Tag: In the Den Kitchen

Hubby was in charge of choosing our new recipes this fortnight and he loves his soup so soup it was. He found a recipe for a creamy chicken soup and added it to the list.

We’d had a roast chicken the night before and I used it to make one of my Mum’s favourite recipes – Crusted Chicken Noble. I’ll have to share the recipe because it such a yummy meal. Mum used to whip it up when we were having family over for a meal. After the meal I boiled the bones and wings using the recipe here to make my own stock.

Anywho, onto our soup recipe. It came from the site Recipe Tin Eats. We’ve added a bunch of recipes from there to our try list.

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 50 g / 3.5 tbsp unsalted butter
• ½ cup / 75 g flour
• 1 garlic clove , minced
• ½ small brown onion , finely chopped
• 1 small carrot , diced
• 1/2 red capsicum/bell pepper , finely chopped
• 1 small celery stick , diced
• 2 cups / 500 ml chicken stock / broth , preferably low sodium
• 3 cups / 750 ml milk , any fat %
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp EACH garlic powder , onion powder, dried thyme, black pepper (“Spices”)
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup cooked chicken , diced or shredded
• Croutons

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes until partly translucent but not browned.
2. Add carrots, celery and capsicum, cook for 1 minute to soften.
3. Add butter and melt. Then add flour and mix until incorporated, and stir constantly for 1 minute.
4. Add broth, mix until flour is incorporated, then add milk. Mix to combine, then add salt, Spices, chicken and peas.
5. Bring to simmer, mixing occasionally to stop bottom of sticking. As it heats, it will thicken – about 4 to 5 minutes. Don’t let it bubble.
6. Once thickened to your taste, adjust salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and serve garnished with croutons and fresh thyme if desired.

Would I do anything different next time? Add more chicken meat. Omit the black pepper but add some at the end. It’s definitely one for the book though and we’ll make it again.

Chicken is one of our favourite things to cook. Hubby would eat it nearly every night if he could. Hence why the first 2 new recipes we tried this year are chicken.

I love a good chop suey so thought this would be a hit. I was right, everyone loved it, even the super fussy one.

You can check it out at

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/super-saucy-chicken-chop-suey-recipe/yjgfsjzm

Going back to this series as one of my plans for this year is to try at least one or 2 new recipes a week, so expect more recipe sharing.

First for the year is Apricot chicken rissoles. The recipe came from Taste and you can find it here.

What we thought: Big thumbs up from 3. One isn’t eating much still but loved the potato. One day she’ll eat more *sigh*

It’s been awhile since I blogged a recipe and one of the things on my list this year is to share more recipes with you all. Today’s recipe was found at What’s In The Pan and modified to suit our family and what ingredients I had on hand in the pantry.

This recipes serves 2 adults and one 7yo (The 3yo is too fussy for her own good and just ate the salad and potatoes)

Take your pork from the fridge at least 20 minutes before you season them and make sure they are fully defrosted if they have been frozen. Warm (room temperature) meat cooks more evenly than cold.

Ingredients

Pork Chops

• 2 tablespoons butter
• boneless pork chops (we used 2 pork medallions and a larger pork steak
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 teaspoon GIG Tuscan Capsicum dip (or mixed herbs or Italian seasoning)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Creamy Garlic Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon flour (or use leftover flour from pork chops dredging) – I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons for a slightly thicker sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon GIG Tuscan Capsicum dip (or mixed herbs or Italian seasoning) – I left this out as I used the seasoned flour

Instructions

1. Mix the flour and seasoning in a large bowl or zip lock bag. Chuck your chops in the floor and coat well.

2. Heat your butter in a large heavy based pan over a medium high heat. I like to add a dash of olive oil so the butter doesn’t brown as quickly.

3. Add your pork chops and sear for about 4-5 minutes each side. Remove pork from the heat and transfer to a plate. Cover to keep warm

Creamy Garlic Sauce

1. Return your pan to the heat, add butter and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes over a medium heat. Add flour to the butter mixture and stir well.
2. Slowly add the wine, stirring as you add and scrap any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Lots of flavour there!
3. Add your lemon juice, stock and cream. Stir.
4. Add seasoning. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Taste your sauce and add more if needed.
5. Reduce your heat and return your pork (& any accumulated juices) back to the pan.
6. Reheat on low for 2-3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pork – thicker pieces will take a bit longer.

We served this with salad (mostly fresh from our garden) and homemade potato wedges.

This week we decided to have a stir fry but weren’t sure what meat we wanted so off to the butcher’s to get our meat for the fortnight and pick out something to be the star of our stir fry.
I ended up picking a super yummy pork fillet (it’s my favourite cut of pork and I use it in so many recipes) and made this super delicious pork stir fry.