Chicken Pozole - It's What's for Dinner

     It's been a minute or maybe a year since I've posted anything. I believe my last post was a year ago when my mom passed away. It's been a tough year, lots of changes have taken place and I should have been blogging about them, but the year has been a blur. I miss my mom so much but life has to go on, bills have to get paid and foods needs to be prepared and eaten!

    Last weekend I had lunch at The Old River Grill, and I ordered their soup and half sandwich. I had the tuna sandwich and their soup was Chicken Pozole and I had never had that. I'm so glad I did! Not because it was fabulous, it was an okay cup of soup, but I'd never heard of Chicken Pozole and I knew I could do better than theirs...and tonight I did!

    I did some research online to see what all goes in to Chicken Pozole and I found a recipe from allrecipes.com which I'll link HERE. I also watched a video from Chef John that I had posted several years ago on my blog and you can watch that video HERE. 

    So I merged the two and came up with this big ol' bowl of deliciousness! Chicken Pozole topped with angel hair coleslaw mix, raw onion and diced jalapeno. So I'm going to share the recipe only because I like having all my recipes in a central location so that someday when I'm not here anymore my kids will have access to my recipes.

Easy Chicken Pozole

Ingredients:

4 Tbl vegetable oil

2 to 3 cups cooked & shredded boneless, skinless chicken breast. (My perfected method of baking chicken breasts is seasoning them on both sides with Lawrys Garlic Salt, Onion Powder and Pepper, sometimes some smoked paprika, tent them in foil and bake at 350 degrees for exactly 1 hour...perfection!)

1 medium onion chopped

3 cloves garlic (I used my garlic press to mince/smash it)

2 32-ounce boxes of low sodium chicken broth (I like Swansons, but generic is fine)

4 cups of water

3 tablespoons of chili powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano (I put it in the palm of my hand and rub both hands together smashing it into a powder)

3 15.5 ounce cans of Bush's White Hominy - drained and rinsed (you can use any kind of Hominy but I am a fan of Bush's)

So I did it different from the allrecipes recipe because I baked my chicken early in the day, then shredded it and put all the drippings in the foil tent into the chicken and put it in the fridge so I didn't do Step one of their recipe, I started with Step 2, but changed that also.

    I put the oil in my soup pot and added the chopped/diced onion and sprinkled a little salt on it and sautéed it until it was translucent, then added my garlic, the chili powder, salt and oregano and bloomed it by sautéing it, then added the broth, the water and the chicken and brought it to a boil. I then added the hominy and cooked it about 15 minutes more and that was it, easy peasy!

    I served it into a bowl, added the angel hair coleslaw mix, raw onions, diced jalapeños and a sprinkling of dried cilantro since I didn't have fresh, I forgot to add a squirt of lemon, but you can add that it. It's soooooooo good. Perfect for a cold night at the end of a long day at work.

    And that's it, I hope to post more from now on, but can't make any promises. Let me know if you try the recipe!

Cabbage Soup

 I've been on a soup kick lately and I think I'm getting the hang of making them. Tonight it is a chilly 55 degrees Fahrenheit in sunny California. I know,  many of you may laugh because 55 is not chilly at all, but we Californians are a different breed of animal, we don't handle the cold well at all, especially Californians born and raised in Arizona as I was!

Earlier today I came across a recipe for Cabbage Food, courtesy of the Food Network Kitchen, here's the link to their soup. I of course modified it a bit and it was a hit with my family so I want to save it for posterity on my blog!

CABBAGE SOUP

Ingredients:

2 T. Olive Oil

4 Stalks Celery diced super tiny

2 1/2 cups shredded carrots- any brand

1 Green bell pepper also diced super tiny

2 Cloves fresh garlic -grated

1 - 14 ounce bag Classic Cole Slaw Mix

2 T low sodium Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 - 8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 - 15 ounce can White Beans also called Navy Beans (optional)

4 cups low-sodium chicken sauce

2 cups water

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat, then add celery, carrots, peppers and minced garlic and cook until the vegetables begin to brown and become fragrant, about 5 minutes. Stir in Soy Sauce, garlic and onion powder, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper. 

2. Add the cabbage to the pot and stir until it begins to wilt, won't take long since it's shredded cabbage and carrots, about 2 minutes. Add the can of tomato sauce, chicken broth and water, stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook until the cabbage is tender, 30 minutes or to suit your taste. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and/or pepper as needed.

My daughter didn't think beans would be a good addition to the soup, but I love beans in soup so I open the can and drained them well with hot water, added about 1/4 to a 1/2 cup in the bottom of my bowl and added the soup on top. The beans helped to cool the soup a bit. I also added a splash of La Victoria. Yum! 

It was just that easy to make a hearty, healthy, satisfying soup for a cold winter day. I know this one is a keeper and I will be making it often!

Live - Laugh - and Love

 I was just getting ready to start a post about Christmas being over and my day yesterday spent putting everything away.

I have the TV on watching the Baltimore Ravens play the Tennessee Titans, yes...I am a hardcore NFL football fan.

A Progressive commercial came on. I love these new commercials with Dr. Rick. No offense to Flo, but I'm a bit tired of her.

This is the commercial I just saw. What caught my ear was the beginning when he says we don't need a sign that says Live, Laugh, Love to Live, Laugh, Love. I beg to differ! I need that sign, I have that sign, I love that sign!

I'm a huge believer in the written word. If I see something in writing, it sticks in my head, especially inspirational words, quotes, sayings. When I wake up in the morning I see the words, Live Laugh Love and it's a reminder that I've been given another day to do just that. Sometimes of course, like anyone else I, Waste Growl and Dislike, but I always have the next day to do better.

I also have another sign over the door heading out of my bedroom that says "It's a Wonderful Life"...many, many times I need that reminder, especially during these dark days of Covid. 

I have to see things in writing for them to stick in my head. So with all due respect to Dr. Rick, I will keep my Live, Laugh and Love sign!

So yesterday I put away the Christmas Tree and all the decorations. Since I was already in the shed where I store all my decorations, I went ahead and took out my Valentine's Day decor and got that all set up.

Yesterday was the first day of the NFL playoffs so I watched football while I did all this. Then as usually happens, I nodded off briefly and took a quick cat nap on the couch. Aren't those the best naps? The unexpected ones on the couch? I woke up so refreshed that I made a big pot of soup and some homemade flour tortillas! 

The last time that I had made them was in November of 2008 and I did blog about it, see that post HERE. If you want to make them, I share the recipe and the how-to. Wow, I just went back to review that post and I even did a video! 

This was in my previous home, I loved that house, I loved the kitchen in that house, the old-school green tile and the sink that sat in a corner. I miss that house!

I can see that the ones I made back in 2008 were a lot better than the ones I made yesterday, well they looked prettier anyway.

Back to watching football and working on coloring in a Mandala I drew Friday. 

Woolgrowers Cabbage Soup - Sunday Night Football Soup on Monday Night Football Night

What a long heading!

I've been trying to make a new soup every Sunday while I watch Sunday Night Football. I live in California so Sunday Night Football SNL starts at 5:30 pm. I usually start cooking during the pre-game show. I actually made the soup I'm going to post about today on December 7th.

On December 6th, I decorated my tree and living room. This year I decided to keep it simple. Thanks to COVID-19, we are not have our usual Christmas get-together with all my siblings and their spouses and their children and grandchildren. It will be just me, my son and daughter and my mom, and that's why I kept my decor simple. I kinda love it, let me share some photos. The Nutcrackers have all been gifts from my mom and daughter and some I've found here and there throughout the years in thrift stores.

This Nativity was made by my mother in 1983. She and her sister were taking ceramics classes at the local high school. She made one for each of her four children and one for each of her sisters. All her sisters are gone now and they left their Nativity to one of their daughters and we all display them at Christmas.  

Some are hand painted in detail and some like mine were done in a pearlized paint which has tiny little crystals that reflect and refract light so the color varies depending on what color light is shining on it. I love it, it's a treasure I will cherish forever, until I give it to my daughter April.

So because I was totally exhausted on Dec 6th after decorating all day long I decided to make my soup the next day while watching Monday Night Football. Oh yeah...I'm a big fan of NFL football. The Dallas Cowboys are my team, but I just love watching anyone play. Right now as I write this I'm watching the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Buffalo Bills. I'm rooting for the Steelers since that is my sons favorite team.

Anyway...on to the soup. We have a favorite restaurant called Woolgrowers. It's a Basque restaurant and you can read my post about it HERE, it explains everything. 

Woolgrowers serves a world famous cabbage soup. When you sit down at the table, you don't even have to ask for it, they automatically bring a big bowl of this soup, a bowl of beans, a bowl of hot (temperature-wise) salsa, a basket of sliced French bread and a plate full of real butter pats...again YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO ASK FOR IT!!!

Since we've been in shutdown, we have not eaten in sit-down restaurants, so I wanted to see if I could make the soup. I searched online and found a link to the recipe.

Woolgrowers Vegetable Soup

• 3 carrots
• 2 large potatoes
• 2 leeks
• 1 small cabbage
• 1 small can tomato sauce
• 1 Tbl Chicken Base
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 Tsp thyme
• 10 cups water
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions: Bring water to a boil and add chicken base, I used Better Than Bouillon Roasted chicken base). Chop all vegetables and add to water. Fry chopped onion in a little oil, drain and add to water and vegetables. Add seasonings and tomato sauce, simmer for two hours.

And you get this deliciousness. The funny thing is that I had no idea what a leek was, or what it tasted like. I didn't even know how or what parts of the leek to use. Thank goodness for YouTube. I tasted it raw and love it, bet it would be great raw in a salad!

My mom had made a fresh pot of beans earlier that day and we spooned the beans into our bowls and then the soup and some La Victoria Salsa. We had some sliced French bread and everyone agreed the whole house smelled like Woolgrowers and the soup was spot on exactly like Woolgrowers!

It was a win! I highly recommend making this soup, it will sing to your soul and make your heart happy!

Kristen Hampton's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup!

 

I know everyone in the world probably already has a chicken noodle soup recipe that they love, and most are probably pretty much the same, but believe it or not...I had NEVER in my life made Chicken Noodle soup!

I grew up eating Campbells canned chicken noodle soup and I loved it, it was good enough for me as I didn't get the craving for chicken noodle soup that often...but that was cause I had NEVER in my life had Kristen Hampton's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup!

Who is Kristen Hampton? Kristen is a gift to this world! She's this quirky character who works for WBTV in Charlotte NC doing a segment called Good News and she goes out and about and looks for the good in the world, the good in people and she reports on those things. Her fame has exploded and she's a Facebook and YouTube sensation, just google Kristen Hampton and you will find lots of information about her.

Recently she did a live video run simultaneously on Facebook and YouTube in which she shows us how to make her World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup while she urged people to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans to help the people that have been devastated by Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta, two hurricanes in the same vicinity just six weeks apart, they had not even cleaned up from the first hurricane when the second one hit. To date she has raised $9,418.00. 

Here's the video, it's rather long but she's so entertaining that you don't even notice. And you can still donate to the cause. 

So I just wanted to get down on my blog the ingredients on how to make this soup because it was as Kristen would say "Dadgum-delicious!" Kristen doesn't give you measurements, you just gotta wing it.

Ingredients:

1/2 Onion

Garlic - I used two cloves minced in my garlic press, but I think three would have been ok. 

6 Carrots 

5 Stalks Celery

2 boxes Chicken Broth (low sodium) She says Chicken Stock but I couldn't find any and the broth worked just fine

Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base (to taste) - this stuff is amazing!!

Cooked Chicken - I baked 4 big boneless chicken breasts and only used two for the soup. Baked them with nothing but salt and pepper as seasoning.

Salt - Pepper - Thyme (used dried, couldn't find fresh)

I started out by seasoning the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and placing them inside a foil envelope, (two sheets of foil, one on top one on bottom and then you fold all four sides so the chicken is in a little foil envelope. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, set aside to cool, don't open the envelope so the juices go back into the meat.

During the time the chicken is baking, you can be chopping your veggies. Once chicken is cooked, add olive oil to your  soup pot, then added the onions and cook them for about 3 to 5 minutes, just until they soften, then I added the celery and carrots which I cut pretty thinly added salt and pepper, but not a lot because the Better Than Bouillon has lots of salt in it. Now cook, stirring frequently for probably another 5 to 6 minutes. 

Once the veggies are to your satisfaction, add the chicken broth, both boxes and then what I think was the secret ingredient, I add a big spoonful of Better than Bouillon! I don't know how long this product has been around but I just recently started hearing about it and I can't wait to try all the other flavors, check the other flavors out here. 

Then you wait for everything to come to a boil again and then taste it and see if you need to add more BTB, I know that next time I will probably add another box of chicken broth or water. Also at this time I added a sprinkle of dried thyme.

While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, chop your chicken, I've seen other people shred the chicken but I like smaller bite-size pieces best. 

Once it comes to a boil, add egg noodles and sprinkle with dried thyme, I used wide egg noodles. I put in the whole package and like Kristen says "that's too many noods", it was too many noodles, next time half a bag instead. Let that boil for 5 minutes or so and then add your chicken, let it boil a bit and taste to see if you need more BTB, which I did and next time way more pepper. 

And that it is it. Very good chicken noodle soup, easy to make and so hearty and comforting. Definitely going to be something I made again and again. If you have a great soup recipe, please share in comments or send me a link to the recipe.