Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

I'm not a huge fan of soup, as a rule. Actually, I'm just not a huge fan of soup as the main course of a meal. It never really seems to fill me up. This one was an exception.  Serve it with homemade dinner rolls and it's meal.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Here's the original recipe (from Allrecipes.com):

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 cooked, boneless chicken breast halves, shredded
• 1 (4.5 ounce) package quick cooking long grain and wild rice with seasoning packet
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups heavy cream

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium heat, combine broth, water and chicken. Bring just to boiling, then stir in rice, reserving seasoning packet. Cover and remove from heat.
2. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and flour. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in contents of seasoning packet until mixture is bubbly. Reduce heat to low, then stir in flour mixture by tablespoons, to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, 5 minutes.
3. Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes.

Printable Recipe

I changed it a little, because I didn't have everything on hand.  I used whole milk, instead of cream.  Next time I may even use skim, because I don't think it would change the finished product the way it is used.

I also added large chunks of carrots, because I LOVE cooked carrots.  They added a nice change in texture and a sweet counter to the savory flavor of the soup.  I would have liked to add celery, but alas the only celery I had was molded and smooshy in the bottom of my vegetable bin.  (I've since cleaned and replaced the bin :-)

I didn't have Wild Rice with Seasoning Packet so I just used 1/2 c. wild rice (4.5 oz. is 1/2 plus 1/16th cup), and to taste (probably a quarter tsp. each) garlic, onion powder, fresh ground pepper, and poultry seasoning.  I let it boil a little longer than called for, because it wasn't a quick-cook rice.  Next time I'll cook the rice separately and add it in for the last five minutes.  I may add more rice too, I like wild rice's a lot!

One more thing to do differently, I would omit the salt.  Because I used chicken soup base with water, instead of chicken broth.  It was a little bit too salty.

I give it four stars, because I really liked it.  The fifth star will come with my changes next time.  It was really filling and stored well.  I'll be finishing it for lunch today.  Totally restaurant quality soup.

Do you have a favorite soup?  

Do you serve soup as a side or main dish?

Thursday is our scheduled Soup day, so this will be going on my Thursday menu.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

These are my favorite enchiladas.  I do so many different things to them that they always seem like a new dish.  The original recipe was from my friend Julie.

Recipe:

Sour Cream Enchiladas

Cook diced chicken breast (I usually use 2 or 3 breast halves) with garlic and onions (if desired.) Or just season with your favorite dry rub.

Mix together:

2 cans cream o’ soup (I use cream of chicken)

1 pt. sour cream

1 sm can green chilies

1 cup grated cheese (at least)

Add chicken to sauce

 and fill corn or flour tortillas.

  Roll tortillas like a burrito or layer like lasagna for casserole. 

Place in pan and top with any remaining sauce and extra cheese.

  Bake at 350° about 40 minutes or until bubbly.

  Makes about 10 enchiladas


I like to add some petite diced tomatoes to the sauce.  I also like to add half a bottle of Chile Verde sauce.  Usually I leave out anything "verde" because hubby prefers it without.


We always use the uncooked flour tortillas from Costco. 

 Once you've had them, you'll never go back to the supermarket bagged ones.


There is no picture of the finished product, because we ate them too fast.  They do save well in the fridge for a few days and make great leftovers for lunch or dinner.

Enchilada Meatballs - by the Li'l Chefs

This one was a hit in a couple of ways.  First, the kids really did make it themselves, sans the oven part.  Second, it tasted great.

Recipe:

1 to 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
2 cups cornbread, crumbled
3/4 cup enchilada sauce
3/4 cup enchilada sauce, again

In a large bowl, combine beef, cornbread and enchilada sauce.  Combine, but do not over mix.  I recommend using your hands or a potato masher.  Shape into about 1 inch balls.  I use a small melon baller/ice cream scoop to make them all uniform.  Place into oven safe dish, or on a lined baking sheet.

I didn't have cornbread, so I used corn meal instead, and only 1 cup.  The cornbread would have left the finished product more moist, which would have been better.

Then bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.  Place on serving dish and top with remaining enchilada sauce.
We also topped with shredded cheese.

We served it in bowls over rice.  We all liked the taste of it, and would have preferred more sauce on top.  Next time I think we'll serve it with more sauce, and maybe in a soft taco shell or corn tortilla.

Bajio Style Salad

If you haven't been to Bajio in Utah, I'm sorry.  It's delicious food.  There are many restaurants with that style of salad, like Cafe Rio, etc.  So I make a version of that at home.

The uncooked tortillas from Costco are essential.  It's the only way to get the fresh restaurant taste.  Then I make rice in my rice cooker.  I use the normal amounts of water for my rice, and then add a tsp of lime juice and about a T. of cilantro paste.

To the ranch dressing in my fridge, I add a tsp. of cilantro paste, a squeeze of lime juice, and some milk or buttermilk.

I used the same meat as from the BBQ pork this week.  I didn't change anything about it, it was perfect just reheated in the microwave.

I made black beans by using the canned beans and adding a few pinches of garlic salt, cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder and onion powder.

Dice some tomatoes and use crushed tortilla chips, or tortilla strips (which I can't find anywhere.)

Layer starting with the tortilla, then I like my bed of lettuce first, rice, meat, beans, toppings.  Of course cheese on top.

Another yummy dinner!  I didn't take any pictures.  By the time I got it cooked and served, my right bicep was aching from holding the baby and he needed to eat or I believe he might have melted away.  I ate mine cold, half an hour after preparing it for everyone else.  It was still good.

Hawaiian Haystacks and BBQ Pork Shoulder

Hawaiian Haystacks were yummy as usual.

I had intended to use the leftover chicken from the dumpling dinner for the Hawaiian haystacks, but alas after that didn't work out, I resorted to my usual method of just throwing three frozen chicken breasts into the crock pot.  Recipe:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, frozen
1 or 2 cans cream o' soup (I used chicken this time, sometimes I use half chicken half celery)
Season to taste, I use about 1/2 tsp. onion powder, garlic salt, and pepper, and then a dash of cayenne pepper.

Put ingredients into crock pot.  Turn on low for 4-6 hours, until easily shredded with a fork.
Voila!  Cooked chicken in a gravy.  It's amazing how the soup changes in the crock pot.  It would be a totally different thing if you just used the cooked soup over cooked chicken.

We put this sauce over jasmine rice and top with pineapple chunks, diced tomatoes, chow mien noodles, celery and whatever other veggie sounds good at the time.  Delicious!

BBQ Pork shoulder worked well too.

I used a 4.5 lb. pork shoulder.  Put that in the crock pot on lowest heat for about 4.5 hours (from when I woke up, until we returned from church.)

 Then I removed the pork, poured out the disgusting fat that I didn't want mixed in with my sauce, and returned the pork to the cooker.

Over that, I poured half a recipe of this bbq sauce from scratch.  I didn't pre-cook that part of the sauce since it would cook for so long in there anyway.  I did cook what was left, and just let it sit out until the pork was done, about 5.5 hours later.

It cooked for a total of 10 hours on lowest heat (my crock pot has 4 heat settings, and one of them is 10 Hours Low.)

When it was done, it pulled off the bone very easily and shredded with just the wooden spoon.  This one had only one large bone, so it didn't cause me the hardship that the chicken did the other day.  Phew!

We had it on top of toasted sesame buns with a side of fruit salad.  Awesome! Looking forward to lunch leftovers.

Peanut Chicken becomes Burritos

Ok, so that would make a gross burrito.  Still, the menu said Peanut Chicken, and that's a far stretch from where we ended up.  I took too long decorating the house and mopping the kitchen floor, and didn't leave time to thaw chicken breast and make peanut chicken.  (Though I still might make it for my hubby, who won't be home for another hour.)

Our standard burrito:
Uncooked tortillas from Costco
1 lb. Ground Beef
Taco Seasoning
black or pinto beans (tonight, black)
Shredded cheese
sour cream
tomatoes

Brown tortillas.  Cook beef with seasoning, drain and add beans.  Assemble and enjoy.  Very easy!  Always a hit.

Almost a Brisket

I wanted to do Brisket.  Then I asked my supermarket butcher if he had some.  He pulled out something weird from the 'back' and said it was $5 a pound.  I said never mind and bought another cheap roast like last week.  I had been planning to entertain some friends, but still that would have been about $15 just for meat.  We'll save that for Christmas or something.

So, basically same as last week.

1 3ish lb. roast
1Tbsp. montreal steak seasoning
1 bottle bbq sauce

Slow cooker (oven) on low.  Rub meat with seasoning.  Pour on BBQ sauce.  Used shallow roaster.  Covered with foil.  Put it in at 9am, pulled it out at 5pm.  Tender, and juicy.  I literally couldn't taste it.  I have a cold.  I could have eaten the venison liver I saw in the store fridge (which, by the way, is disgusting!) and not known the difference.

Hubby said he liked it.  I slow roasted potatoes with it in a separate dish all day.  Can't tell you what they tasted like, but they were definitely done cooking :-)  Next time I think I'll roast them the traditional way so they are more crispy on the outside.  I like a crispy potato.

I did also make rolls.  I need to make rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, but I don't love working in my mother-in-law's kitchen.  No one has ever said anything to make me feel that way, I just always feel like I'm in the way and making lots of noise while everyone else tries to watch tv.  So I made enough for 4 dozen.  I ended up with 5 dozen.  I froze 4 dozen pre-shaped rolls and baked the other dozen for dinner.  They were gone by the end of the meal.  Lil' Chef's love 'em.

Kim's Dinner Rolls: (From my friend Kim, who always has the best recipes.)

Bake at 400 for 9 min.

Makes 4-6 dozen

1 stick (1/2 c.) butter or margarine

½ c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 c. milk

2 Tbsp. yeast

2 eggs

7 c. flour

½ c. water

Place butter, sugar and salt in mixing bowl.  Warm or scald milk, pour into mixing bowl to melt or soften butter.  Let cool for yeast.  Add yeast and proof 10 minutes.  Add eggs.  Mix using paddle or whisk attachment.  Add 6 cups flour.  Mix using bread hook.  Add ½ cup water and remaining 1 cup of flour.  Knead 1 to 2 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.  Let rise until double.  Shape by rolling dough and cutting, or by pinching desired amount and rolling into a ball.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 9 minutes.

To freeze: shape rolls and layer over parchment paper.  One layer of rolls, one layer plastic wrap, then another layer of rolls in between, etc.  That way they can freeze all at once, and not stick together.  After they're frozen put them in a zip top bag all together. They'll keep for a couple of months.  To use, let thaw 2-4 hours depending on the temp. of the room they are in.  Keep covered with greased plastic wrap while rising.  Bake as usual.

Ok Chili

There's a restaurant near by our house called OK Chinese Food.  Hubby and I have never been adventurous enough to try it out.  If the owners don't even toot their own horns, we figure it's not worth our time.  Dinner last night was kinda like that.

Menu Item: Chili and Cornbread

Cornbread didn't happen.  I ended up babysitting last minute for a friend, and I don't like to have my oven on when there are lots of little ones running around.

Chili was simple:
1 lb. ground beef
1 packet Chili seasoning from McCormick
1 Can kidney beans, drained
1 can chili beans, drained
1 can prepared chili
1 can tomato sauce

Brown beef, drain.  Return to pot and add seasoning and canned foods.  Stir and heat through for at least 15 minutes to let flavors blend.

Usually I've made this with my own seasonings.  A little garlic, a little onion powder, some chili powder, salt and pepper.  I saw the seasoning packet at Safeway and thought I'd give it a try.  Not bad, not great.

Next time I'll stick with my own seasonings to taste.

Served with cheese and sour cream.  Everyone finished and was full.  That's the point.

What I learned:
1. Shortcuts save on time and usually skimp on flavor
2. I need to recycle more, all those cans just don't look right in the trash.

Gave some extra chili to a friend who had already made baked potatoes.  I wished I'd done that too, but again, it would have required using my oven so it probably wasn't going to happen anyway.

A Lotta Lasagna

Tomorrow I'm taking a lasagna to a potluck, so tonight I made two large pans.  I had half a box of regular noodles and half a box of no-boil noodles.

I ate the no-boil version because I was worried the noodles wouldn't be cooked through (like last time) and didn't want to put my name on that one at church.

The noodles were cooked, but I have to say, the no-boil noodles are sometimes like eating rubbery paper.  I won't be buying them again.  Great in a pinch, but just don't make a fantastic dish.

The sauce was good, but basic.  Ground beef, seasoned with Italian Seasoning (I should find out what's in that), onion powder because Hubby doesn't think he likes onions and doesn't know I use it - he compliments the flavor every time I put it in, and some garlic salt.

So, another success.

What I learned:
1. I'm not a huge fan of no-boil noodles.
2.  It takes a lot of sauce to make a lasagna.
3.  I can stretch the cheese mix if I have to and it's fine.

I'm going to bed now and the dishes aren't done.  I'll wake up to the lovely smell of uncooked cheese mixture and pasta sauce.  At least everything made it as far as the sink.  Tonight I remembered to turn on the dishwasher with yesterdays dishes.  Also I cleaned under the oven and fridge today.

I boiled you a Roast

Actually, I've done roasts before in the crock pot.  That's the easy way.  Mom always did them in the oven, but mine never turned out well that way (In my imagination, because I never actually tried it before.)  So today I thought I'd experiment with the slow-cooker feature on my oven.

Two thoughts have prevented me from doing this before.  They are 1: My gas oven will be running for hours, and gas costs like $3.50 a gallon these days.  2:  Will it really work? and 3: Can I trust it not to burn my house down while I'm away?

So, I prepared the simplest roast I could think of.  A three lb. three and a half dollar roast I bought on sale at Safeway.  No sure what cut of meat it was, but I asked the butcher for something "really really cheap."  I figured if I might ruin it, I didn't want to pay much.

Then I put my simple roast in a roasting pan, without a rack.  Then I put some carrots beside it so it would look like I tried to serve more than one food group (or food pyramid piece) to my family.  Slow Cooker button on Hi (like Hello, interestingly)  and off to church I went feeling like a domestic queen for sure.  I didn't tell Hubby that the oven would be on the whole time.  He would likely have nixed the whole idea.

When we came back, the house was still standing and it smelled beautiful and beefy.  The meat fell apart and the carrots were really salty from having cooked in beef juice and seasonings for 5 hours.  It was delicious.  Hubby requested that I make it ALL THE TIME.  I'm pretty sure he clings to my successes with a little more intensity so he doesn't have to test out all my failures as often.  The gravy was even good.

Roast:

3 lbs cheap meat
2 Tbsp. Montreal Steak Seasoning

Rub meat with seasoning.  Put in oven.  Make sure oven is on.

Gravy:

2ish Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. beef stock
seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, more montreal)
beef drippings

Melt butter, stir in flour and mix well.  Add stock, seasonings and drippings.  Stir until thickened.  (I cheated here and used some potato flakes from the mashed potatoes I made from a bag, because my gravy wasn't as thick as I wanted.)

Voila!  Dinner that hubby liked!

What I learned:
1. Meat is meat.  Cheaper is not worse than expensive when slow cooked.
2. The slow cooker feature is for real on my oven and I may not be able to live without it from now on.

Still awaiting PG&E bill...