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Posts tagged Chicken
Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
0For the past few weeks I have been thinking about pulled pork a lot. It’s not sunny and it’s not bbq weather. Perhaps my mind is missing the traditional outdoor gatherings of bbq’d meat with the smoky aroma filling the neighbourhood making mouths drool from miles around. Biting into a warm bun filled with tangy sauce, slowly dripping on your hand and down your arm is something I dream about a lot. Luckily for us fair weathered BCers a batch of pulled meat doesn’t have to be bbq’d but can also be made in a slow cooker. Even better, chicken can be poached which is super fast and will fulfill cravings quickly.
This is a recipe I made up so I tried my best to remember all the ingredients.
Ingredients
- 2-3 chicken breasts (I used boneless and skinless)
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion sliced
- 1-2 jalapenos sliced (remove seeds for less heat)
- ½ Orange pepper sliced (or red, you will need the sweetness)
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 tsp Chilli
- ½ tsp Chipotle powder
- 1 tsp Cumin powder
- Chicken broth (enough to cover chicken, about 3-4 cups)
- Half a small can of diced tomato (about ½ cup)
- Salt and pepper
- Coleslaw (pre mix is fine)
- 1 Avocado
- Juice of one Lime
- Cilantro
- Buns of your choice
Heat olive oil in a heavy bottom stock pot over medium heat. Add Onion, Jalapenos, peppers and garlic to the pot and fry for 5-10 minutes until they start to soften.
Now you’re going to add whole chicken breasts on top and fill pot with chicken stock until it pretty much covers the meat. Add chilli, chipotle, cumin and tomatoes. Cover the pot and let this simmer over medium-low heat until cooked, about 20 min.
While chicken is cooking it’s the perfect time to make your slaw! I pretty much made the same style of slaw back when I did Fish Tacos, except I omitted the seasoning and cilantro. Get a bowl, add coleslaw (cabbage mixture), avocado and lime in a bowl, I seasoned mine with salt only for this recipe. The slaw was REALLY acidic from the lime, which is exactly what I wanted. You can add less lime, start with half and go from there.
Once chicken is cooked remove it from cooking liquid, set aside to cool. Turn heat back up to medium and with the lid removed let liquid reduce until there is very little broth left. With an emersion blender or regular blender you’ll blend it all together. Taste and season. This is the time where you’ll add salt and pepper and if you want more spice then go nuts. I don’t think I did much at this point myself.
“Pull” chicken with your hands or fork until it’s all shredded. Add chicken back to pot with blended liquid.
Now just pile a bunch on a bun, add chopped cilantro and slaw, its ready to serve. The reason why I left the cilantro out of the slaw is because not everyone loves it as much as I do. This allows people to manage their own sandwiches. Mine turned out amazing! There was a slow mellow heat that crept up on you after a few minutes that was perfect for a pulled chicken sandwich. The tangy slaw went perfectly with this too. I can’t wait to try this again, and again, and again!
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Blogging about Meatball Stroganoff last year
Chicken Tortilla Soup
0Since its still January, national soup month, I want to share another soup that is now on my top 5 list of soups. Tortilla soup has been something I have wanted to make for a very long time. I love Mexican food but I always seem to get hung up on the ooey gooey cheesy meals then I miss out of Tortilla soup. It’s actually pretty healthy but still super delicious, which is a great combination, as long as you don’t overload it with cheese and sour cream. Don’t let the long list of ingredients overwhelm you, it’s actually really easy!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 jalapenos, finely diced (leave out the seeds if you don’t want spicy)
- 1 chipotle in adobo sauce, minced (or a tsp of chipotle powder)
- 1 small yellow pepper chopped
- 1 can of corn
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes (or regular diced)
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 4-5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 3 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
- 2 limes, 1 juiced, plus wedges for garnish
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 (8-inch) flour tortilla, grilled, cut into thin strips (or chips) (optional)
- 1 avocado, pitted, sliced
- 1 cup shredded Monterrey cheese (OR SOUP CREAM)
In a large soup pot, heat vegetable oil on med-high. Add diced onion, garlic, jalapeno and chipotle, stirring, cook until they start to become soft, about 8 min. Add yellow pepper, corn, tomatoes, black beans, cumin and chicken broth. Bring temperature back up to a low simmer.
To cook the chicken, you can do this 2 ways.
One-add chicken breasts right into the soup and poach in soup for 20 min, or until done.
Or two- you can poach in a separate pot for 20 min. If you chose to cook in a separate pot, poach in chicken broth and you might want to add some seasonings like whole black pepper corns, chilli powder, chipotle powder, cumin and salt. It will help give your chicken some flavour. Just remember to taste it before you put in the raw chicken. I used this cooking method, which worked out well. I also ended up adding some of the cooking liquid to the soup because my soup reduced just a tad too much.
Once chicken is cooked, using your desired cooking method, remove it from the liquid and place on a plastic cutting board too cool. Once cooled, shred with a fork, add back to soup.
Add limes juice and cilantro, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with tortilla chips, avocado, sour cream or grated cheese…or all of the above. I used avocado and sour cream with a few chips on the side. If you don’t like spicy as much as me, you can leave out the chipotle pepper but don’t leave out the fire roasted tomatoes. I think the Smokey flavours really go so well with the acid from the lime.
I absolutely loved this soup. It was spicy, flavourful, packed full of healthy vegetables, chicken and avocado. It made enough for me to freeze some too and I can’t wait for another tortilla soup night!