Chicken Tortilla Soup in honor of my Knife Skills Class at Central Market

I feel really crappy about not posting anything in a month. Really crappy. The last post was the fruit salad that I made before leaving on a week long business/personal trip to the East coast. I came home Feb 13th and its been non stop ever since. Things are starting to normalize a little. I was able to go to a Central Market Cooking School class Monday night and the topic was "Knife Skills" and of course, taught by non other than chef Dean Liesenfelt.

During the class we learned the anatomy (snicker) of a knife, how to hold said anatomy in our hands (giggle) and how to make sweet knife love with our vegetables, herbs and fruit.

We cut, sliced and diced avacados, cilantro, onions, tomatos, carrots, celery, bell peppers, romaine and oranges. We tossed them together in to a lovely, delicious, fantastic, stud muffin, Fabio bowl of scrumptious guacamole; a magnificent, warming and comforting pot of chicken tortilla soup; a rainbow of goodness of a salad with Dean's "on hand refrigerator ingredients" dressing and a juicy orange for dessert.

So long story short - I made chicken tortilla soup today.

6 cups of chicken stock (I had homemade in the freezer) - if you guys use canned, scale back the salt and taste taste taste before you had too much.

1 1/2 cups of chicken peices (I had leftover roast chicken in the fridge)

3 fresh button mushrooms, stems removed - sliced

10 baby carrots, sliced in to round pieces

1/4 of a medium onion diced

1 cup of tortilla chips, hand crushed and tossed in to the broth (before you add salt below - taste first - chips = salt!)
about 1 TBSP of chili powder
about 1 TBSP of cumin
1/2 - 1 tsp of granulated garlic
1-2 tsp of salt (see above)
1 cup of fresh spinach
2 TBSP chopped cilantro

Simmer and taste - adjust seasoning as necessary. Enjoy!

Remedy: No Meatballs for little man's spaghetti

I asked Lil Man before dinner if he wanted spaghetti. He said yes. I said do you want meat in it, he said no. Therefore, I did not thaw any ground turkey. So. Put bowl in front of him. "Where are my meatballs?" Me: Excuse me? So I quickly jumped to action and since I am still trying to finish off my chicken that I made the broth from, it quickly got sacrificed.

1-2 cups of shredded cooked chicken

handful of fresh baby spinach

1 tsp fresh garlic

spoonful of spaghetti sauce

a slice of left over grilled sourdough garlic bread

1 egg

olive oil for pan

combine in food processor until well pulvarized. Make balls. Cook in frying pan - flipping occassionally until cooked through.

I stole one and sprinkled some gargonzola crumbles on top. Hell yeah.

Problem solved!

Chicken Migas

I'm trying to find ways to use the chicken I had boiled to make broth. So this morning I whipped up a little bit of Chicken Migas. Migas translates to 'crumbs' in English. Migas are traditionally made for breakfast and used with leftover bread or tortillas. Migas vary across cultures. TexMex migas are not made the same as Portuguese or Spanish migas are. The ones I made are more like TexMex.

3-4 TBS Olive Oil

6 corn tortillas - sliced in to small 1-2 inch strips.

2 TBS Olive Oil

half of a medium onion, chopped.

1/4 cup of peppers (yellow, orange or whatever you have on hand)

dash of paprika

dash of chili powder

dash of salt and pepper

1 cup of shredded chicken

6 eggs - combined as if you were making scrambled eggs.

1 cup of fresh spinach chopped

3 TBS of Queso

Heat Oil in a large non stick frying pan. Make sure oil is hot and sizzles if you drop a tortilla strip in it. Otherwise, the tortillas will absorb all of the oil.

Once oil is hot enough, place strips in and turn them until they are golden brown.

Turn off heat.

In another pan, saute onion and peppers or any veggies that you like. If you are adding fresh spinach, I have a step at the end to add this.

Add the chicken and stir.

Add the spices and salt/pepper and continue to combine everything well.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs well with a whisk or a fork. The whisk works better and will make the eggs more fluffy so that you can use fewer eggs.

Turn the heat back on your tortillas to medium-high and distribute them evenly on the bottom of the pan.

Add your meat/veggie mixture on top of the tortillas and distribute evenly.

When the pan is very warm, pour the egg mixture evenly over the meat, veggies and tortillas. Do not turn the eggs for about a minute or two.

Let the eggs cook in to the mixture some before turning.

Fold the mixture from the outside in and cook thoroughly over medium heat.

Fold in the chopped spinach if you are adding this.

Spoon migas on to a plate.

Spoon queso on top and then spoon a small amount of migas on top of the queso.

Enjoy! Papa Bear went back for seconds!

Homemade Chicken Broth

I know its easier to buy Chicken bouillon cubes than to make your own - well thats what you say at least. But bouillon cubes are about 1.50-2.00 a package depending on where you live. The small cubes make 1 cup, the large ones make 2 cups. Let's assume that it costs 2.00 for a pack of 6 cubes and that each cube makes 2 cups of broth. The joke in my house is that I am the math wiz so it won't be any surprise if I fudge this up in the process. This would mean that this pack of bouillon would be about .17 per cup. (Store bought - 12 cups for 2.00 - no chicken, high sodium)

I purchased a 4 lb chicken from Target for about 5.00. I boiled the chicken with sea salt, pepper and some random seasonings that I had on hand. (Cover chicken with Water about an inch above) BTW, the chicken was frozen. When you boil it, it will thaw on its own! Anyway, I boiled it on low for about 4 hours and then turned it off enough to cool but still be warm (due to safety reasons). I took the chicken out, in pieces due to the tenderness), then poured the remaining broth through a strainer into a bowl. I then poured the brother from that bowl in to individual containers to freeze. I got 5 containers, 4 cups each. Now lets do the math. 1 chicken - $5.00, 20 cups of broth, plus a chicken to eat :) So each cup of broth came to .25 vs .17 cents. However, you have half the sodium based on my research and recipe and I have an entire chicken to eat as a result of that 5.00 as opposed to a bunch of blocks of yellow stuff that I'm not entirely sure of what its made of!

Filipino Adobo Chicken

Tonight I am making something that is in its second rotation on our dinner plates. Thanks to Gina over at Skinny Taste for posting it. Its a modified (healthier) version of another blogger's family recipe. Its soooo good. The first time I made it with chicken legs and took some in to work for Mike (http://shapeupmike.blogspot.com/) and he raved. Its SO easy! Go Visit (and follow) Gina. She's awesome. This recipe really leaves a wonderful scent in the house. BTW, I had to come home and walk / jog today. I ate THREE of those sweet potato muffins while sitting on my duff during a very boring interesting training. Here is a link to Gina's blog and specifically, the WONDEROUS Filipino Adobo Chicken recipe. http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/11/filipino-adobo-chicken.html