The post-holiday poverty season has Management and I looking to stretch our food budget little further than usual–read: we eat leftovers more often–so we are always in search of new and flavorful recipes–read: easy but tasty–we can try out. Last night we banged one together by modified a recipe for Chicken Soup and Shepard’s Pie from the Joy of Cooking and the Better Homes and Garden cookbook. It is built around layering flavors, starting with onions, garlic, celery, and carrots, an finishing off with an assortment of spices and herbs. Since it is a one pot meal it is a meal that you can prepare early and let cook most of the day without fuss or worry. We have a 2 qt Round French Oven from Le Creuset that we use for this but any enameled stoneware (range top and oven safe only) or cast iron oven would work well with this since the need is for all around heat.
Chicken Shepard’s Soup
- (1) Small onion, diced
- (2) Cloves of garlic, cracked and chopped
- (2) Large carrots, sliced
- (2) Large stalks of celery, sliced (I actually prefer to use the inner most parts of the celery bunch, leaves and all, for this since it seems to have the most flavor for cooking.)
- (1) Large potato, cubed
- (1/2) cup of frozen corn
- (1/2) cup of frozen peas
- (1) Chicken breast cut into chunks
- (16 oz) of low-sodium chicken stock
- (1) Bay leaf
- (1) Tablespoon of hot paprika
- (1) Teaspoon of ground coriander seed
- (4) Pinches of dried rosemary
- (4) Pinches of dried thyme
- Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
- (3) Tablespoons of olive oil
Add the olive oil and bay leaf to the French oven and bring them up to medium-low heat on the range–bubbles should form about the bay leaf. When it is up to heat add the onions, garlic, celery, and carrots and let them sweat for approximately 10 minutes or until the onions start to become translucent. Follow this by adding the potato and half of each of the spices and herbs and stir and let cook for another 10 minutes and preheat the oven to 250° F.
When the oven is ready take the pot off the stove and stir in the remaining vegetables and chicken broth. Layout the pieces of chicken on top of the vegetables and dust them with the remaining herbs and spices. Cover and bake for approximately 2-2 1/2 hours and let cool for a few minutes before serving. We had this with cornbread made in a cast iron skillet, which when mixed with a couple of small pieces of butter goes a long way in keeping the bread moist and firm–I hate dry crumbly cornbread.
As we continue our kitchen experiments I’ll post some of the successes as well as some of the disasters as a warning of what to avoid!
