Fast and dirty chicken chili

My usual chili recipe is one I got from Penzey's Spices.  After the onions and garlic are tender, you stir in the chili powder, cumin, and other spices so that they get to bloom in the oil before you add the liquid and tomatoes.  The chili should simmer for 3 hours to develop the best flavor.  I use that technique for both beef and vegetarian chilis.

Years ago I developed a chicken chili recipe that's made thick and rich with a can of refried beans.

Last night I opened a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and started dicing them to make a sort of fried rice dish.  Since I had cooked 4 servings of rice, I wanted about a pound of chicken, and there were 2 lbs in the package.

I decided I might as well cook all the chicken, and freezer or refrigerate the leftovers.  As I finshed the chicken fried rice I had planned for dinner, I threw the extra chicken and onion into a saucepan and made what I thought was a sort of half-assed chili.  Not enough spices.  Needed more veggies.  Maybe I'll pick some stuff up at the grocery store and make it into a sort of tortilla soup...

But the roads were awful tonight, and we ended up having the half-assed chili all by itself.  It was pretty good.  This makes 4 rather small, but filling, servings.

1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 small onion, diced
1 T olive oil
10 oz. can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 oz. tomato paste
2 tsp Penzey's medium-hot chili powder
~ 1/2 tsp ground cumin
White pepper to taste

Trim the chicken thighs of any large blobs of fat and cut into 1/2 inch or smaller pieces, removing any stringy tendons or membranes as you work.  Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat and cook the onion until translucent.  Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally until the surface is browned in patches, and opaque everywhere else.  The chicken will cook through in the next step.

Meanwhile, pour the Rotel into a 3 quart saucepan with a lid, and heat over medium until it begins to simmer.  Add the chicken, chili powder, cumin, beans, and tomato paste.  Stir until the tomato paste dissolves.  (Don't taste right now -- the chicken might still be raw in the center.)  Bring the chili to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot, and allow it to simmer for approximately 20 minutes.  Add pepper and taste -- you probably won't need any salt.

Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheese.

Rotiserie Chicken Chowder

There are only two of us, so we get several meals out of a jumbo rotisserie chicken.

When I removed the meat from carcass, I tossed the bones into a 2.5 quart sauce pan with an onion, two stalks of celery, 2 carrots, and some peppercorns and rosemary in a tea ball.  I simmered it until bedtime (about 2 hours), salted it to taste, and strained out the solids.  (I saved the bones in the refrigerator since there was still some meat to be picked off.)  I used the resulting stock for this chowder.

2 T butter (or fat from the top of the chicken stock)

1 small onion, chopped

3 small carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, sliced

1 ~ 2 cloves of garlic, grated on a microplane

1 large baking potato (~ 8 oz), peeled and diced

2 t Penzey's Fox Point Seasoning

4-6 c. stock, from a carton if you didn't get a chance to boil the carcass

1 1/2 ~ 2 c. of chopped chicken

Freshly ground black pepper

11 oz. can of corn, drained

1/2 ~ 1 c. instant mashed potato flakes

5 oz. can evaporated milk

Heat the butter or chicken fat in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until translucent.  Add carrots, colery and garlic.  Cook stirring occasionally while you peel and dice the potato.  Add the potato to the pot, sprinkle the Fox Point over, and season generously with black pepper.  Stir in the seasonings, and add the stock and chicken.  Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender.  Stir in the drained corn and 1/2 c. of mashed potato flakes and the evaporated milk.   Add more potato flakes if you would like a thicker chowder.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The instant potatoes will make the leftovers thicken up in the refrigerator.  Add a little water, stock or milk before reheating.

Mushroom, Quinoa and Chicken Soup

This soup was inspired by coupons for mushrooms and baby carrots.  I had hoped that the quinoa would cook up so soft and light it would float like noodles, but the black and red quinoa I used settled to the bottom of the soup.  I guess I'll try white quinoa next time.

1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 c. water
1 1/2 tsp Penzey's Chicken Soup Base

3 T olive oil
1 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. diced celery
5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 rosemary stem (4" long)
3-4 thyme stems (4" long)

16 oz. button mushrooms, chopped
5-6 white pepper corns
32 oz. unsalted chicken stock

16 oz baby carrots, chopped into small pieces

1 c. quinoa (I used half red and half black)

~ 1 c. tomato puree  (I had some leftover from another recipe)

Place the water, soup base and chicken thighs in a large soup pot (at least 5 qts) over medium heat.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cover until meat is cooked through, and shreds apart.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and rinse if necessary.  Cut medium-sized caps in half, and large caps into thirds before slicing.  Set mushrooms aside in a bowl while you chop the onion, celery and garlic.

 Remove the meat to a cutting board or plate and let it cool.  Pour the cooking water through a strainer into the bowl.  If there is any chicken fat sticking to the bottom of the pot, wipe it out with a paper towel.  Return the pot to medium heat, and add the olive oil, onion, and celery.  Cook, stirring occasionally until onion is translucent and just starting to brown in spots.

Remove the rosemary and thyme leaves from the stems.  Discard the stems, and chop the leaves.  You should end up with about 2 tsp of chopped herbs.  Add the garlic and chopped herbs to the onions and cook, stirring frequently, for 1-2 minutes.  Pour the stock and reserved cooking liquid into the pot.  Add the mushrooms and peppercorns.  Chop and add the baby carrots.

Taste the broth and add salt if needed.

If your quinoa isn't pre-washed, rinse it thoroughly in a fine mesh strainer, and add it to the simmering soup.  Stir, cover, and allow to cook until the quinoa is tender.  Stir in the tomato puree.

Chicken ala Waffles

I had been planning to make multigrain waffles for a couple of weeks, and I had some cooked chicken legs in the  freezer.  "Chicken and waffles!"
I know, I know -- the chicken is deep fried and the waffles are sort of a side when you get chicken and waffles in a restaurant.  But Chicken ala King is served over toast points...and my waffle iron makes round waffles that break apart into quarters.  So Chicken ala Waffles it is.

To me, Chicken ala King is sort of an deconstructed pot pie, with chicken and veggies in gravy, poured over puff pastry or a biscuit.  I was surprised to discover that the classic dish is mushrooms and sherry.  No peas & carrots?  The most intriguing thing that turned up was finishing the sauce with one or two egg yolks, tempered and stirred into the chicken gravy.  That sounded worth trying, and it was fabulous.

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 c. chopped onions
1 1/2 c. carrots, peeled and chopped
8 oz of mushrooms, stems removed and sliced thinly

2 Tbsp butter
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. white pepper (optional)
3 t. sweet rice flour
2 c. chicken stock
3/4 c. half and half
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/2 c. frozen peas
2 c. cooked chicken (I used all dark meat)
2-3 dashes of tabasco (optional)
dash of habenro salt (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a 12" non-stick skillet over medium heat, and add the onions.  Cook, stirring occasionally, while you peel and chop the carrots.  Add the carrots and stir.  Rinse and slice the mushrooms, and add to the skillet.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the onions and the mushrooms are both soft.  Add the butter and wait for it to melt.

Sprinkle paprika, pepper, and sweet rice flour over the skillet, and stir well to coat all the ingredients.  Cook 2-3 minutes so you won't have a raw flour taste.  Pour in about half of the chicken stock and stir to dissolve the flour and fat from the veggies.   Add the rest of the stock, stir, and continue to cook over medium heat until the gravy begins to bubble and thicken.

Stir in the half-and-half, and heat until you see steam coming off the gravy.   Scoop a 1/2 c. of the sauce over the egg yolks, and beat.  (Don't worry if a mushroom or carrot gets in there.)  Add another 1/2 c. of the warm gravy, stir it in and the scrape the egg mixture back into the skillet.  Stir well, and add the chicken and peas.  Reduce the heat to medium low, and cook until everything is heated through and the sauce is thick and silky.  I waited until the mixture was steaming again, and then turned the heat to low.

Taste, and adjust seasonings.  I added 3 shakes of Tabasco and a touch of habenero salt because we like a little heat.

I served about 1 c. of the mixture over two quarters of a waffle, with the other 2 quarters set on the edge of the plate for dipping or gravy mopping.

I made the waffles in advance, so I only had to break them into quarters and reheat in the toaster oven when the chicken was ready.

Sticky Chicken and Cabbage Soup

1 quart unsalted chicken stock
1 15 oz. can chick peas, drained and rinsed well
2 T olive oil *or* 2 T chicken fat saved from Sticky Chicken
1 c. chopped yellow onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 a medium cabbage, core removed, cut into 4 wedges and thinly sliced crosswise
10-14 oz cooked chicken, skin and bones removed and chopped (2 leg quarters)
Drippings saved from the bottom of the sticky chicken crock pot
11.5 oz. can of low-sodium V-8
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Place the chick peas and chicken stock in a blender.  Blend until the chick peas are liquefied.
Place a Dutch oven over medium heat.  When the pot is hot add the oil or chicken fat.
When the fat is heated, add the onions and cook until translucent and tender.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add the cabbage and cook until it's tender and starting to brown.
Remove any extra fat from the drippings and add the rest to the pot.Don't worry about any spices that settled to the bottom -- they'll add great flavor to the soup.
Stir in the chopped chicken, blended broth mixture and V-8.  Bring to a simmer, and reduce heat.  Cook for 30 minutes to blend the flavors.
Taste the broth, and season with salt, pepper and Tabasco.