Chicken Chili

My eldest hates beef...he actually calls it "meat gum." Thus I went in search of chili made with chicken or turkey. This recipe, made with ground chicken, is one of two that I really like. It is super easy to make, reasonable healthy and very flavorful.

Ingredients
• one pound of ground chicken
• two cans of white, navy bean
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 3.5 cups chicken broth (I use water and 4 bouillon cubes)
• 1 medium finely chopped onion
• 1/2 medium green pepper also finely chopped
• 1/2 to one cup frozen corn
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1.5-2 teaspoons chili powder (to your taste)
• 1.5 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Cayenne pepper to your taste (when I make it for my kids, I don't use any and it is very flavorful).
• salt to your taste, I only add 1/2 teaspoon.

Directions
• Put the chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, corn, oregano, cumin and chili powder in a soup pot or a crock pot.
• brown the chicken in a frying pan, drain off the excess grease and add the meat to the soup/crock pot.
• don't wipe out the frying pan of the meat grease and with the burner on about medium head add the onion, peppers and garlic until the veggies are soft. This takes less than five minutes and stir often so the veggies don't burn. Once done, add this mix to the soup/crock pot.
• If cooking on a stove top, bring the mixture to a low boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. If cooking in a crock pot, let the flavors marry in a slow cooker for 4-5 hours on low.

Today's Experiment

I wanted something comforting for lunch, but I also wanted something healthy. After having gone to Park Central in Hamden for dinner last week, where I had butternut squash soup, I have been wanting to make my own. Well, today was the day.

Ingredients
2.5-3 lbs butternut squash, diced
2 red potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 large red onion, diced
2T butter
chicken stock, about 6 cups or so
salt and cambodian kampot pepper

1. Melt the butter on medium high heat in a large pot. Put all the diced ingredients in the pot and stir them around for about 5 minutes.

2. Cover the vegetable and butter mix with chicken stock, cover the mixture and let it come to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, turn the burner down and let it simmer for about 45 mins, or until all the veggies are soft.
3. Using a submersible blender, puree the mixture. If the mixture is too thick for your liking, you can add a bit more chicken stock. Mine was perfect as is. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper—I used Cambodian kampot pepper and it was out of this world. My husband, for whom I have been cooking for 20 years, says it is one of the tastiest things I have ever made.

My Favorite Recipe of 2010—Corn Chowder

Family Friendly Meals Series, Day 10
My sister Lisa is a phenomenal cook. This is her corn chowder recipe, adapted a bit because of my husband's high cholesterol. While not much to look at (these photos do NOT do it justice in any way), this soup is absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
½ pound bacon (cut into inch size pieces, I use my kitchen scissors)

3 cans cream of chicken soup
3 cans of 1% milk

1 small sour cream

20 oz frozen corn 

12 new potatoes, peeled and diced bite size pieces

Pepper and powdered garlic to taste

Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Cook bacon in large soup pot until just about done. Open one of your soup cans and put contents in a small bowl so you have an empty soup can to drain the excess bacon grease. Add soup, 2 cans of milk, sour cream, corn and powdered garlic. Before you add the potatoes, the soup mixture looks like this:

In a separate pot, boil potatoes for about 15-20 mins (I do this while the bacon is cooking). Drain the water and add it to the soup mixture. At this point, I move the whole mixture to my slow cooker and heat it on low for about an hour, though it can stay in the crock pot longer. If you don't have a crock pot, you can simmer the mixture on the stove top on low. Be careful not to have the heat too high; the milk will burn. Stir often. If you are using the stove top method, keep the cover on but leave a little room for steam to come out. If not, it may become too watery. Simmer the mixture for about 1/2 an hour.

Notes: Add some or all of the third can of milk until your chowder is the desired thickness. The original recipe calls for whole milk and a large container of sour cream.

The Cheapest Meal Ever

Family Friendly Meals Series, Day 8
Homemade Potato Leek Soup

This story actually starts last spring. You see, that's when I planted the leeks that I grew in my garden with the express purpose of making potato leek soup....I know, I'm a bit of a planner! So here's what I pulled out of the ground today!

It was a joy, and also super easy, to clean them up and get organized for making soup! I made soup and rolls, which could be paired with fruit or salad. Total cooking time for the rolls was one hour, and the soup about 30 minutes.


Soup Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
4 leeks, washed and sliced
1/8 teaspoon chile powder (or a bit more if your family likes spicy food)
6 cups water
4 largish russet potatoes
salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste

1. Start by slicing the leeks in preparation of cooking them in the butter. Cut thin slices; I cut about 4-5 inches up the leeks I grew, which were very long and thin. Melt the butter in a soup pot or dutch oven on medium low. Add the leeks and stirring pretty frequently cook them for about 5 minutes, till they fade in color and soften. While the leeks were cooking, I peeled the potatoes and cut them into cubes.


2. Add the chile pepper (photo above has chile pepper mixed in, that's why the mixture is tinted brown) and stir for a few seconds and then add the water and cubed potatoes. Cover and simmer. Depending on how large your potato cubes are, it could take anywhere from 15-30 minutes for your potatoes to soften.

3. Once they are soft, use an immersion blender and puree the mixture. Season the finished product to taste with salt and fresh ground paper.

I added a touch of shredded cheese for garnish. My eldest, who is the finickiest eater evaaaaah, said it was good!

And just because I had a bit of time on my hand, I made fresh rolls. Pampered Chef's pizza dough makes pretty tasty dinner rolls when you are in a pinch.

So, for the price of a few potatoes and some dough mix, I got complete and total deliciousness. Eat on my friends.