Mexican Chicken Soup - Barefoot Bloggers

Barefoot Bloggers is a group that cooks all things Ina. Judy from Judy's Gross Eats chose this recipe. Thanks, Judy... we love having soup often since the cold weather has set in!

Chop onions, celery and carrots and saute.
Cut up some corn tortillas, a seeded jalapeno and dice some garlic.

Add tomatoes, tortillas, garlic, jalapenos and chicken broth. The corn tortillas disappeared into the soup and thickened it to just the right consistency.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese and broken tortilla chips. I've had chicken tortilla soup in the past and remember not caring for it much, but this was very good and hearty soup, and a recipe I'll make again! You can find Ina's recipe for this Mexican Chicken Soup here.

Chicken Cacciatore

You could Google recipes for Chicken Cacciatore and get 185,000 results in 0.11 seconds, or you could do what I do and wing it.



I haven't made this dish in a while, so I was glad to be reminded of it when I saw that Kevin from Closet Cooking gave us his recipe a few days ago.



Here's how I winged it (wunged it? wanged it?) Fry chicken thighs in olive oil until they're browned. Remove them from the pan. That takes care of the chicken part of this dish - for a while, anyway. Easy, eh?



Put an anchovy in the same pan. Smoosh it up with a spoon as it melts away. You won't be able to taste the anchovy when the gravy is done, but you'll know there's something delicious about this gravy... I promise!



When the anchovy has melted, add some coarsley chopped onions. I like to use lots of onions in my Italian gravy. Add some red pepper flakes, three cloves of minced garlic, a sprinkle of granulated garlic, black pepper, and some dried parsley, rosemary, and oregno. Sometimes I add mushrooms or zucchini.



When the onions are soft, put in 1/2 cup red wine, a can of tomato sauce and a can of stewed tomatoes. Stir that all around then return the chicken thighs to the pan. Cook on a medium simmer for about 30 minutes.



This will be some of the best Italian gravy you've ever had (even if I do say so myself).



I usually serve this over pasta (spaghetti, to be exact) but while I was reading Kevin's recipe, I saw that he served his Chicken Cacciatore over Risotto! I would never have thought of that, so we'll give it a try. Here's Kevin's recipe for cheesey risotto here. And here's our finished dish of Chicken Cacciatore over Risotto. It was so good for dinner last night that I had it again for breakfast. Really!

Chicken Fajitas

I hear you... "Do these people eat anything other than chicken?"

"Roast chicken, chicken tacos, chicken quesadillas, chicken marsala... now chicken fajitas??"

All I can say is "cluck, cluck"!
Put some olive oil in a big frying pan. Slice up one good sized onion and throw it in there. Put some red pepper flakes in there (as many as you want... or none at all). You're the boss! Press 5 garlic cloves (or more, or less - it's whatever you want).
(See the pressed garlic on the bottom left?) Coarsely chop three tomatoes.

At this point I would tell you to slice up a few green bell peppers, but this ole gal wasn't going to pay $1.98 for a bell pepper, no way, no how! I used some canned, whole green chiles and sliced them for these fajitas.
Now slice one or two chicken breasts... as thin as you can get them. I seasoned them with black pepper, parsley, Old Bay Seasoning, and McCormick's Fajita Seasoning.
When the onions have cooked some, add the sliced green chiles. If you have the dough and want to use bell peppers, go ahead, but be sure to leave me a comment. I don't have any rich friends, and well, maybe we could get to know each other a little better.
Add the chopped tomatoes...
Now, push all the veggies over to the side of the pan. Put the sliced chicken on the other side of the pan and cook until done.

I like to use a huge pan for this, but you could easily use two pans... one to cook the veggies and one to cook the chicken. Just combine them in the end.
Open a jar of this good stuff...
... and put a good amount over the chicken.
Stir everything together until hot.

I heat up my cast iron skillet and put the fajitas on it to bring to the table. It's just more fun that way.

Now heat up some flour tortillas and wrap them around some of this yummy stuff and chow down! If you're really hungry, make up some beans and rice to go with this!

I promise we're not going to have chicken again for another week! (Or at least a couple of days.)

Chicken Marsala

We've eaten so much chicken over the last several days, I thought we'd have it again. :P

Marsala is an inexpensive fortified sweet wine that just makes this dish one of my favorites!

I was going to use The Frugal Gourmet's recipe but it calls for onions, which I didn't want to use, and it doesn't call for mushrooms, which I did want to use!

So, I kind of combined The Frugal Gourmet's recipe, and Emeril's Chicken Marsala recipe and came up with this:
Slice as many button mushrooms as you want. I had about 3 cups, because my gardener and I love mushrooms! Put a couple tablespoons of butter in a frying pan, add a little olive oil and cook the mushrooms until they are a little brown and give up their juices. I don't know... maybe 10-15 minutes.

You wondered when I was going to get to the good stuff, didn't you? You'll need about 3/4 c Marsala and 1 cup white wine.
Add the Marsala and white wine to the mushrooms and let them simmer until the liquid has reduced. (This is what's going to make the yummy sauce!)

Now you need some flour to dredge the chicken in. I used about a cup of flour, some dried parsley, red pepper flakes, freshly ground pepper, Old Bay Seasoning, and paprika. Mix this all together because we're going to use it in a minute.

Put the chicken breasts in a Ziplock bag and pound them fairly thin with one of these meat pounders. Just whack, whack, whack until somebody tells you to quit making so much noise.

Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture...

...and fry over rather high heat. They're so thin, they won't take long, and you'll be surprised at how tender they are. You won't need a knife for this chicken, no siree bob! (My Dad used to say that a lot.)

Here are the mushrooms after the liquid has reduced some. Mmm!

Wow, this was delicious! I steamed some zuchinni and we had a really tasty meal!

Don't forget to light the candles!

You are eating by candlelight, aren't you?

Chicken Pasta Salad

Remember last Friday when we roasted this 6 pound bad boy?

Since then, my gardener and I have eaten chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, chicken quesadillas, and chicken stew.

Now, it's time for Chicken Pasta Salad!
I love, love, love different kinds of pasta. If I had room, I'd have one entire shelf dedicated to different shapes of pasta!

I usually use Farfalle (say far-FALL-lay) for my chicken pasta salad, but I've had this Vegetable Radiatore for a while, so thought I'd use it today.

It's called Vegetable Radiatore because of the different colors and the unique shape of the pasta. Each color is representative of a vegetable. Spinach is used to color the green pasta; beets to color the red, and so on. The 'radiatore' comes from the Spanish translation of 'radiator'. They do look like little radiators!

You can use any pasta you like for your salad - put it in a pot and boil until it's al dente!

Slice four or five (it's up to you!) green onions.

Then slice up three or four ribs of celery. I like to use the ribs that have leaves on them, too.

After your pasta is cooked, run cold water over it and drain. The cooked pasta isn't as vibrant as it is dried, but that's okay.

Cube the leftover chicken. Oh, and if you don't have leftover chicken, or don't particularly like thighs and drumsticks, you can cook chicken breasts and use that for your salad!

Add the sliced onion and celery to the chicken.

Now, season your mayonnaise mixture. You can use your favorites. I used mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, dried parsley, sour cream, granulated garlic, and Old Bay Seasoning.

Add a little lemon juice.

Mix all this yummy stuff together with some salt and pepper, to taste.

Mix the mayonnaise mixture into the chicken. I like to use a little more mayonnaise and sour cream than is needed at first because as it sits, the pasta will absorb some of it. I don't like dry chicken salad!

This salad is best when left in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. But if you can't wait (like me!) put some in a bowl, sprinkle on a little paprika for the ta-da factor, and eat it right away with some buttery crackers!

Mmmm... this is good. It's tangy (thank you, lemon juice and Dijon); crunchy (thank you, celery and onion); chewy (thank you, chicken and pasta); and creamy (thank you, sour cream and mayo)! What more could you ask for?

P.S. I usually add some chopped black olives to my chicken pasta salad, but my personal shopper hasn't kept my pantry stocked! (I'm putting him on probation, like right now!)

Green Chile Chicken Stew

There's no recipe here...
...just a carrot, a couple ribs of celery, eight button mushrooms (quartered), onions, garlic, leftover chicken, green chiles, chicken broth, and a can of those biscuits that you pop into the oven.
Saute the veggies in a pan with some olive oil. Add the chicken broth and let simmer until the broth has reduced. (See the little chef on the burner cover? He plays the violin for me while I cook. His name is Guiseppe.)

Mix a couple tablespoons of cornstarch with some cold water. Stir until it's all mixed up. This is called a slurry and it will thicken the stew. If you make the slurry and let it sit for very long, it'll set up (you could set brick walls with this stuff!). So, before you add it to the pan, give it another stir.

Pour the stew into an oven-safe dish and top with the biscuits. Cut them up to make them fit. I sprinkled some paprika and parsley on top of mine.

Put the dish on a tray and into the oven it goes at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until the biscuits look like this.Ladle some stew into a mug and top with one of the biscuits. Pretty good stuff.

Perfect Roast Chicken

This is Martha's Perfect Roast Chicken and you can get the recipe by clicking right here.
Remove giblets, rinse chicken, and dry thoroughly with paper towels. Place in heavy-duty roasting pan. Insert garlic cloves, thyme sprigs, and lemon into cavity. Bring chicken legs forward and tie together. Spread softened butter over entire surface of chicken; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 degres until skin is deep golden brown and crisp and juices run clear (about 1-1/2 hours). Insert instant-read thermometer into the breast, then the thigh. Breast temperature should read 180 degrees, and the thigh, 190 degrees. Roast at 425 degrees until skin is deep golden brown and juices run clear (about 1-1/2 hours).

Remove chicken from oven and let stand 10 to 15 minutes so the juices settle. Meanwhile, pour the pan drippings into a shallow bowl. Leave any brown baked-on bits in the bottom of the roasting pan. Pour the remaining drippings and the juices that have collected under the resting chicken back into the roasting pan. Place on stove over medium high heat and cook about a minute. Add flour and whisk. Add chicken stock and cook until reduced (about 4 minutes). At the end, add cube of butter and whisk until melted.

Carve, and serve gravy on the side.

Watch this bad boy become a delicious chicken-pasta salad in the next few days!