Buffalo Chicken Soup

One of the greatest soups in the world is pictured here.

I love, love, love all things Buffalo sauce. Buffalo wings? Obviously. Buffalo chicken dip? Or course. Buffalo chicken mac 'n cheese? A personal favorite! Licking the plate clean after any of these? Well I do not want to waste food... So yeah, I love Buffalo chicken soup.

I should also point out I am a bit of an elitist on the subject. Ranch with your wings? Screw you, you heretic. Get off my blog and do not ever come back. Buffalo wings with the word BBQ anywhere near it are NOT Buffalo wings. They are chicken wings. Real Buffalo sauce has two main ingredients (cayenne pepper sauce and butter) with a few acceptable additives (garlic being the only really worth while one). I could go one, but I will not. 

I tell you these things not to offend, but to establish the emotional level I have when it comes to this type of recipe. When you get to my rant about flavor in the commentary, I hope you will take me seriously.

Resources: 

1/4 cup butter
2 bunches green onions, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)

3/4 cup chicken broth

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1/4-1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Original (do NOT use wing sauce - see commentary)

4 ounces Velveeta cheese (cut into a few pieces)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Method:

Sauté the onions and celery in butter until as tender as you want (using medium heat).

Stir in flour until smooth.

Add milk and broth a little at a time. Stir until completely mixed before adding more.

Once all the liquids are thoroughly mixed in, add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, simmer, stirring occasionally, until cheese has completely melted.

Commentary:

As noted I have strong options about all things Buffalo sauce, so please hear me out. Frank's Red Hot Original (or similar cayenne pepper hot sauce) is the best flavor for this recipe. I strongly suggest against using a "wing sauce". Cayenne pepper sauce is an ingredient and primary flavor of most wing sauces, but they tend to be "creamier" than Frank's. They might not have actual butter mixed in, but they taste like they do. The problem is this recipe has lots of creamy (milk, butter, Velveeta) mixed in. By doubling down on creamy flavor can really cut back on that main flavors: cayenne and vinegar which is key to true "Buffalo" flavor. If you think Frank's is too spicy, I beg you just to use less, not a wing sauce. 

As much as I love Bdub's (and I seriously do), this is not the time or place for their sauce.

Make sure you really give the Velveeta lots of time to melt. I would say at least 5-10 minutes after you do not see any chunks left. The smaller chunks are hard to distinguish from chicken, so even if you cannot see any they are probably still there. Just make sure you do not have the heat high enough that you are going to burn anything.

Speaking of it, I feel a little sick to the stomach every time I buy Velveeta. I do not know why, just something about a "cheese product" in a box a weirds me out. That said it is worth it for this glorious soup.

This is an easily customized recipe. The butter, flour, milk, broth, and Velveeta should not be significantly altered, but go nuts elsewhere. Want it vegetarian? Leave out the chicken. Love (or hate) the crunch of celery? Add or reduce as desired. I used a little bit less green onions in this batch just because they looked terrible at the local grocer. You can add all kinds of fun things to this recipe and it will be good.

What I felt like adding today.

This makes about two large meal sized bowls. It freezes very well so I have been known to made double and quadruple batches and eat it for the next week or two.

Conclusion:

I will make again and again and again and again. Great for the winter since it is a thick, hot, spicy soup.

Apple Butter Barbecued Chicken

 

The wifey and I went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. It was a good time. We took a hay ride out to a field with a lot of pumpkins lying around and a corn maze. It was nice, family friendly, wholesome, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then they take you back and there is a farmer's market. That is when shit got real.

True statement.

Despite really wanting to come home with mountains of meat, cheese, peanut brittle, and fudge, I came home with a large jar of apple butter and some cider. So I immediately Googled "apple butter chicken" and found this. Aside: I have no idea why that was the first thing I thought of but it was. While I intend to revisit apple butter chicken in the near future, this was a nice start.

So much apple butter... with such strange pricing.

Resources:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (~1.5 lbs)

1/3 cup apple butter

2 tablespoons salsa

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon salt, optional

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 drops Worcestershire sauce

2 drops Liquid Smoke, optional

Method:

Place chicken in a foil lined backing dish.

Combine remaining ingredients; pour over chicken. 

Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 25 minutes or until cooked through.

Commentary:

As usual,  breast halves where roided-out chicken breast halves sliced along the thickness. I try to list weight so we are all on the same page.

I only made half the recipe because I felt like it. Half of 1/3 of a cup is 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons by the way. Look, I just saved you a Google search. You are welcome.

Speaking of halving, two drops is kind of hard to pull off (especially since my liquid smoke is an open neck bottle). So I poured a bit into the smallest spoon I could readily find and dripped from the spoon.

This is about as simple as cooking gets (disregarding pre-made stuff). Mix ingredients in bowl, dump on chicken, bake, and eat (although if I have to tell you that last part, this blog might be too advanced for you).

Mix.

Dump and bake.

Conclusion:

This is good stuff, but nothing to write home about. It was not as sweet as I wanted (the salsa and ketchup really knocked down the sweetness of the apple butter), but it was enjoyable and super easy. Would make again.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

A Hearty Return to the World of Blogging

So I have been sitting on this one. I could not really give the context until now: the wifey is prego! <cue ominous music> 


I mean as in knocked up, not the spaghetti sauce. I mean a person cannot BE Prego™. After Citizens United a corporation can be a person but I do not think it works the other way around. Besides Wikipedia tells me Prego™ is a "trade mark brand name pasta sauce" of Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB). Certainly a person cannot be a brand name of a corporation... I think. Long story short my wife and unborn child are not affiliated with the Campbell Soup Company and we wish them the success in the future as long as their interests don't conflict with our interests. Thank you.

Anyway, we have been winging meals a lot more lately instead of planning them hence my absence. The other day though she was trying to find food that sounded good and she forwarded me this recipe. Mind you she does not love stews typically. Sure you could call this more of a pot pie than a stew, but I did not ask questions. I just make it before she changed her mind.

Resources:

2 tablespoons butter

1 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 onion, finely diced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon parsley

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon pepper

8 ounces frozen vegetable medley

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (~1.5-2 lbs)
5-10 ounces reduced sodium chicken broth / stock (depends on the size of your slow cooker and the density of the other ingredients)

1 (14.5 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into small pieces

Method:

Place the place butter, cream of chicken soup, onion, spices, and vegetables in a slow cooker. Mix well, top with chicken and fill with enough broth / stock to cover the chicken.

Cover, and cook for 4 to 5 hours on High. Remove and shred the chicken, return to cooker, and mix. Place the torn biscuit dough on top of the other ingredients in the the slow cooker. Cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center (about another 1 hour for a total of 5 to 6).

Commentary:

"This is my pot pie recipe. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My pot pie recipe is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life." Sorry. Tangent.

Anyway here is a pictorial guide to the oh so complicated steps of "throw it a pot and cook".

Pre-mixing

Post-mixing plus chicken.

Broth added.

Post cooking / shredding.
Plus raw dough: not to be eaten.

Cooked dough: ok to proceed with eating.
The center dough was eaten for testing purposes.

Be jealous of my super cool old school Crock-Pot! So retro! I am pretending like I spent lots of money on this at an antique store instead of it being a hand me down from my mom.

This is originally an allrecipes.com recipe. I have mixed feelings about that website. They have some good stuff, but it tends to come up in Google searches all the time... even when not really relevant. On top of that the recipes tend to be super basic and dull. This one was. Luckily the comments had some good suggestions. Long story short: is the spices and frozen vegetables were a total shot in the dark. It worked for me. If you are sensative to salty or spicy, you can tone down on corresponding spices. It you want more or less vegetables, etc, etc.

The original recipe says 30 minutes for the dough. That did not seem like enough, but it was hard to tell. You bake a biscuit in the oven and you take them out when they get golden. The slow cooker does not produce that color, so I went with the toothpick method (put a toothpick in the middle of the dough, if it comes out clean it is done) plus a few minutes. I was not really worried about over cooking so, 60 minutes seemed safe.

Conclusion:

This is a big delicious meal. It is warm and doughy and felt like a hug in my stomach.

Adobo Chicken and Rice



It is not pretty, but damn is it ever convenient.


So most of what I have posted to date has been recipes I have either loved or found unique. This is neither of those. This is easy, like your mom. BURN! It is filing. It resents the four "classic" food groups. The wifey likes it. It makes for great left overs. I could go on. Point is this is a quick easy type thing not a gourmet kind of thing.

Resources:
1 container (8 oz.) yellow rice
1 tablespoons oil (roughly)
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 teaspoons Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning without pepper
1/4 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Method:
Over medium heat, bring 2 cups water to boil. Add contents of yellow rice mix; return water to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook, covered, until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onions to skillet. Cook for a minute or two. Add chicken and Adobo. Mix well. Cook, stirring, until vegetables are soft and chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
Stir in cooked chicken and veggies into the rice until combined. Mix in cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted. Serve warm.

Commentary:
Make sure you pan is big enough for everything, ie if it is nearly full with just the rice it is not big enough. Or you can do it the opposite route and add the rice to the chicken, whatever is easier.

We've tried a couple different brands of yellow rice, but this one is our preferred.



By "our" I mean the wifey's as I cannot tell the difference between this and the other Vigo Yellow Rice.

I usually mix up the cheese. We usually use half shredded cheddar and shredded half reduced fat Mexican blend. Why those two? Those are the two cheeses we always have in the house.

Although pretty easy, this does require a fair bit of slicing an dicing.

I cheated and used pre-shredded cheese.

I frequently make this in double batches. One batch is just about right (or maybe a bit much) for the two of us. A double batch allows for a couple meals of leftovers as well.


So we make this a fair bit and I decided to buy the bulk Adobo seasoning. The lid did not like me. :(


Oh what a nice lid you have. The better for measuring spoons.
Right?

Oh look, it is even conveniently labeled which one is the spoon side. How nice.

DENIED!!!

Conclusion:
Happy wifey! Leftovers galore! Minimal effort and cleanup! What is not to love?

Chili-Dusted Pork Chops

Served with carrots because I am lazy.

I love pork. There is something special about eating Babe for me. And while I do love bacon, the internet gets it wrong. It is not bacon that is magic, but the pig in general. Consider this nugget of wisdom from the Simpsons:

Homer: Lisa, honey, are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: [chuckling] Yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

So let us have a pork chop!

Aside: before you dismiss this dish as too spicy: there is very little heat in this recipe. I was a little surprised. It is all citrus. So if crazy, ultra-super, über sensitive to heat like my almost ninety year old grandmother, do not eat this. Otherwise feel free to proceed.

Resources:

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Four 1/2-pound boneless pork loin chops, cut 1 1/4 inches thick

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime (about a 1/2 teaspoon of zest)

3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (or less)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a small bowl, mix the chili powder with the cumin, salt and pepper. Sprinkle the spice mixture all over both sides of the pork chops.
 

In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the pork chops and cook over high heat until browned, about 1 minute per side. Add the garlic, lime zest, lime juice, and cilantro to the skillet and roast the chops in the center of the oven for 10 minutes, or until rosy throughout. Transfer to plates and serve.

Commentary:

Also I am going to be honest, I never use FRESH ground pepper. I always use the canned stuff.

As for the lime, I get a small one. Then zest most of the skin and then measure out a half teaspoon. I do not go crazy trying to squeeze out all the juice either.

This rub is kind of sticky. Do NOT drag you chops though it: sprinkle. The first time I made this I drug them through and had all kinds of clumpy pockets of seasoning. So sprinkle: do not rub, drag, shake, cha-cha, or otherwise not sprinkle.

Seriously, if you are half paying attention you can do a better job than this.

Above you might notice six pork chops as opposed to four. You will also not they are paper thin. Well long story short: my grocery sucks. That is a grand total of 0.8 lbs of meat. Sigh. They had some better cuts that were bone in, but as previously noted: lazy. I had to adjust the cooking time and as a result the garlic was a little firm.

I always use my Dutch oven for this recipe. Dutch oven: giggle, giggle. It is just easier having a pot I can take straight from the stove top to the oven. Plus it is less cleaning than transferring to a baking dish.

Dutch oven on the left: no plastic.
Typical pot on the right: lots of plastic.
One goes in the oven just fine, the other not so much: poison gas.

I hear that little voice out there in internet landing saying "Excuse me you say 'or less' on the cilantro, why?" (Little voice. Get it? I amuse myself greatly!) Well that is because as much as I love cilantro it can overwhelm this dish when in combination with the lime. I generally shoot for enough on each chop that I think each bite will have a little.

Let us talk chicken for a moment. In a desire to share this wonderful recipe with the wifey, who does not eat pork, I made it with chicken one day. It did not go well. The citrus completely overwhelmed EVERYTHING. It was like sucking on a lime that had been sprinkled with cilantro. If I ever go chicken again I will cut back heavily on the lime juice, zest, and cilantro.

Conclusion:

If you eat pork, you should make this now. If you do not eat pork that means more left overs for breakfast the next day for the pork eaters in your house,,so you should also selflessly make this now. Everyone wins!

White Macaroni and Cheese

Your goal is to eat it all!

So comfort foods are a fantastic thing and mac 'n cheese is king among them. Seriously pasta is comfort food, cheese is comfort food, and mac 'n cheese is pretty much just large quantities of both. How can you go wrong? Plus the wifey loves it and she was not feeling well the other day. Hence you get a blog entry.

While I like the Kraft boxed stuff, you can do much better. So a while back I went on a mission to find the perfect mac 'n cheese recipe. I think I got pretty close. I started with a Rachel Ray recipe and tweaked it to my taste. The crunchy topping was a bit I am quite proud of. I also added the word white to the title to make it sound racist.

Resources:
2 chicken breasts (~1.5 lbs)
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups 2% milk (or whole)
0.8 lbs (or 3 cups shredded) white cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Salt
2 tablespoons fine bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon parsley

Method:
Cook chicken and finely dice.

Cook pasta al dente (ie still a little firm). Drain.

Heat a medium, deep skillet (or a pot) over medium heat. Add oil and butter. When butter melts into the oil, add flour and combine. Gently cook, whisking flour and butter together, until smooth and flour has had a chance to cook, about 1-2 minutes. Slowly add milk while continuing to whisk. Gently bring milk to a bubble while stirring frequently. Allow the milk to thicken a bit, then stir in 2 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese a handful at a time continuing to stir. Season sauce with nutmeg and cayenne. Add salt to taste. Add cooked pasta and chicken to sauce and coat completely by turning over and over in the cheese sauce. Continue mixing until warmed throughout.

Transfer to a baking dish and top with remaining cheese. Press down mixture. Mix the basil, oregano, parsley, and bread crumbs. Sprinkle on top.  Place baking dish under a hot broiler and brown the cheddar cheese on top. Serve right away.


Commentary:

Do NOT use cheap cheese. You do not have to use the most expensive thing you find, but do use the discount brand pre-shredded either. At my grocery there is usually two Vermont white cheddars. One is aged and the price is ridiculous. The other is not aged (or aged less I forget) and is just fine. Seriously we are talking less than a pound, spring for the decent stuff.

I add the milk to the flour / butter usually in four or five parts. Be sure to mix thoroughly each time before adding more. Here is an exciting frame by frame!

Flour & Butter

A little milk

Roughly half the milk

All the milk. Was not that exciting?

You have to love imperial measurements. Three teaspoons is a tablespoon, sixteen tablespoons is a cup. So random. So meaningless. Anyway one thing the wifey brought to the marriage was a half tablespoon measuring spoon. If you do not have one, get one. I love it. It comes helpful especially when halving recipes.

A rare and precious treasure!



Evidence my stove is not level.

I mention pushing down on the mixture. You are going for density here. I usually do it before and after the cheese.

Push it real good.

In my head there was no way cayenne and nutmeg were going to make a good flavor combination. Yet it works. Both flavors come through a little. So if you strongly dislike one or the other reduce a little, but do not skip.

Mac 'n cheese's odd couple.

In the first picture you saw the coloration of the crunchy topping I use. Be careful. This goes from no color to burnt under a broiler very quickly. That is the reason I do not suggest preheating the oven. I seriously check it roughly once a minute. Trust me you do not want to serve the wifey burnt crunchy topping when she is already feeling poorly!

Speaking of the topping, that a total shot in the dark that worked. Feel free to mix it up a bit.

Conclusion:
Good for what ails you.

Balsamic Cream Sauce

Strictly speaking the sauce is pictured here.

That said, this is what we are actually cooking today.

So I was on the fence if this would actually be blog worthy. I mean I cook something most everyday. But I am not going to post every time I boil a bit of pasta or get my Shake 'n Bake on. I am sure Shakespeare wrote thank you notes or letters about Hamnet's first word. Does not mean anyone wants to read it.

This recipe started as most of my biggest failures start: left over ingredients. I had a large amount of cream left over from the honey butter sauce. I had half a left over red onion from the wifey making guacamole. I had some left over butter noodles from something or another. A few Google searches later, I had this recipe too. But it was just to get rid of left overs, so I had no expectations.

Then I made it: cream of cromulent*, reduction of radiance, essence of ecstasy. This was good.

Resources:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 red onion, finely minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat (or low if you have a hot stove like me). Stir in the onion, and cook about 15 minutes until very tender.

Stir in the balsamic vinegar, and cook for 1 minute before stirring in the chicken bouillon and cream. Crush the cubes to mix better.

Pause** as necessary.

Increase heat to medium. Bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat, and stir in the parmesan cheese a little at a time until melted.

Commentary:
So this is not exactly what I would call a healthy meal. Butter, oil, and cream: three ways to die happy... and early.

I seem to remember my doctor suggesting I eat more fatty foods.
Or was that less... whatever.

Well now we have a vegetable, so that makes it healthy right?

I got the impression the original recipe was shooting for yellow or white onions. I went red and will never look back.

I wanted those onions to be very soft hence the finely minced and cook time. I did not want to really be aware of them as I ate them.

The recipe originally called for two teaspoons of bouillon granules. I only have cubes.

It might be nice to have something to serve the sauce with. I went with some chicken and egg noodles. That sounded almost healthy, so I made a point to cook the chicken in large amount of butter.

Butter. Round 2. Fight!

  
Balsamic is a big flavor here, but do not let that put you off. This is not vinegary, it actually came out quite sweet and creamy.

One thing I struggle with is using left overs ingredients without buying new stuff. So while I would prefer to use real parmesan instead of the Kraft I had in the fridge, I used the Kraft. This made the sauce a little grainy. If you can I would use the real stuff.

That said, right before cooking I went though my vinegars: white, apple cider, sherry x2, rice, Masala, red wine... no balsamic. Since I was sold at this point, I went to the grocery for one ingredient (because I was not thinking cheese at the moment).

I should probably discuss quantity. For two people, this was ample sauce. I think it would be a stretch for four.

* - I really struggled to find a "C" work that meant great. Then I settled for a Simpsons reference. Please note the obvious answers I missed in the comments.

** - So this was not in the recipe originally. I just got distracted by stuff. So I had a unplanned five minute delay here. I doubt this had any real impact on the recipe other than maybe thickening it a little.

Conclusion:
This is absolutely a keeper. It is an easy, quick "white" sauce. I can imagine putting this on all kinds of pasta and meats.