DANISH HAVARTI CHEESE SOUP

I love cheese. I love soup. I love cheese soup. This is a naughty-but-nice recipe. Naughty on the calories, nice on the palate. Too bad. You could lighten it up easily by using all milk instead of cream and milk, or half-n-half instead of heavy cream. But here’s the deal: if you’re going to do that, you better do it on your first shot. Once you’ve had it tasting its best, you won’t really want to go back, now will you?

Ingredients:

2 medium size potatoes, diced into bite-sized chunks

1 to 1 ½ tablespoons chicken boullion (I use Penzey’s Chicken Soup Base)

3 cups milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup water

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup finely chopped celery

½ cup finely chopped onions

3 tablespoons flour

1 lb. (16 oz) Havarti cheese (grated)

Salt & pepper to taste

Croutons (for garnish)

1. Boil diced potatoes until tender; drain and set aside

2. Combine milk, cream, water, and chicken base in a pot. Heat to dissolve soup base, but do not allow to boil. Alternative: you could use 1 cup of prepared chicken broth (like Swanson’s) and omit the water and soup base. ALSO, you could omit the water all together and just dissolve the base in the milk and cream. Just depends on how thick and rich you like your soup!

3. In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, melt butter and sauté onion and celery until very soft and tender (approximately 5 – 7 minutes). Stir constantly and keep the heat medium or less, as you do not want to brown the veggies. When the veggies are soft, add the flour, stirring together to form a thick paste. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes (you’re cooking the raw flour taste out and making the roux that will thicken your soup). Watch the heat so that you don’t brown the flour.

4. Begin adding the milk mixture to the roux, stirring constantly (a whisk works nicely here). I add it in thirds.

5. Add the grated cheese and stir until completely melted.

6. Add the cooked potatoes.

7. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

8. Serve topped with croutons.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE

The first day of fall arrived officially this past week. You know what that means—it’s the start of Soup-er Sundays at the Ramm household. One of my favorite restaurants, Reds on the River, served a Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque recently. Oh my. It was like eating autumn-flavored silk. It wasn’t too sweet, or too overpowered by nutmeg. It was juuuuuuuust right.

There are many recipes for butternut squash soup at your Googling fingertips. However, when I recently attended a cooking class taught by Red’s executive chef, Glen Forgie, I had the opportunity to ask about what made his version so tasty. First Chef Glen described his roasting technique (see below). In addition to oven-roasting the butternut squash, one thing that he mentioned, that I haven’t found in any of the recipes online is that he caramelizes the onion for this particular soup. So that’s what I did, too.
I am SOUP-ER pleased with the results of this, the very first soup of SOUP-ER Sundays 2011.

First:
HOW TO ROAST A BUTTERNUT SQUASH
1. Slice unpeeled squash in half, scrape out seeds & discard.
2. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
3. Turn cut side (flat side) down on a baking sheet lined with foil.
4. Roast at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
5. To check doneness, use a wooden spoon to press on the backs of the squash. When they are soft and “give” to the pressure of the spoon, they are done.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE
3 - 4 cups roasted butternut squash, peeled & roughly chopped (I roasted two squash, but had extra left over)
1 onion, sliced thin
Olive oil & butter
¼ to ½ cup chopped carrot
¼ to ½ cup chopped celery
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups milk (I used 1 cup milk and 1 cup half-n-half)
Salt and pepper
Pinch of nutmeg


1. Roast squash as directed above. When cool enough, peel.

2. Caramelize onion. In the vessel that you plan to make the soup in (your stockpot), heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add onion. Onion will turn soft and begin to brown. When onion is a caramel color (and tastes so delicious you think you could eat the whole pan), your onion is done. This can take several minutes, depending on your pan, how much heat, the amount of onion, etc. Be patient! Also--make sure not to stir so frequently that you don’t allow caramelization to take place, but also not so INfrequently that you burn your onions!

3. Add the chopped squash to the onions. Lower the heat to low and stir around a little.

4. At this point, you could also add the chopped carrot and celery without sautéing, but I wanted to cook some of the rawness out of them, so I tossed them in a little olive oil and sautéed them for just a few minutes. Anyway, fresh or sautéed, add carrots and celery to your squash and onions.

5. Add the 2 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock. Allow ingredients to mingle and get to know each other. Kick the heat up a little.

6. Add the milk. Or if you’re like me, the milk and half-n-half.

7. Bring just to simmer to heat everything through—and give the flavors a chance to come together.

8. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

9. MAYBE add a pinch of nutmeg, if but just remember—with adding anything…add in tiny increments and taste, taste, taste. You can always add, but you can never take it back.

10. To make a really lovely bisque, puree in a blender and serve.

Soup-er Sunday: Cream of Chicken & Potato Soup

This is a "here's-what-I-had, so-here's-what-I-did" recipe. Interestingly enough, after my post about Classic Chicken Noodle Soup, I had a conversation with my mom about the soup that she used to make when we were under the weather. So delicious, so comforting, just the smell of her soup cooking in the house healed us. My mom is kind of a potato freak. So instead of using pasta or noodles, her chicken soup contains potatoes. And so last Thursday, five minutes after I had dropped my little ones off at daycare, my provider summoned me back for poor little Drew, who was shivering uncontrollably. "I cold, Mama!" he kept saying. Not too long after we pulled into the driveway, my sweetie was sporting a nice fever. He hunkered down on the couch, snuggy in hand (and mouth) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the tube. How can you deny a little guy some TV when he's feeling down?! Just few minutes after that...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
***
And luckily, the stars had aligned just perfectly in terms of my refrigerator. It contained all the necessary ingredients for a healing chicken soup. There was a left over rotisserie chicken waiting to become stock, as well as some fresh chicken breast that hadn't been marked for anything else yet. And a few potatoes I had purchased at the farmer's market that hadn't seen the oven yet. Now we were cooking--literally and figuratively!
***
The finished product on Thursday was lovely--and it was even "BC": Before Cream. My husband asked me, "Did you make this soup from scratch?" On Friday, at home again with sick kiddos, I made a roux, added some Penzey's Chicken Soup Base, some milk and half-n-half, and Thursday's Chicken & Potato soup became Friday's Cream of Chicken & Potato soup!


Here's What I Had & Here's What I Did (THURSDAY):

3 chicken breasts - I seasoned them with S&P, then put them in the crock pot with about an inch or two of water. I also added about 1 - 2 tablespoons of Penzey's Chicken Soup Base. If you can't get your hands on Penzey's, try substituting boullion cubes, or better yet the paste-type of boullion. I turned the crock on high.
***
1 leftover rotisserie chicken - I put it in a stock pot to make broth. I also added some baby carrots, onion, garlic cloves, and a couple bay leaves simply because I had them.
***
After the rotisserie chicken had simmered for a couple of hours, I strained out all the discard pieces, and added the strained broth and usable meat and carrots to the crockpot chicken.
***
At this point, the crockpot chicken was well on its way to being done, also, so I diced up a couple of potatoes, and tossed them into the crockpot, too. When the chicken breast in the crockpot were done cooking, I pulled them out, shredded them, tossed them back in.
***
When the potatoes came to a "fork-tender" state of being, it was time to eat!

AND THEN ON FRIDAY...
...the sickness saga continued, so I made a roux: Cook equal parts of butter (3 T) and flour (3 T) in a saucepan over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, stirring--I use a whisk--constantly. You will have a pasty mixture. Gradually add 2 cups of milk, again whisking constantly, until you have a smooth white sauce. More milk = thinner sauce, less = thicker. In this case, thickness doesn't matter a whole lot, because you're adding it to a brothy soup to make it creamy. I also added...wait for it...MORE PENZEY'S SOUP BASE to the roux before I added it to the soup. Because...I am in love with it. And I'm in love with this soup. "BC" was great. "AC" - "After Cream" was even greater! I am my mother's daughter and I can make Cream of Chicken & Potato Soup.

Soup-er Sunday: Soup Vocabulary

I didn't really feel like making soup today, given our very warm October temperatures. We had the windows open, the thermostat said 70 degrees (almost turned the air on), and even though all of the ingredients for a lovely Cauliflower Soup had been purchased, I just didn't feel like gettin' to it. I mostly wanted to sit on it.

So I pondered the difference between some soup titles. What would be the difference between Cauliflower Bisque or Cream of Cauliflower or Cauliflower Chowder? I know when I see "bisque" or "chowder" in the title of the soup that I will be served a thick, creamy (heavy...calorie-filled...high fat...) soup. I also am already mildly familiar with "consomme" -- something to do with broth. So exciting.

Instead of grading papers, cleaning the house, taking a shower, or doing one of a million other things on my to-do list, I am here, telling you about soup vocabulary. I have problems!

Here are some of my findings:

BISQUE
Bisque, the food--not to be confused with bisque, the color--is a thick, creamy soup made from pureed seafood or vegetables. My hypothesis would be that it's the act of puree-ing that makes a bisque differ from a "cream of whatever" soup. If you're a history buff, or maybe planning to be a Jeopardy contestant someday, you can check out how the history of how bisque got it's name here. In 2006 my husband and I road-tripped through New England all the way to Maine. There, in Bar Harbor waiting for our whale-watching tour, we ate the best Lobster Bisque on the face of the planet. We still talk about it. Too bad I can't remember the name of the restaurant.

CREAM OF...
The Wikipedia definition says "Flavored broth thickened with a white sauce." Hmm. While I totally understand it, I really thought there would have been more mention of cream. To make a white sauce, you use milk or cream, so perhaps it would be redundant. For me, adding more cream is never redundant--it's intelligent.

CONSOMME

In the wise words of Wikipedia, "a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavored stock or bouillon that has been clarified usually through a fining process involving egg protein. It usually requires an advanced knowledge of cooking and past experience to create a high quality consommé." Seriously? You lost me at "fining process involving egg protein." Clearly I will not be using any such process. Attempting to make a "high quality consomme" is not on my bucket list. Give me Penzey's Chicken Soup Base, I give you broth. Period.

CHOWDER

Chowders are thick soups that traditionally contain potatoes, milk and cream. Most popular might be the seafood variety -- think New England Clam Chowder. Also pretty popular might be Corn Chowder. My definition of "chowder" would be "put on a red-checkered-bib and chow on this big ol' bowl of thick soup." Get it? Chow? Never mind.

And so ends today's Soup Vocabulary 101. Any questions?

I have one: Got Soup?

Soup-er Sunday: Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup. Classic. Comforting. Cure-all. Need I say more?

***

I thought perhaps I should make this soup today, since my husband ran 26.2 miles this morning. You know, just a marathon. His first. And he did it in 3 1/2 hours. Wow. Knowing that his body is going to be seriously hurting, why not make the classic go-to when you're not feeling so hot, right? When he got done with the race, he thought chicken noodle soup sounded good. However, he also noted he had been dreaming about a huge, cheesy pepperoni and sausage pizza since about mile number 10. So we ordered the pizza while we were walking back to the car. He can have that for lunch--after all, if I had run 26.2 miles, I would darn well eat whatever I pleased, too. We'll have the soup for dinner :)

***

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe, because his sounded most similar to mine (and I've never written mine down!)

*

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (or pressed through a garlic press)
• 2 medium carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces (or smaller)
• 2 celery ribs, chopped into bite-sized pieces (or smaller)
• 4 cups of Penzey’s prepared Chicken Soup Base OR 4 cups chicken stock (recipe follows) OR boxed stock (like Swanson's)
• 8 ounces dried wide egg noodles
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken – I like to use rotisserie chicken
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you’ve got them on hand, use the following, if not, don’t worry—you will still have delicious soup!

4 fresh thyme sprigs

1 bay leaf

1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

*

Directions:

Place a soup pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Also add the thyme and bay leaf if you have them. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes until tender. Fold in the chicken, and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes to heat through; season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley (if you have it) before serving.

*

CHICKEN STOCK: There are a hundred different ways to go about making chicken stock. Here is what both my mom and I do—SO easy!

• 1-2 Whole Rotisserie Chicken leftovers (Leftovers=whatever we didn’t use after we took off all of the chicken meat. For both my mom and me, that means everything except the white meat. We’re not dark meat fans. The leftovers includes the bones, skin, and all. If we don’t feel like making stock, but we don’t want to waste good leftover rotisserie chicken parts, we put them in a big Ziplock and throw it in the freezer until we do feel like making chicken stock.)
• Water

When you’re ready to make stock, put leftovers (frozen or not) into a stockpot. Add water until chicken parts are just covered. Be careful not to add too much water. This will simply dilute the stock and take away from flavor. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low so that the liquid can simmer. Simmer at least an hour. If necessary, add a little more water to keep the chicken covered while simmering.

*

Note 1: the addition of one, many, or all of the following ingredients would be LOVELY to add to your stock, but it is not a deal-breaker if you don’t have them on hand at the time you are ready to make your stock.

• 2 carrots, cut in large chunks
• 3 celery stalks, cut in large chunks
• 2 large white onions, quartered
• 1 head of garlic, halved so that all cloves are cut in half
• 1 turnip, halved
• 1/4 bunch fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Note 2: If I have it, I like to add a tablespoon or two of Penzey's Chicken Soup base to my cooking stock, depending on how it tastes, to give it an even richer, deeper flavor.

*

When done simmering, carefully strain the stock (I use a pasta strainer) into another pot to remove all of the solids. Use the stock immediately or cover and refrigerate or freeze.

Soup-er Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Chili

There are two things I like about this chili. Number One: No beans! Number Two: No Beans! Just kidding—there are lots of things I like about this chili. No beans is certainly one of them. Also I like that the ground chicken breast keeps the fat and calories down…right up until you add cream and sour cream and bleu cheese crumbles and…. I also like that this chili won me my first chili-cook-off prize for Most Unique! The other categories were “Best Traditional” and “Most-Alarming,” so I was super pleased with the win. My husband said if there had been a “Best Overall” category, this chili would have won it. I’d like to think that he’s not just stroking my cooking ego J

So I started with a recipe that I found in Rachel Ray’s magazine. (Incidentally, Rachel has a second, different BCC recipe, that I came across online later.). Anyway, I did a test run of the magazine recipe last weekend. While pleased with the flavor, I thought there was a pretty high meat-to-sauce ratio, so I made a mental note that when I made it the next time for the chili cookoff, I would double the various liquids in the recipe (beer, tomato sauce, Frank’s Hot Sauce) to make it more soup-y. And then I made a few other additions and adjustments until I got to the final (winning!) result.

I also did some thinking on the subject of Buffalo Chicken Wings. What makes people think of Buffalo Wings? For me? Ranch dressing, bleu cheese dressing, celery sticks. Celery already makes an appearance in the recipe, but I thought why not include some ranch dressing and bleu cheese? Thus I have included the recipe for the toppings as well!

**

Buffalo Chicken Chili with Bleu Cheese Crumbles and Buffalo-Ranch Sour Cream

**

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 pounds ground chicken

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed through garlic press

2-3 celery ribs, finely chopped

1 medium to large onion, finely chopped

2-3 carrots, finely chopped

1-2 jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped

Salt & freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons ground cumin (half a palmful)

1 ½ teaspoon ground coriander (one-third palmful)

6 - 8 ounces beer (your favorite brew—I used Miller Light)

1 bottle cayenne pepper hot sauce (some will be used for chili, some for ranch topper)

Two 15-oz. (or one 29 oz.) cans tomato sauce

One 8-oz. carton heavy cream

One 16-oz. container sour cream

Crumbled blue cheese

**

Buffalo-Ranch Sour Cream

1 cup sour cream (or whatever you didn’t add to the pot of chili)

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons Penzey’s Buttermilk Ranch Dressing spice*

Frank’s Hot Sauce (to taste)

*if you don’t have a Penzey’s near you, you could probably buy Hidden Valley’s ranch dressing seasoning OR buy ranch-flavored vegetable dip in the sour cream section and just add the hot sauce

***

1. Heat a medium Dutch oven or large skillet over high heat. Add olive oil and butter and melt together. Add the chicken and cook, breaking up the meat, for 6 minutes. Add the garlic, celery, onion, carrot, and jalapeño. Season with salt, pepper, cumin and coriander, and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the beer and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook the mixture over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes to reduce the liquid.
3. Stir in ½ cup of the hot sauce and all of the tomato sauce. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. At this point, you’ll need to start your quality control. Do some tasting. Then slowly, in small increments, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream here and a dash of heavy cream there. Taste again. Needs more hot sauce? Toss some in. Needs more cream? You got it. Sorry people, this is just how I cook.
4. The chili is ready to eat once you’re satisfied with the flavor. Of course, in my opinion, chili is always better the next day…after having been refrigerated and re-heated. Top with a bit of Buffalo-Ranch Sour Cream (recipe follows) and bleu cheese crumbles.

A Couple of Notes:

• The best part about a chili recipe is you can add more or less of something without really hurting the end product. Just do lots of quality control (tasting) and remember you can ALWAYS add more, but you can NEVER take back out!

• Rachel Ray's magazine recipe included all the ingredients except for the sour cream and heavy cream. The first time I made the chili I did not include either of those two ingredients, either. I still thought it was tasty! So if you're watching your calories, don't add in the cream or sour cream and the chili will be quite low in fat and have less calories.

• Adjust the vegetables as you would like. Since this recipe doesn’t have any beans, I thought adding more of the veggies worked nicely for texture purposes. As far as chopping goes, I just toss them in the food processor and let it do the work.

Soup-er Sunday: Tomato Tortilla Soup

Southwest flare. Healthier fare. When I first tasted the soup for "quality control" to get a handle on how much, if any, salt I needed to add, the flavor reminded me of red enchilada sauce...I've never read the ingredients on a can of red enchilada sauce, but it certainly made sense (duh...tomatoes, tortillas and cumin). I appreciate the creamy texture of this soup-- considering it doesn't have any cream--thanks to the corn tortilla pieces getting all blended up. I personally don't think this soup is spicy at all, but you might want to watch the red pepper flakes, just in case. Rachel suggests serving with a quesadilla. I suggest serving with cilantro sour cream (put a 1/2 cup of sour cream in a food processor with a handful of cilantro leaves...pulse until smooth...add a dollop to your bowl of soup).

Tomato Tortilla Soup
Rachel Ray magazine
4 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook time 30 minutes


2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cups chicken broth
One 28-ounce can peeled tomatoes, coarsely chopped, and their juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
Juice of ½ lime
Seven 6-inch corn tortillas, torn into small pieces
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent, about 7 minutes.
2. Add the chicken broth and the tomatoes and their juice. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the cumin, salt, lime juice and tortilla pieces and simmer for 2 minutes.
4. In a blender, puree the soup in batches.
5. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Soup-er Sunday: Cheddar Beer Soup

Messing around with recipes is just something I do. But I don't mess around with this recipe too much. Other than maybe adding in half-n-half or using the Penzey's chicken soup base instead boxed chicken broth, this recipe is fine just the way it is! While it would probably be a perfect venue to do so, I haven't even experimented with any other types of cheese, other than using extra sharp cheddar instead of just sharp cheddar.

Speaking of cheese, if you've got the time, grate your own. I came across that tidbit of advice while reading another cooking blog. I've been grating ever since. The problem with pre-grated cheese: it contains more than just cheese. It's true. Read the ingredients. Corn starch added to prevent clumping (makes total sense). Some other weird ingredient (probably a preservative). So, if you want to amp up the quality of whatever masterpiece you have going in the kitchen, buy the block cheese. Grate it.


Cheddar and Beer Soup
Real Simple, November 2005

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 small carrots, finely chopped (or 10-15 baby carrots)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups whole milk
12 ounces beer (not dark)
3 cups grated sharp Cheddar, plus more for garnish
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Stirring constantly, add the flour and cook for 3 minutes; the mixture will clump. Still stirring constantly, add the broth slowly and cook until a thick, smooth paste forms, 3 minutes. Still stirring, slowly add the milk, then the beer. Cook until the foam subsides and the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the cheddar, salt, pepper, sugar and hot sauce (if using) and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool for 5 minutes. Ladel the soup into bowls and top with grated cheese.

• I have used a hand-blender (not hand-mixer) to make the soup more smooth. I like a "rustic" soup and all, but I don't like little chunks of carrot and celery in my cheese soup. Maybe that's just me. I have also dumped it into a real blender in 2-3 cup increments to make it really smooth--loved it that way.
• If entertaining, after cooking on the stove, transfer to a crock pot and turn it on the "keep warm" setting.
• Great to serve croutons on top.
• Real Simple suggests serving with toasted slices of a bagette.
• One of my favorite restaurants serves their "Magical Cheese Soup" with popcorn on top. This soup is pretty magical. It's popcorn worthy!

HAPPY SOUP-ER SUNDAY!

Soup-er Sunday: Zuppa Toscana

I love autumn. Falling leaves, crisp air, warm soup. Today was the first day I felt like eating warm soup, and the first day that the weather felt appropriate to have a simmering pot of soup on the stove. I got this recipe from a friend after I begged for it (following a taste she gave me one day at work). You can "google" for various versions of this Olive Garden recipe, but I think this one is just right. It is SO easy. It will become a regular in our household during the cooler (and freezing) months.

Zuppa Tuscana

2 3/4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 medium russett potato
2 cups chopped kale
1/2 lb. spicy Italian sausage
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions:
1. Brown sausage. If using bulk, be careful not to crumble into tiny pieces. Try to maintain bite-sized pieces. I removed the casings from some links, then while cooking, I used my spatula to "cut" into pieces. Drain fat. **For even more fat removal--place sausage "bites" into a strainer and rinse after cooking. Yes--rinse the cooked meat. It will not remove much of the flavor, and it will remove a significant amount of fat.
2. Combine the stock and cream in a stockpot over medium heat.
3. Cut unpeeled potato into bite-sized chunks (about 1/2" thick).
3. Add chopped kale.
4. Add spices and let simmer on medium low. Simmer...NOT boil! Stir occasionally.
5. Soup is ready to eat when the potatoes are fork-tender--about 30ish minutes :)


MY NOTES:

• I bought Swanson's chicken stock (NOT broth). I didn't have any Penzey's Chicken Soup Base, which would have been my first choice. The chicken stock container had about 3 cups, so I used the whole thing. I just added a little more cream, too, to compensate, and because I love adding cream to soups--makes it so delicious and rich.
• This soup is on the spicy side, which I like. But you could make it milder by using SWEET Italian sausage, instead of spicy, and/or reducing or eliminating the red pepper flakes.
• If you want to make this lower fat, use turkey sausage and half-n-half.
• I double the recipe above and would estimate that total, there were about 6-8 decent-sized bowls of soup. My friend says she makes it TIMES FOUR and freezes half. Good idea, huh?

White Chicken Chili

With the crisp autumn weather in full effect, there is no better time to have something warm and filling to feast on. The following recipe is such an easy one-pot, low-prep, low-stress meal.

White Chicken Chili

1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off bones and coarsely chopped
1 block (at least 8 oz) jalapeno-jack cheese, grated
1 or 2 jars Northern beans (white beans)
1 or 2 jars salsa (mild, medium, or hot)
Salt to taste

Optional: half-n-half, tortilla chips, sour cream, cilantro

There you have the basics. Now, I apologize for the lack of exact measurements. That's not the type of cook I am unless I am baking, where I respect every detail of a recipe. The measurements also depend on your palate and the quantity of WCC that you wish to cook. I'm not a big bean person, so I prefer fewer beans and more chicken. I also like a creamier chili, so I tend to add more cheese and half-n-half. Hot salsa adds a really nice element of flavor to this recipe. There is not much "bite" left once everything is added in. Luckily, you can't really mess this up (unless you BURN it). Take it slow the first time. Make notes. The payoff will be worth it.

INSTRUCTIONS: In a large stock pot, add 1 jar of Northern Beans (beans AND liquid) and chopped chicken. Begin to heat over medium. Add 1 jar of salsa, and at least 8 oz. cheese. Allow cheese to melt, stirring frequently and adjusting heat as necessary. Study the consistency and try a taste. Add more cheese or some half-n-half if you prefer a creamier chili. Make sure to add the half-n-half gradually. You can always add more, but can't remove it! Continue to taste, stir, and add as needed. Shouldn't take long and you'll have a fresh pot of chili on the stove.

Eat as is, or top with sour cream and/or cilantro. If you have no clean spoons, use tortilla chips to feed yourself :)