Jerk Chicken Chili-Soup in the Crockpot

This chili-soup, (I added the -soup part because I didn't add any cornstarch to thicken it. I don't mind it being soupy at all) is surprisingly warming on these chilly November days, considering Jerk is a Caribbean flavoring. The husband and I started taking off our sweatshirts as we tucked into this soup, as the chili-like flavors heated up our cores. The rich smell of cinnamon will fill your kitchen throughout the day, as this soup simmers away in the crockpot.

The soup looks watery at first, but once the chicken is shredded, it definitely thickens up. Because the chicken cooked in the crockpot, it comes apart very easily with a squish of the ladle. You could also take the chicken out and shred with 2 forks but I found that the chicken was falling apart so much as I tried to pick the pieces out, that I just stopped trying. I used water instead of chicken broth and I found the soup to be well-flavored. I've had a few over-salting incidents recently, so I decided with this one, to leave the salt out completely, and just add as much or as little salt as we like at the table.

I made some changes to this recipe to fit what I had in the kitchen. One major change is that I put a raw chicken breast and thigh in the crockpot. I know some people are hesitant to do this, as the chicken will stay at a low temperature for a long period of time. I'm not one to worry too much about that, so this truly is your judgment call. The original recipe suggests using a rotisserie chicken, shredded of its meat but I kind of thought it was a waste to go out and buy a rotisserie chicken, just to rip meat off of it and put it in a soup. I would have rather used the seasoned chicken to make sandwiches or Vietnamese-style salad rolls.

I also used 3 fresh tomatoes instead of a can of diced ones. I had three ripe ones sitting on the counter so that was a no-brainer. For the beans, I just used what I had in the pantry. I've added my changes in parenthesis.

We found this soup to be quite mild. It could definitely be kicked up with cayenne or more jalapenos! It's the perfect winter dish, which will definitely be made again!!




Jerk Chicken Chili (Soup in the Crockpot)
4-6 servings
source: Pam Anderson, Perfect One-Dish Dinners

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (I used green)
3 tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 large rotisserie chicken, meat removed and shredded (about 6 cups) (I used 1 breast and 1 thigh)
4 cups chicken broth (I used water)
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes (I used 3 fresh medium-sized tomatoes)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained
1 can (15 oz) small white beans, drained (I used kidney beans)
2 tbsp chopped pickled jalapenos (I used 1/4 of a fresh one, some seeds included with a tbsp of vinegar)
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 oz semisweet chocolate (I used dairy-free)
2 tbsp cornmeal or 3 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water (optional for thickening) (I omitted)

Here are Pam Anderson's directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring until softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add chili powder, thyme, cinnamon, and allspice. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add chicken and stir to coat with spices. Add broth, tomatoes, beans, and jalapenos, bring to a boil, cover partially, reduce heat, and simmer to blend flavors, about 20 minutes.
5. Stir in garlic, cilantro, chocolate, and either cornmeal or cornstarch/water slurry if desired. If you add the cornstarch slurry, bring the heat up to medium-high and allow the chili to thicken. Turn off the heat and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Here are my directions: 1. Add all ingredients except the chocolate and cilantro to the crockpot. Stir well and set to low and cook for 7 hours. 2. After 7 hours, add chocolate and stir to make sure it has all melted. 3. Ladle into bowls and garnish with cilantro.

Italian sausage, leek, and potato soup

This is one of those I-bought-more-veggies than-I-know-what-to-do-with meals. The one veggie I didn't know what to do with? Leeks. I'm not even sure which is the usable part. A lot of recipes say to chop off the dark green part, and then go on to tell you that they can be used for something else. Well, I ended up removing most of the green part. I chose to puree the soup with a hand blender, but if you chop the veggies smaller, it can be left unblended.

I think the sausage I used must've been pretty salty because I didn't need to season it much. Even though there is no milk or cream in this soup, it comes out very rich-tasting and creamy-feeling. I will definitely be making this again!

Ingredients:
Makes 4 large bowls of thick soup.

2 tbsp of olive oil
Leeks, 3, thoroughly rinsed and chopped
3 italian sausage links, removed from casing
1 large yukon gold potato, peeled, rinsed and chopped
1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
4 cups chicken stock

Heat the a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Heat up the olive oil, and add the sausages, crumbling with a wooden spoon as they cook. Once the sausages have cooked, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the potatoes, leeks and cabbage and cook until all vegetables start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes.

If you are using a hand blender, turn off the heat, and puree the soup until it reaches the desired consistency. I left mine just a little chunky. Add the cooked sausage bits from before and stir. If you would like a thinner soup, add more chicken stock or water, and reheat before serving.

Curried Carrot Soup

I looooove carrot soup! I've tinkered around with several different recipes, which sometimes had not-so-great results (too spicy, too bland, etc), but this recipe from Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast was very well balanced. I have to admit though, I did tinker with this recipe, too!

Instead of 2 pounds of carrots like the recipe calls for, I used about 1.5, and added 4 oven roasted roma tomatoes. I love the tangy flavour they add.

I didn't taste much curry in this soup. I didn't mind that, but I might add garam masala instead if I want more of a curry flavour. Who knows, maybe the tanginess of the tomatoes took away from it.

Ingredients:
Source: Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast
Serves

2 tablespoons butter (I used Earth Balance)
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon curry powder
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks (I used 1.5 pounds)
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (omitted)
(I added 4 roasted roma tomatoes)

Preheat oven to 350F. Prep vegetables while oven preheats. Cut tomatoes in half, and scoop out seeds using a spoon. Arrange tomatoes on an olive-oil greased oven-proof dish. Season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Heat the butter in a Dutch oven or large (4- to 5-quart) saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, curry powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoons pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, and set the roasting pan aside.

Add the broth, carrots, and 3 cups water. Add some of the water to the pan used to roast the tomatoes, and scrape all those wonderful cooked-on bits, and pour in the saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat; cover, and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

In a blender, puree the soup in batches until smooth (I used a hand blender). Stir in lemon juice, and garnish with cilantro (if using).

Basic chicken stock

This recipe has become a major staple in my weekend cooking. Whenever my local supermarket has a special on skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, I stock up. I wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze then so I can just take one out the night before I'm planning on using it.

My reason for wanting to make my own is probably the same as everyone else's. I want to control the salt (and the type of salt), and the type of chicken that goes into the stock. Yes, I'm aware that I can just buy stock in a carton (and I sometimes do!) but when you make your own stock, you get the stock, and the chicken meat. Sometimes I use the chicken meat in whatever soup I'm making, and sometimes, I'll wrap and freeze it. Shredded chicken freezes pretty well!

This is what I use for a light chicken stock, as in, you probably wouldn't want to add any water to this when using it for another recipe.

Ingredients:

Olive oil (enough to generously coat the bottom of the pan)
1 large skin-on, bone-in chicken breast, rinsed and seasoned with salt and pepper.
1/2 an onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, scrubbed and cut into quarters
2 stalks of celery (or about 4-6 celery tops)

Heat a large saucepan or dutch oven over med-high heat. Make sure the pan is well-heated before adding the oil, otherwise your chicken will stick.

Place the chicken skin-side down, and cook for about 4 minutes (the skin will get brown and crispy, and the fat and flavour will render out). Using tongs, flip the chicken so it is skin-side up, and cook for another 4 minutes. You can also use the tongs to "press" the chicken on its side so skin/flesh on the side gets cooked (hey, more fat, more flavour!).

Add the onion, carrots and celery, and cook for about 4 minutes, until onions slightly brown.
Pour 8 cups of water over the chicken, reduce heat to medium, cover, and bring to a simmer (about 30 minutes).

Remove chicken and cut through to see that it's cooked thoroughly. If it is, let it cool on a cutting board or plate. It not, return to pot and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Then remove again to see that it's cooked throroughly. Cool, and remove meat from bones, discarding the skin.

I like to let the stock simmer for another 30 minutes after the chicken has been removed.

Use a slotted spoon to remove vegetables, and discard. Let the stock cool and skim off fat.

Leftover pantry/fridge/freezer stuff soup

On a rainy, windy Sunday, the last thing you want to do is go outside to buy groceries, holding your loaded shopping bag in one hand, an umbrella in the other, trying not to get rain in your face (yes, it was that kind of rain). Some stuff I had lying around: frozen ground turkey, dried black beans, dried chick peas, red curry paste, and fresh corn on the cob.

OK, I admit, this soup would require a bit of planning (maybe the morning of) but it's mostly stuff that you'd leave to soak and thaw. If you happened to have canned beans, this would be a lot easier since a lot of time goes into soaking and cooking the beans. I would not really expect anyone to go out and buy these ingredients just to make this soup. But, I hope you can see what I had in my kitchen to make a very filling soup for yourself.

So here it is:

Spicy Turkey Bean Soup

1/2 cup dried black beans (mine soaked for 4 hours)
1/2 cup dried chick peas (mine soaked for 4 hours)
1 pound ground turkey breast
1/2 large onion diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp ginger root, peeled and minced
1 carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cobs of corn, kernels cut off with a sharp knife
2 tbsp red curry paste
4 cups stock
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

In a large pot, cover black beans and chick peas with water and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Reduce to med-low and simmer, covered until the beans are soft. This took about 1-2 hours for me. I used this time to check my e-mail. Once the beans are soft, drain and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat oil, and saute onion, garlic, and ginger until softenend, about 5 minutes.
Add the curry paste and 1 cup of the stock, mixing well. Add carrots, celery, corn, and beans, and cover, cooking until carrots are somewhat tender.

Add remaining stock and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer, covered for 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro, and season with salt and pepper as desired (1/2 tsp each?)

You could also add 3 tbsp of fish sauce for more flavour.

Spicy Carrot and Lentil Curry Soup

A definite winter soup! Thick, hearty, warm-your-body goodness with vitamin A and protein! I chose to blend my soup with an immersion blender for a smoother soup. The problem with blending carrots and lentils is that they end up looking like barf. I took this soup to work a few times last week and got some curious stares. If you get queasy easily, maybe just chop everything up very fine and leave it unblended!

This would be delicious with some hot naan bread, or rice.

From Alive Magazine (November 2009 Issue)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups diced onions
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
1 tbsp red curry paste
4 cups stock (veg or meat, your choice)
2 cups carrots, peeled and diced
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 cup dried split red lentils
1 cup frozen shelled edamame beans, thawed
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper

Heat oil in a large saucepan over med-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and ginger; saute for 5 minutes or until soft and translucent. Stir occasionally.

Stir in curry paste and 1 cup of the stock to blend. Add carrots and crushed red pepper. reduce heat to med-low . Cover and cook until carrots are crisply tender, about 5 minutes. Stir.

Add remaining stock, lentils, and edamame beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes until lentils are tender. Stir in cilantro, salt, and pepper.

Spoon into individual serving bowls and garnish with additional cilantro and/or sour cream or plain yogurt.

How to incorporate a skin-on, bone-in chicken breast...

... into your soup! Skin-on, bone-in chicken is always cheaper at the supermarket. Maybe it's because they're sold by weight and so they work out how much the extra bone and skin would weigh? Or it's because they don't have to pay someone to skin and bone the chicken breast? Who knows... I've never tried to de-bone a raw chicken before but just imagine it's just much easier to do when it's cooked.

The idea behind this meal was to cook the chicken, get broth from the skin and bone, and then get the meat off the bone. It worked pretty well so I'll definitely do this again for other soups. Tonight's soup was:

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Adapted from Que Pasa tortilla chip bag
Yield: 4-6 generous servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 serrano pepper, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (you can keep or discard the seeds depending on how hot you'd like it)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 medium tomato, chopped
6 cups water
1 can black refried beans
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
juice of 1 lime
1 skin-on, bone-in chicken breast


Directions

Heat a heavy bottomed, large soup pot on medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, and place the chicken breast, skin side down. Sear for about 2 minutes, then flip and sear for an additional 2 minutes.

Add the onions, garlic, peppers, cumin, and coriander for 5 minutes. Stir to make sure the onions absorb the chicken-y goodness!

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add the chopped tomatoes and water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the chicken breast and place on a plate to cool.

Add refried beans (optional: for a smoother soup, use an immersion blender)

Once the chicken has cool, remove the skin and bone. Chop or shred chicken to desired thickness/size. Add the chicken back into the soup.

Add the cilantro and lime juice, and stir well. Season the soup with salt and pepper.
Serve with guacamole, tortilla chips and garnish with cheese and/or sour cream (if you eat dairy).

It was a pretty good soup with a decent amount of flavour. I think it could have been a little better if it had more chicken flavour. Maybe I'll use 3 cups water, and 3 cups chicken stock next time...

Black Bean Soup

After a long weekend (gotta love Easter) full of rich foods and wine, my body was craving something simple, nutritious, and filling. Black bean soup! This is something I threw together with things I had lying around the house. SO not in the mood to shop on Easter Monday. I added miso paste for depth and saltiness.

Being of Japanese descent, this is something I always have in the fridge. You could definitely use chicken stock or some other kind of stock but would have to play around with the seasonings a bit. Oh, I also used an immersion hand-blender (gotta love those things!)

Lazy day black bean soup

1 1/2 cups dried black beans (soaked over night, simmered for 2 hours until soft, drained)
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 - 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons miso paste (I think red or white would be fine)
soy sauce, to taste.
Cilantro sprigs (optional)

In a large pot, heat up some oil over med-high and saute the garlic, onions and ginger until the onions are translucent.
Add the black beans, stirring in incorporate onion/garlic/ginger flavours for about 2 minutes.
Add 2 cups water and miso.
Bring to a boil stirring occasionally to help miso dissolve.
After miso has dissolved, simmer for about 5 minutes. Add as much or as little soy sauce depending on how salty you 'd like it to be. You can add more water for for a thinner soup.
Being very careful that the blender is fully submerged in the liquid, pulse until desired consistency is reached. I like it pretty well blended. It's better to stop the blender before moving it around the pot. And never life the blender up while you're still blending, otherwise you'll end up wearing the soup!
Garnish with cilantro.

Enjoy!

You could even add some heat to this by adding a few green chiles. I decided to keep mine heat-free to help my body cleanse a little but will definitely be trying this recipe again with some chiles.

Thai-style Coconut Soup

Emphasis on the "-style" as I don't think this is very authentic. I love Thai coconut soups. The combination of creamy, sweet, salty, hot and sour is just heaven for me. In this version, I left out the "hot" part because I was making it for my mom and she doesn't do hot. At all. Ever...

I used stuff I had around the house: carrots, celery, onions, lemon grass (actually I saw that at the store and decided to pick it up) and of all things, green lentils. I don't think I've ever had a Thai dish with lentils in it. But anyway, as I said, this soup is not Thai, just has some "borrowed" elements from it.

I'll probably try to recreate the soup and add noodles or seafood another time. I'll also add some spice to it, too!

Thai-style Coconut Soup

1 large yellow onion
1 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, sliced into strips
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces
3/4 cup lentils, rinsed and drained
1 stalk (?) lemon grass, chopped into three pieces and smashed with the dull side of a knife
1 can coconut milk
juice and grated rind of 1 lime
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
salt and/or pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil on medium-high heat (I used coconut hoping to capture its fragrance) and fry the onions, carrots, celery, and ginger until softened. Add lentils.

Add 2 cups water, the lemon grass pieces and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until lentils are soft. Add chicken pieces and simmer until they are white and cooked through.

Add coconut milk and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and zest. Stir to combine flavours. Add salt and/or pepper to season to your liking.

Serve with cilantro sprigs and enjoy!

*I'm not really sure how to use the lemon grass. I should look that up!