Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

I absolutely love chicken noodle soup. I once made the world's best chicken noodle soup. I made everything, including the broth and the noodles. But you'll notice I said I made it once. That's because it took me about 4 hours and I wound up with a paltry pot of soup for my efforts.

And then last week, while cruising Costco without my children, I noticed that America's Test Kitchen has published a Slow Cooker cookbook. It is called Slow Cooker Revolution, and I'm planning on trying a lot of recipes in it. After I got it home, I noticed that the casserole section is full of things like cans of cream of mushroom soup and store-bought alfredo sauce. After I settled down, I realized that the rest of the book looks like more typical ATK stuff -- cans of tomatoes, but no cans of Campbell's soup.

The chicken noodle soup recipe is the first one in the book, and it is a winner. I'm not going to violate their copyright by reprinting it here, so go buy the book yourself. It does feature a technique I've never seen before for the chicken breast. The recipe instructed me to make a foil packet for the chicken breast and put that on top of the soup to cook. The chicken thighs were down in the soup itself. Once the soup was done, the chicken all comes out to be shredded and put back in the soup. It was very simple and it did keep the white meat nice and moist. I've never understood how chicken breasts can get dry in a slow cooker full of broth, but they can. I'm going to try this technique with the chicken posole recipe I've been trying to perfect.

The Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) website is awesome. They have a basic online subscription, which is $19.95 per year. This is a fantastic deal, in my opinion. Recipes that originally appeared in cookbooks rather than in the CI magazine are only available with an upgraded subscription, which is an additional $14.95. It looks to me like they haven't added Slow Cooker Revolution yet.

By the way, I served this with "Low-Fat" Cheese Bread from the Healthy Family Cookbook. It was delicious. Different from the fully decadent version, but I loved it.

Soba Noodles

Soba Noodles are terrific for you, and I like them, but they need a tiny bit of sauce or they taste entirely too healthy. Here's what I put on them, along with some crisp vegetables:

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. mirin (chinese cooking wine, available at 99 Ranch)

1/2 T. rice vinegar

1/4 t. sesame oil

1/2 t. sugar

Just mix those ingredients in a small bowl and toss with the noodles. The noodles will keep in the fridge for several days this way, and they taste great cold.


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Roman-Style Chicken

This is a crummy week at our house, because our dear friends are moving back to England on Monday. So, how do I serve comfort food without canceling out all that Lipitor?

Here's one solution: Roman-Style Chicken. Yes, it has some pancetta in it. The rest of it is really healthy, and the pancetta is extra-delicious. We had it with some good bread to soak up the sauce and salad.

I've used bone-in breasts for this, as well as boneless skinless, and I sometimes throw in some drumsticks for the kids. The cooking time has to be adjusted, but they all taste great.

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Roman-style Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

- 2-4 chicken breasts,
- 1/2 t. salt, plus 1 teaspoon
- 1/2 t. black pepper, plus 1 teaspoon
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- 1 red bell peppers, sliced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 5 oz. pancetta, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 c. white wine
- 1 T. fresh thyme
- 1/2 t. dried oregano leaves
- 1/2 c. chicken broth
- 2 T. capers
- 1/4 c. parsley


METHOD:



Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

In a heavy, large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, cook the pancetta until browned on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the chicken to the pan and brown on both sides. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Keeping the same pan over medium heat, add the peppers and cook until the peppers have browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, wine, and herbs. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan, add the stock, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

If serving immediately, add the capers, pancetta, and the parsley. Stir to combine and serve. If making ahead of time, transfer the chicken and sauce to a storage container, cool, and refrigerate. The next day, reheat the chicken to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the capers, pancetta and the parsley and serve.


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Satay Dipping Sauces

Thai Sweet Pepper Sauce

- 1 T. neutral vegetable oil, like canola or safflower
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 t sea salt
- 3/4 c rice vinegar
- 1/4 t crushed red pepper
- 1/8 t cayenne


Heat the oil in a saucepan over high heat. Add the garlic and cook. Stir it constantly to prevent it from burning, until it turns yellow. Add the remaining ingredients and stir and cook, until the sauce boils and the sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spatula. Take the sauce off the heat and let it cool. It will keep in the fridge for one month.

Peanut Sauce

- 1/2 t sea salt
- 4 cloves garlic, minced. 2 T.
- 1/2 jalapeño chile, seeded and chopped
- 1 stalk lemongrass, outer layer and green parts removed, minced
- 1 T. ginger, minced
- 2 shallots
- 1 c coconut cream mixed with milk, the consistency of whole milk
- 1 T. soy sauce
- 3 T. brown sugar
- 3 T. creamy peanut butter
- 3 T. tamarind juice


And now you're wondering...tamarind juice? It turns out that at 99 Ranch you can buy this packet of stuff called "Tamarind Seedless". Like most things at 99 Ranch, I suspect that characters I can't read say about a thousand other things, too. In any case, it is on the dried vegetable aisle. So you buy this and pull of a big chunk of it. Pour boiling water over it and let it sit until the water cools down. Mush it up with a fork and then pour the liquid through a strainer. The liquid is tamarind juice, and the remaining pulp I threw away. For a full explanation of all this, read Su-Mei Yu's book Asian Grilling. She definitely treats the whole thing more carefully than I do, but that's why she owns a famous Thai restaurant and I just cook dinner.


Put into the blender: salt, garlic, jalapeno, lemongrass, ginger, shallots, and coconut cream mixture. Blend well.

Put the mixture into a saucepan over medium-low heat and heat until it begins to bubble, 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to let it curdle. Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, and peanut butter, and stir. When the mixture begins to bubble, add the tamarind juice. Cook until it begins to bubble again. Transfer to a bowl and let cool before serving. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a week.

Nonya Style Chicken Satay

So, I figure if I'm going to go to the trouble of taking Lipitor at such a young age, it makes sense to eat as well as I can. I end up grilling a lot of chicken, and I get tired of it. I came across this fantastic cookbook by Su-Mei Yu (see the resources section) and it is full of great sauces and marinades for grilling pretty much everything. I tried a whole bunch of them a week ago, and everything turned out well. Here's my favorite for chicken, with my small variations.

Nonya-Style Chicken
1 t. coriander seeds
1/2 t. sea salt
1 jalapeno chili, seeded and diced
1 stalk of lemongrass, tough outer layers and green parts removed, chopped
1 t. tumeric powder
3 shallots
1 T. blanched almonds (I used sliced)
1 t. red miso paste
1/2 c. coconut cream mixed with milk, to make the consistency of whole milk

Put the coriander and cumin seeds in a small skillet and dry-roast over medium-high heat for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and let it cool. Grind the spices up in a coffee grinder.

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

You can use this as a marinade, but I simply brushed it onto chicken kebabs. It worked really well.

In my next post, I'll put up two dipping sauce recipes to go with the satay.

Protein-Packed Side Dishes: Dreaming of Morocco Chickpeas

As part of the whole Lipitor thing, I saw a nutritionist recently. We went over my diet and she said it all looked good, but that I needed to eat more protein. She encouraged me to get the extra protein from plant sources, rather than just eating more chicken. Thank goodness, because I really don't want to eat more chicken. Or any other kind of meat except bacon, honestly.

Anyway, I've been trying out recipes to add some protein to my day. I tried this recipe that had a beautiful description, something like "Chickpeas that sing of the Mediterranean." I stayed up until 10:30 to make them, and then I ate one and I wish I hadn't. I seriously considered spitting it out. Just awful.

I decided I could do better, and I'm happy to say that I have. I've decided to call them "Dreaming of Morocco Chickpeas." They can't possibly be authentic, seeing as how I've never even checked a Moroccan cookbook out of the library, but I was thinking of Morocco when I made them.

You can use canned chickpeas for this, but I cooked dried ones in my slow cooker.

To do that, you can add up to 1 pound of dried chickpeas to the slow cooker, and cover with a lot of water. 8 cups if you're using the full pound. Don't worry too much about getting it right -- you'll drain them when you're done, anyway. Just make sure there's enough so that they won't dry out! By the way, 1 pound of dried chickpeas is about 2.5 cups of dried chickpeas. Cook for 10 hours on low heat.

For the dressing:

2 T. raisins
1/4 t. coriander
1/8 t. cumin
1/2 c. carrot juice
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. plain yogurt
1 t. honey
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. olive oil

Toast the coriander and cumin in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. If you're using whole spices, you'll need to grind them. If not, just put them in a bowl with the raisins. Wipe out the skillet and add the carrot juice. Simmer over medium heat until reduced to 1/4 c., about 10 minutes. Pour carrot juice over the raisins and then let them cool to room temperature.

Put everything except the olive oil in the blender and blend thoroughly. With the machine running, gradually add the oil.

Toss the dressing with the chickpeas and add halved grapes. This gives it some nice texture and sweetness. You can add other things too, like bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, etc.








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