Homemade Chicken Soup

My idea of a perfect Sunday:

• No alarm set to wake up
• Walk the dogs
• Breakfast with the Sunday paper
• Bike ride
• Watch football
• Cook/bake
• Eat and spend time with family and friends
• Write
• Read
• Shop
• Laugh
• More football

Last Sunday was a near perfect Sunday.  Only two things were missing...reading and shopping.  If it hadn't been for MM being sick I would have been at 99% for the day.  But as it was, him being sick allowed me to cook and nest, so really I can't complain.

Originally MM and I had planned on a date night on Sunday.  No kids, a new movie was out, and we hadn't had sushi in a while.  But after we walked the dogs (after waking up with no alarm), he said his stomach wasn't feeling right.  So...sushi...probably not!  After having breakfast with the paper, I took an easy ride which turned out to be a destination ride for coffee!  Coming back from my ride (and after text messages from MM saying that he was not feeling any better), I got a bit selfish.  Oh goody, now I can cook!  What would I want if I were sick?  More accurately, what do I want that will make me feel better when MM is sick.  Chicken soup!

I have never made chicken soup before.  The idea of cooking soup all day made me feel better...oh wait, I wasn't the one that was sick.  Anyway...

When I got back home from the ride, MM was not so good.  I asked him if the smell of something cooking would make him more nauseous.  I am sensitive like that sometimes.  Pretty sure I would have cooked it anyway!

Well I guess I did get to shop because I went to the grocery store.  Perusing the aisles for flavors and sales is better retail therapy for me.  AND there was a mini food processor on sale that I have been wanting.  Score!!

Back at home MM had the Bronco game on.  Cooking while watching football??  Near Heaven!

The best part of this chicken soup recipe is that it is 99.9% mine.  The only thing I referenced was how much corn starch I should add to thicken the broth.  I knew what it should come out like so I just threw it together.

Chicken Soup

Serves 6-8

1 Whole chicken skin on bone in with giblets.  Cut chicken into quarters.

About 1 gallon of water (adjust as needed once all ingredients are in the pot)

4 whole carrots

4 celery stalks

1 large yellow onion

2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary

2-3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup corn starch

1/4 cup water

Tortellini (your choice of filling, and how much you want.  I used about 16 ounces of a mini tortellini filled with Parmesan).

In a large stock pot add water.  Place quartered chicken and giblets in the water.  Turn burner on high.  Add salt.

Scrub carrots and celery well.  I leave the skin on the carrots.  One less step and they look more rustic.  Trim the ends off the carrots and slice into 3-4" pieces.  Leave leafy tops on celery but remove the ends that tend to collect dirt that seems impossible to remove!  Slice celery into 3-4" pieces.  Peel onion, remove ends and slice into quarters.  Put carrots, celery and onion into pot with chicken.  Add whole sprigs of rosemary and thyme, onion and garlic powders to the pot.  If needed add more water so everything is just covered.

Bring pot to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil.  Cook until chicken is done and easily falls off the bone.  About 2-3 hours.

The longer that smell can linger in the house the better!

When the chicken is done strain the stock into another pot and return to the burner on medium.

Here is where the fun begins and hands get dirty!  Set chicken pieces aside to cool.  Slice carrots, onions and celery into bite size soup pieces and put into a large bowl.  Remove tough stems from rosemary and thyme and discard.

If you can keep yourself from eating the giblets, slice them up and add to the vegetables.  Knowing MM and kids would be disgusted if they knew that I had added them in (even though they never would have known) and knowing they would never appreciate such a delicacy, I just ate them myself.  Yum!

Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove it from the bone.  Discard the bones.  Get them way away from the curious hounds!  This is where I get really messy because it is easier to remove it with my hands than try to stay clean and use a fork or whatever.  Slice or shred the chicken into soup appropriate sizes.  Add chicken to the vegetables.

I like a thick broth.  If you prefer a more soupy broth, then you can skip this step.  Add 1/3 cup cornstarch to 1/4 cup water.  Stir with a whisk or fork until well combined.  Add to broth.  Whisk vigorously until well combined.

Add the sliced vegetables and chicken into the broth.  Bring broth back to a low boil.  

Add tortellini and simmer until tortellini is done.

I am a dunker.  I require ketchup to dunk my fries, milk to dunk my cookies, and bread to dunk in my soup.  MM however requires only oyster crackers for his soup.  One of these days he will learn the right way to eat!

Slice some french bread into nice thick slices.  Melt 1 Tablespoon butter with 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and salt.  Brush melted garlic butter onto bread.  Place bread under broiler until just toasted.

If you haven't already passed out from anticipation, the wait is finally over and you can savor your incredible soup with the appropriate dunking object.

The Easiest Biscuits Ever

Along with copious amounts of mashed potatoes, a pot roast dinner also requires bread.  So, once again from www.thepioneerwoman.com (Ree Drummond is truly a genius!) I found another recipe that I am in love with!  Anyone that can use canned biscuits in a recipe (and admit it), and have it turn out to die for, is all right by me!  In the original recipe blue cheese was used instead of goat cheese.  But knowing that MM's kids might not appreciate blue cheese, and not knowing how strong the flavor would be (I didn't want anything to overpower the pot roast!) I opted for goat cheese.  Next time I make these I will use blue cheese.  They will never know!

The Easiest Biscuits Ever

Serves 10-12

2 cans  canned flaky biscuits

2 sticks butter

4 oz goat cheese (or blue cheese)

Heat oven to 350F.

Place butter on a baking sheet.  Crumble cheese and put on top of butter.  Place baking sheet in the oven until butter is melted.  Remove baking sheet from the oven.  Using a fork mix the cheese and the butter together.

While butter is melting, remove biscuits from the cans and cut each biscuit into quarters.  Get ready to get your hands messy!  Place quartered biscuits in the melted butter and cheese mixture.  Using your hands toss the biscuits in the butter and cheese until each biscuit is coated evenly.  Spread the biscuits evenly across the pan.  Place pan in the preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Keep an eye on the biscuits so they don't burn.  Just before they are ready to come out, remove the pan from the oven.  Using a pastry brush, brush the biscuits with any of the buttery cheesey goodness that is in the bottom of the pan.  Place the pan back in the oven until the biscuits are just crisp and brown.

Here is where self restraint is really important.  I highly recommend testing out one of the biscuits to make sure that they are appropriate to be serving to your dinner party.  Do not however eat all of the wonderfully buttery cheesey blobs of cooked dough!

Serve with Sunday Pot Roast Dinner and Mashed Potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes

Pot Roast without potatoes is like ice cream without nuts!  It just isn't right for me.  So along with the Sunday Pot Roast Dinner there had to be copious amounts of mashed potatoes.

I adapted this recipe from www.thepioneerwoman.com.

Mashed Potatoes

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

7 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes

1 cup butter

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Peel and cut potatoes into 2" pieces.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the potatoes.  Boil for 30-35 minutes until potatoes are cooked through and easily pierced with a fork.

Drain the potatoes into a colander reserving 1-2 cups of the cooking water.  Place the potatoes back into the pot.  Mash potatoes in pot on the stove over low heat.  If potatoes stick to the bottom of the pan add a small amount of the cooking water to the potatoes as you are mashing them.  

Turn off the stove and add butter, milk, seasoning salt, salt and pepper.  Mash away!

Serve alongside Sunday Pot Roast Dinner and The Easiest Biscuits Ever.

Sunday Pot Roast Dinner

I don't know what is more comforting than a Sunday pot roast dinner surrounded by friends and family.  This dinner was everything I had hoped it would be and more.

I was so anxious for my entertaining debut.  The first dinner that MM and I would host at our house.  I barely slept the night before.  Thinking of all of the things I still needed to do, what I was missing, where would everyone sit, would there be enough plates and silverware for appetizers, dinner and dessert, what time would people start arriving, all of this kept me awake.  Finally I got up at 3:00 AM made some toast and warm milk, wrote a list of things I needed to complete or get and then went back to bed.  At 5:30 AM I woke up to go for a run.  I had to expend some energy, and I had a training plan to follow of course!

With one more trip to the store I was ready to head home and begin the process.  I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, The Pioneer Woman www.thepioneerwoman.com.  I love this site!

That is a whole lot of meat!  8.5 pounds of chuck roast.  

Season both sides with a generous amount of salt and pepper.  

Peel 3 large onions and cut in half.

Scrub 8-10 carrots.  I didn't peel the carrots.  They look more rustic!  Trim the ends off and  slice into 2" pieces.

Add 2-3 tablespoons olive oil to a large dutch onion and heat over medium  high heat.  Add the halved onions until browned on both sides.

Remove onions to a plate.  Add sliced carrots to the same pan and brown on all sides.  Add more olive oil if needed before adding the meat.  Brown the meat on all sides.  I had two pans going for the amount that I was making.  I browned the meat in batches.  

Everyone in the jacuzzi!  Beautiful!

Sunday Pot Roast Dinner

Serves 12-14

Ingredients:

8.5 pounds Chuck Roast (preferrably whole, but I had four pieces of meat)

1/4 cup olive oil

3 large yellow onions

8-10 whole carrots

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups dry red wine

4-6 cups beef stock

6 sprigs fresh thyme

6 sprigs fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper each side of the chuck roast generously.

With this amount of food I had to use two dutch ovens.  Luckily my oven is large enough for both to fit!  

Heat each Dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to each.  

Peel the onions and cut in half.  Scrub the carrots.  I left the peel on.  Cut the ends off the carrots and slice into 2-3" pieces..  Add the halved onions to the hot oil and brown on each side.  Remove the onions to the plate.  Add carrots to the hot oil until browned.

Add more oil to the pans if needed.  Sear each piece of meat on all sides until browned.  Remove the meat to a plate.  

With the burners still on high, add 1 cup of red wine to each pan to deglaze it.  Scrap the bottom of the pans with a whisk to get up all the browned bits off the bottom.

Once the pans are deglazed place the pieces of meat in the pans and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway.  Split the vegetables evenly between both pans.  Add the sprigs of rosemary and thyme to each pan.  

Place a lid on each pan and roast in a 275F oven for 4 hours.

Once the roasts are done, remove pans from oven.  Transfer meat to a rimmed baking sheet and tent with foil so all the juicy goodness can settle in the meat before you shred it.  After about 10 minutes place each piece on a cutting board and using two forks shred the meat to your desired degree of chunkiness.

Serve with Mashed Potatoes and The Easiest Biscuits Ever for the most comforting meal ever!