Chicken & Rice Soup

Soup is one of my favorite foods.  I'm picky about the kinds of soup I eat, but I really like soup in general.  It's surprisingly filling, usually fairly low-calorie, and the ultimate comfort food.  It kind of bums me out that soup generally takes a little while to make.  This one, however, is not too bad.  Really it's just the chopping of all the vegetables and such that take time.

This soup is really good, you guys.  It's creamy without being too heavy, it has flavor without overpowering the vegetables, and would be perfect to make for someone who just needs some comfort food.  I'm looking forward to making this again on some chilly fall/winter nights.

I added a can of green beans to mine, just for color and because I had them, but I wouldn't recommend doing that.  If you really want to, put in about 1/2 a can.  The original recipe included 2 stalks of celery, but I don't like celery so I took it out.  Add it back in if you like; just dice it and put it in with the carrots and onion.

Creamy Chicken & Rice Soup (adapted from For the Love of Cooking)

Makes at least 6 servings.  May not be the easiest recipe to halve, but you could either try that or you could freeze half of it and save it for a later date.

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 cups chicken broth
1 tsp (or 1 cube) chicken bouillon
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
1 cup or more cooked chicken breast, diced (I bought a .8lb package of chicken and used it all)
1/2 cup dry long grain rice
1 cup frozen yellow corn, thawed
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp corn starch
1 (12oz) can evaporated milk

Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add diced onion and carrots and cook about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.  Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute.  Add chicken stock, diced chicken, rice, bouillon, basil, sea salt, black pepper, and bay leaf.  Mix well and cover.  Cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes, or until rice appears cooked.  Turn heat to high to boil the soup.  In a small bowl, whisk together evaporated milk and corn starch.  Add mixture to boiling soup.  Stir to combine, lower heat, and add corn.  Stir together and simmer 5-10 minutes more.  Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.  Add a little cheese on top, if you like.

Parmesean Chicken and Curried Cauliflower

I have learned that I should never promise posts at a prescribed time.  I said this post would be up "tomorrow" over a week ago.  But, alas, here it is!

I was quite thrilled with both of these recipes.  The chicken is particularly juicy and tender.  I couldn't wait to reheat my leftovers the next day!  The original recipe for the chicken included far too many breadcrumbs.  This is how much I had leftover after I had coated my chicken:

I have scaled it down so you should not have this problem.

This chicken reheats fairly nicely.  I reheated mine in our super fancy convection/toaster oven and it was pretty good, but not as good as the day before.  I don't think I would recommend heating this chicken in the microwave.  In fact, it might be worth just refrigerating all the leftover ingredients from the first preparation and frying up the extra pieces as you need them.

This recipe is easily halved, as well, so if you didn't feel like using the space in your refrigerator to store the leftovers or if you're cooking for one, this would be a good one to choose.


Will I make this again?  Definitely!

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the cauliflower.  I don't typically enjoy cooked cauliflower, and I'm not a huge fan of curry, so I'm not really sure why I even decided to make this in the first place.  I am surely glad that I did, though, because it was delicious!  There is just enough curry to add the flavor without being overpowering.  I'm excited to say that I can add another vegetable to our "approved" list!

I used fresh cauliflower this time, but I think next time I'm going to try frozen.  Cutting it up into florets was a big pain, the fresh cauliflower is more expensive, and I don't think the taste difference is significant enough to be worth it.  If you try this recipe with frozen cauliflower, let me know in the comments!

This recipe would be a bit difficult to halve simply because of the cauliflower.  If you could find a small bag of frozen cauliflower, or if you want to use the other half of the bag/cauliflower head you could make it work.  I'm not sure how well this reheats, either, because we ate it all!  Let me know how it goes if you try this recipe and reheat it.

Parmesean Chicken (adapted from Simply Delicious)
4 medium chicken breasts, or 2 large
3 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup breadcrumbs (I use Publix brand)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (you can use freshly grated or the finely grated kind you shake on spaghetti)
1 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp paprika
Fresh lemon slices, grated parmesean, and parsley to serve (optional)

Place beaten eggs in a wide, shallow bowl.

In another wide, shallow bowl mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan, salt and paprika.

Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper and pound with a mallet or rolling pin until about 1/2 inch thick.  If you are using 2 large breasts, cut each in half to get 4 pieces.

Place a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.

Dip each of the chicken pieces into the beaten egg, then into the breadcrumb mixture.  Coat evenly and press crumbs onto chicken to seal.  Place chicken pieces, 1 or 2 at a time, into the skillet.  Fry for 2-3 minutes (yes, that's really all it takes) on each side or until chicken is just cooked through.

If desired, sprinkle with grated cheese and parsley leaves to garnish.  Serve with fresh lemon.

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Curried Cauliflower (from Mel's Kitchen Cafe)

1 medium head cauliflower (or 1 bag frozen cauliflower florets, thawed)
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Cut cauliflower into florets and place in large bowl.  Add olive oil and toss to coat.  (I do this by sealing the bowl with plastic wrap and shaking it for about 15 seconds.)  Add salt and curry powder and toss again.  Arrange in a single layer on baking sheet and bake 15-16 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, or until cooked evenly and browned in spots.  Serve immediately.




Coming soon: The most detailed cake tutorial you will probably ever read!