Spring Vegetable Soup with Tarragon (and chicken)

So, you can find the recipe for this in Saturday's post.  I don't have any "as we go" pictures because I think I was being lazy.

I think for this soup, I spent more time chopping and cleaning things than I did paying attention to the soup itself.  I used the recipe as a guideline.  I figured that if I added more veggies to it, it wouldn't hurt.

I had never used leeks before this recipe, but I had seen other people talk about how dirty they were on the many food shows I watch in the background during the day.  They weren't lying.  I'm glad I saved them for last because my cutting board was dirty after I was done.

So, just in case you didn't feel like bouncing back and forth between the previous entry and this one, here is the list of veggies for the soup:

10 small red potatoes, quartered
2 medium carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 celery ribs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large leek, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 pound green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths, or frozen peas

I think I used 8 red potatoes (because they were a little bigger than I thought), 4 carrots, 4 ribs of celery, and 2 leeks.   The green beans and onion were about right though.

After cutting everything up, I cleaned the leeks.  To do this, chop them however you need to for the recipe, fill a bowl with cold water and put all the copped leeks into the water.  Swish the leeks around to break the pieces apart, then let them sit for a few minutes.  The leeks float on the surface of the water while all the dirt sinks to the bottom.  I was amazed at exactly how much there was.

While the leeks were sitting in the water, I did my first addition.  I took a large, thawed chicken breast and seared it on both sides in a little garlic infused olive oil (making a nice brown flavor coating on the bottom of my dutch oven).  I removed the chicken breast, reduced the heat on the stove and sauteed the onion, carrots and celery until slightly softened.  I added the potatoes, salt, water, and leeks into the pot, then added the chicken breast back in.  I added the tarragon at this point.  The recipe sounds like it called for fresh tarragon, but I had dried stuff.  When you're cooking things in a slow cooker, or for longer periods of time, you want to add dried herbs at the beginning so they have time to develop.  If you're using fresh herbs, add them at the end.  If you cook the fresh herbs from the beginning, they won't be as potent and you'll lose some of the flavor.

I let all this cook at a simmer for about 30-40 minutes.  At that point, I pulled out the chicken breast and added the chopped, fresh green beans to let them cook while I shredded the chicken.  After 3-5 minutes, I added the shredded chicken back in, peppered to taste and added some more tarragon, and it was ready to serve.

My husband and I each had 2 bowls and we still had enough left over for 4 more servings.

I was amazed at how much flavor came out of the veggies and how dark the broth was.  The added chicken breast was just the right amount so that my husband didn't complain about there being no meat for dinner.  (I made another soup last night that had no meat in it and he just had to suffer.)

Anyway.  Try it .. you'll like it.

Thanks and happy eating!

Tex-Mex Slow Cooker Chicken Burritos (or soft tacos, or just plain bowls)

So, I've been busy working lately.  But I have a few things that I've done recently.  One of them will be a full sized post and probably posted tomorrow.  That will be the Cardamom Vanilla Pound Cake from Linda's Herb and Spice project.  I have to tell you that I had lots of luck with that.  But I'll post all the details and the progress pictures when I do the full post.  I also have pictures of German Pancakes (which I recently found out that the recipe that I use is the same as for Yorkshire Pudding, so I may have to try it in that capacity too), Rum Raisin Rice Pudding, and a quick and easy slow cooker meal.

I'm going to share the slow cooker meal in this post.

I was basically looking for something that we haven't done in a while with things that I had on hand.  I didn't have everything that I decided to use on hand, but it was a short walk to the store and a small grocery bill.

So here's what I used:

4 chicken breasts (boneless/skinless)
1 red onion sliced (the onion in half, then each half sliced, leaving longer half circles)
a couple cloves of garlic (I think I did 3 or 4)
1 red bell pepper
1 Jalapeno pepper
Cumin (I used a ground toasted cumin)
ground Chipotle pepper
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 can black beans (had one that was "Cuban style" with red and green bell peppers)
1 can tomatoes (I used fire roasted with garlic ... I like garlic)
half a bag of frozen white sweet corn

While my chicken was defrosting, I sliced the onion, bell pepper, jalapeno and garlic.  In a pan, I sauteed the onion until it started to soften, then added the garlic.  I let that cook up for a minute or two, then added the bell pepper and jalapeno.  To the veggie mix, I added the spices.  I tend to go lighter on the salt and heavier on the other spices.  There's really no measurements for these.  I usually just eyeball the amounts.

Once the onions were caramelized and the other veggies soft, I transferred them all to the bottom of the slow cooker.

In the same pan, brown up the chicken breasts.  You're not trying to cook them through, so higher heat is okay here.  You're just trying to put a little color on them (color equals flavor ... and as Anne Burrell says "Brown food tastes good").  Once browned, take the chicken out of the pan and set them aside.  Deglaze the pan with the 1/2 cup of chicken broth.  It's all flavor.  Pour that liquid into the slow cooker with the veggies.

Add the can of tomatoes, the can of black beans and the corn.  Stir to mix.  Place the chicken on top and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-5 hours (I cooked mine on high because I got a late start).

The original plan was to serve the chicken mixture over rice, but when I was at the grocery store getting supplies, I decided to get tortillas and try them that way.  I still cooked up the rice separately, but I think next time, I'll add a little extra chicken stock to the chicken and add the rice towards the end to cook in that liquid.

In addition to the chicken and rice, we built the burritos with cheese, fresh green onions and sour cream.  My husband also used fresh cilantro, but it's not my favorite.

And my plate for dinner:

(You can see the extra liquid.  I was afraid that there wasn't going to be enough when I was putting it all together.  I'm glad I decided not to add more.)

Feel free to try this, or to use it for inspiration of your own.  The variations on something like this are pretty much endless.  I like to try out different combinations all the time just to see what works and what doesn't.

Thanks and happy eating!