Smoked Chicken, Broccoli and Black Bean Soup

This recipe is an attempt at replicating a soup-of-perfection from one of our favorite restaurants, George’s at the Cove, in San Diego, California.  My mom and I made this soup together over Thanksgiving weekend and it’s not for the faint of heart.  You need serious time, patience, someone to laugh with and a bottle of Chardonnay before you even think of attempting this recipe.  Too much choppin’ for one person…

My dear ol’ dad smoked us some chickens in his Old Smokey smoker cooker, which made the soup extra delish.  You could smoke chicken breasts on a covered grill if you don’t have a smoker cooker – seen below.

Luckily my mom shopped for the ingredients!!  Wowee…

Smoked Chicken, Broccoli, Black Bean Soup Ingredients (Serves 4)
¼ cup unsalted butter
½ cup diced carrots
½ cup diced onions
½ cup diced celery
1 cup of broccoli stems diced (you use the tops too…so don’t toss ‘em)
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil
¼ cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock (hot or room temp)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon Tabasco
1 cup smoked chicken cut in cubed chunks (recipe below)
1 tablespoon of Liquid Smoke
1 cup black beans
1 cup broccoli florets (tops)
2 cups heavy cream
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in warm water (put water in bowl first then add corn starch – you might need more in the soup depending on how it thickens)

Liquid Smoke - Key Ingredient!

1. In ¼ cup butter, sauté carrots, onion, celery and broccoli stems for 5 minutes
2. Add thyme, oregano and basil; sauté 5 minutes more
3. Add wine and deglaze pan
4. Add chicken stock and simmer about 15 minutes or until it has reduced by one-third (this is the part where you need your cooking buddy and some wine…ours didn’t necessarily get one-third less – well, the wine did, but the soup didn’t…)
5. Add Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, Liquid Smoke, smoked chicken, beans and broccoli florets and simmer 5 minutes (Liquid Smoke is the KEY!!  What a fabulous invention.)
6. Add cream, simmer 5 minutes more and season to taste
7. Thicken with cornstarch (we had to do this a couple of times because it just wouldn’t thicken up!  I say start with the 2 tablespoons dissolved in about 4 tablespoons of water.  Add that to the soup, stir for about 5 minutes and if it’s still runny, do it again.  Ours did end up thickening when we let it cool down a bit – after about 3 rounds of cornstarch.)

Smoked Chicken on a Covered Grill
Pound out boneless, skinless chicken breasts to VERY thin.  On a covered grill, slightly smoke chicken, cooking to medium rare (about 30 minutes).  Do not let the grill get too hot and use smoking chips such as applewood.

Veggies and herbs cookin' up...

Delicious Ingredients...ready to eat!

After a labor-intense fun night in the kitchen, this was a major victory.  It was so creamy and delish with great layers of flavor – smokiness of the chicken and liquid smoke, earthiness of the thyme and oregano and sweetness of the carrots and basil.  It comes together perfectly once you get it to thicken up.

Good luck to you brave chefs out there!

Bowl of Smoked Chicken, Broccoli and Black Bean Soup

Zach-o-meter: He loves this soup at George’s and said we copied it almost “to the T”.  He was even stealing bites of cold soup the next day waiting on his to heat up…ha!  All in all, worth the effort.

Chunky Chicken Tortilla Soup

It’s finally hearty soup season and my mom’s tortilla soup is a great way to keep you warm and toasty this fall.  My mom would make this for me during college – give me some to eat and some to keep in the freezer.  It keeps really well in the freezer and is so easy to heat up.

The funny thing about this soup is that the broth seems to disappear.  My best advice to you would be to have extra chicken broth (or water with chicken bouillon) to add to it when you reheat or just in case!  I used a whole chicken (cheated and got a rotisserie chicken from Central Market) with the ingredients listed below and I needed two whole boxes of chicken broth (and have one box on standby if needed).  It turned out pretty “stew-esk”, but yummy to my tummy.

Chicken Tortilla Soup Ingredients:
Shredded chicken (see below)
Chicken broth (Get extra!! 3 32-ounce boxes)
1 White onion chopped
1 Can of black beans – drained
1 Can of white Shoepeg corn – drained
Chopped tomatoes (My mom suggests the boxed Pomi brand. You could also use a couple cans of Rotel to kick up the spice.)
Garnish:
–    Shredded sharp cheddar cheese
–    Avocado slices
–    Tortilla chips

Shredded Chicken Note: As I mentioned, I got a whole chicken already cooked and shredded it – which is an option.  You could also use half of the shredded chicken from the Mom’s Chicken Salad recipe – kill two birds with one stone.  If you choose to cook chicken for this recipe, cook 5 to 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts in crock-pot for 2 to 3ish hours (until chicken shreds apart) on low with ½ cup chicken broth and 1 package of Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix.

1. Sauté whole white onion in big pot with olive oil (I added a couple tablespoons of chopped garlic in olive oil)
2. After onion and garlic are sautéed and are transparent, but not quite caramelized, add shredded chicken, black beans, corn and tomatoes in the pot.
3. Add chicken broth to your desired consistency (you can make thick stew or more soupy…your choice)
4. I added a couple teaspoons of garlic salt, chicken bouillon powder, cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes because I LOVE salty and spicy.
5. When serving, top with a few tortilla chips, avocado slices and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Pot of Chicken Tortilla Soup

Zach-o-meter: This soup is always a good standard.  He said he loves the “chunkiness”.  And it’s always fun to dress your own soup bowl.  This one will be around for the long haul…just like us!

Chicken Tortilla Soup - Garnished and Cheesy!

Julie’s Spinach Soup with Redemption Bread

After the pizza bomb-out I had one thing on my mind:  culinary redemption.  This recipe sounds a bit “healthy”.  When I first read it I thought, “I don’t think I want green soup,” but my Aunt Julie totally rocks (and is hott by the way!) so I thought I’d give it a shot.

When I made the soup yesterday morning it was so great that I cheated and had it for lunch before serving it to Zach for dinner.  I’m not the kind of girl that eats the same thing for multiple meals back-to-back and I had it for lunch yesterday, dinner last night and I’m 100% sure I’m about to heat up a bowl for lunch today.  If you’re not a believer, try it out for yourself…I’m salivating just thinking about it.

Spinach Soup Ingredients:
1 package of frozen chopped spinach (I got the big bag)
3 Tablespoons of melted butter
2 Tablespoons of chopped onion (I added a bit more)
1 Tablespoon of lemon juice (I used juice from a whole lemon…it was a juicy one)
1-½ Heaping tablespoons of powdered chicken stock base
1 Cup of boiling water
1 Cup of milk (I used 1 ½ cups of skim milk)
1 Cup of cream (I had heavy cream and used ½ cup)
Pepper
¼ Tablespoon of nutmeg

1. Thaw spinach (I left out over night and cooked the next morning).
2. Cook spinach (I read microwave directions on package) and drain.
3. In blender put spinach, butter, onion lemon juice, chicken stock base and boiling water and blend thoroughly.
4. Add milk, cream, pepper and nutmeg.
5. Serve hot with shredded Parmesan cheese.  (I added Gruyere too b/c I had it.)

Note:  Don’t add salt – the chicken stock powder makes it plenty salty.

This is just so yummy and salty and delicious I don’t know how to tell you. MMM!!  Try it out…I promise it’s pretty and scrumptious.

Redemption Bread Ingredients (from Pioneer Woman’s Pizza Crust Recipe, my Pizza Bust dinner from previous post…)
1 Teaspoon or ½ packet of active dry yeast
4 Cups all-purpose flower
1 Teaspoon of Kosher salt
1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
*Sea Salt (my redemption addition)
*Fresh Rosemary (my redemption addition 2)

1. Pour 1-½ cups of warm water into bowl and sprinkle yeast over water.
2. Combine flower and salt in a mixing bowl
3. With electric mixer on low speed, drizzle in the olive oil until just incorporated.
4. In its own bowl, gently stir that yeast/water mixture that you have on the side.
5. And then drizzle the yeast/water mixture into the flower mixture until the dough forms a ball. (Now, this part I had a problem with.  “Forms a ball”…hmm…mine never did, but let it incorporate all of the flower from the sides of the bowl and basically start coming together as one…should take about 2-4 minutes)
6. Drizzle a little olive oil in a clean bowl and place your dough in it. (This is where I went wrong with my pizza I think.  I put too much olive oil…so beware.)
7. Cover the bowl with a moist kitchen towel and set in warm place for 2 hours (store in fridge for up to 2 days).

Half of the dough I used for my Homemade Pizza BUST…and the other half I decided to experiment with.  I heated my oven to 400 degrees and spread the dough on a round baking sheet/pizza pan into an irregular round shape.  I sprinkled the dough with sea salt and fresh rosemary pulled off the stem.  I was going for a focaccia theme here.  I baked for about 15 minutes then put on the broiler for about 5 to 10 minutes to crisp it up.  Sure enough, out came yummy focaccia-esk bread.  The perfect side to dip into decadent spinach soup.

This meal is what I call redemption, my friends.  Okay now try it for yourself and let me know how it goes!!  I’m dying to know if you love it as much as I do.

*Must pour a great glass of red to balance out the green soup…could be a cute Christmas time dish!*

Julie's Spinach Soup with Redemption Bread

Zach-o-meter: Picture says it all…except this was bowl number 3…

Gone...