Tag: soup

Categories
Main Dish

Get ready to ‘chowder’ down on some hearty soup this week

Chicken potato chowder is hearty and delicious. It’s great for feeding a crowd, for leftovers or for storing in the freezer for a busy night when there’s no time to cook.
Chicken potato chowder is hearty and delicious. It’s great for feeding a crowd, for leftovers or for storing in the freezer for a busy night when there’s no time to cook.

We always host friends at our house for the NFL playoff games—especially if the Chiefs are still in the race—and the recent AFC Championship game was no exception.

Along with having folks over to yell at the TV with us, we try to put out a good spread of food for everyone to enjoy. While we were shopping for the party, Joey announced that he was going to get a big pack of bone-in chicken thighs to cook on the smoker and that I might want to think about a soup to make with the end result.

Challenge accepted.

I landed on a chicken potato chowder recipe that turned out to be absolutely fabulous—especially because Joey not only deboned the chicken thighs for my soup, he also boiled the bones to make a great stock for the recipe, too.

So, if you or someone else in your household are good at smoking meats, I highly recommend trying that process for the chicken for this recipe.

But even if that’s not in your wheelhouse, cook up some chicken on the stove or grab a pre-cooked rotisserie and still give this a try. You won’t be disappointed.

This recipe comes from the blog “Fearless Dining” by Sandi Gaertner. You can find the original post at https://www.fearlessdining.com/chicken-potato-soup-recipe/. I added extra seasonings in my version.

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Chicken Potato Chowder

Chicken potato chowder is hearty and delicious. It’s great for feeding a crowd, for leftovers or for storing in the freezer for a busy night when there’s no time to cook.
Course Main Course
Keyword bacon, celery salt, chicken, chicken broth, chicken stock, chowder, cold weather meal, garlic powder, immersion blender, potatoes, shredded cheese, soup, winter soup, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 medium-sized yellow onion diced
  • 6 slices bacon cut into half-inch pieces
  • 5 cups potatoes cut into one-inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 4 cups chicken broth or stock
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • black pepper to taste
  • 2 to 3 cups cooked chicken cut into one-inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup cheese I used Monterrey jack and colby

Instructions

  • In a large pot or Dutch oven with a lid, heat the oil over medium heat. Add in the onion and bacon and saute until the bacon is cooked through and the onions are soft.
  • Add the potatoes to the pot, along with the flour. Mix to evenly coat everything with the flour.
  • Add the chicken broth, salt, celery salt, garlic powder and black pepper, and stir to combine.
  • Stir in the cooked chicken and place the lid on the pot. Let it come to a slow boil and leave it for about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook for another 10 minutes (with the lid still on).
  • Stir in the heavy cream and simmer for five more minutes with the lid off.
  • Remove the pot from the heat and blend about one to two cups of the soup with either an immersion blender or by pouring that portion into a traditional blender. (The goal is to get more of a chowder consistency at this point while still having nice big chunks of potato and chicken.)
  • Stir in the shredded cheese until it is melted, and serve immediately.

We made this the day before our get together and then reheated it in the crockpot for the game, and let me tell you: it was delicious. We had a big loaf of Italian bread to go with the chowder, and it was hearty and such a great belly-warmer for a cold day. Also, it reheated really, really well again for more leftovers.

And, on top of the great food, we watched the Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl. If you make this soup for your own sports get-together, I can’t guarantee it will result in a win for your team, but either way, your stomach will be happy.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 2, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Bread Main Dish

Get ready to bowl your guests over on soup night

Homemade bread bowls take some time to make, with waiting for dough to rise, but they come together easily.
Homemade bread bowls take some time to make, with waiting for dough to rise, but they come together easily.

When I was younger, our family frequented a local restaurant that served soup in bread bowls year round.

Even in the heart of summer, I would often order a big bread bowl of broccoli soup for lunch or dinner, while the rest of my family opted for their awesome sandwiches. There’s just something slightly irresistible about a bread bowl.

As we prepared for a potluck of soups with some friends a few weekends ago, I suddenly had a craving to eat whatever delicious concoctions ended up gracing our table in a bread bowl, so I turned to the Internet for help.

I discovered that they aren’t too difficult to make, although I continue to maintain that I don’t have the patience to wait on yeast to rise on a regular basis. Watching dough swell on the counter just makes me hungrier and hungrier for the finished product.

But the recipe I tried, which I found on the blog “I Heart Naptime,” promised to be easy, and the recipe’s author didn’t disappoint. You can find her post at https://www.iheartnaptime.net/bread-bowl/.

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Homemade Bread Bowls

Homemade bread bowls take some time to make, with waiting for dough to rise, but they come together easily.
Course Main Course
Keyword bread, bread bowl, soup

Ingredients

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast that’s three packets
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 5 to 6 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil

Instructions

  • Add the yeast and sugar to the warm water and stir to dissolve. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It’s ready when the plastic wrap puffs up.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine four cups of flour, 1 teaspoon olive oil and the sugar-yeast mixture. Beat on medium speed with a dough hook, if possible. Add the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is smooth and not sticky. (Don’t feel like you need to add all of it if you don’t need to, or add a bit more if it’s not coming together.)
  • Knead the dough with a stand mixture with a dough hook for three minutes on high, or knead on a floured counter by hand for about five minutes.
  • Coat the dough in about 1 teaspoon of oil and place in a large bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until the dough doubles in size.
  • While the dough rises, prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
  • When the dough is ready, punch it down and divide it into six even balls. Place three on each baking sheet and cut an X in the top of each with a sharp knife.
  • Let the dough rise for another 30 minutes or until they double.
  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the bread is golden brown.
  • To serve, cut a circle out of the top of the bread bowl and then hollow out the center. (To leave more bread in the middle and make more room for soup, press the insides down a bit with your fingers.)
  • Keep the bread bowls in an airtight container if not serving immediately.

These bread bowls were a huge hit for our get together, as was the pile of bread scraps sitting in the kitchen. I think everyone nibbled on those at some point during the evening.

They were the perfect size for a small bowl of soup to go with the other goodies on our table. Also, for a recipe that was only difficult because I spent a lot of time waiting, the pay off was huge. There are few things people get more excited about than fresh-baked bread.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 31, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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