillas.  Croutons or thick crusty bread would also be fantastic.

And since I've been on a "short version/long version" of the past few recipes, I'll continue.  I'm guessing you could do a short version of the soup with 2 cups of canned pumpkin puree instead of using fresh pumpkin.  Add it to the broth and the roasted vegetables, puree and cook for 10 minutes.

Chipotle Pumpkin Soup

2 lb kabocha pumpkin (or any pie pumpkin)

1 lb tomatillos

1/2 lb tomatoes

1 head of garlic, top cut off

1/2 medium red onion, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1-2 canned chipotles plus sauce

salt and pepper to taste

avocado (optional)

Chips or bread for serving

1. Turn oven to broiler setting and set rack to middle row of oven.
2. Cut tomatillos and tomatoes in half and place on baking sheet.  Add onions and garlic and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast on middle rack for 10 minutes
3. Peel and cut pumpkin into 1/2 inch cubes. Add chicken broth and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or until pumpkin is fork tender
4. Add roasted tomatillos, tomatoes (should slip out of their skins), and onions to pumpkin pan   Squeeze individual garlic cloves out and add along with 1-2 chipotles and 1 tbsp sauce. (I used two and it was pretty spicy) 
5. Puree with stick blender until smooth
6. Turn heat down to medium low and cook 10 mins to warm through and allow flavors to meld
7. Serve with tortilla chips, plain yogurt and avocado.