Super Easy Hearty Gluten Free Chicken Soup

I sometimes cook for the church where I am one of the pastors.  Some of our members are on gluten and dairy restricted diet and I wanted to make a simple supper for a crowd that would be enjoyed by most and not a problem for anyone to eat.  I also am pretty busy with my various responsibilities as a pastor, as a chaplain, with my family and in my community involvements.  This morning I went to the store to figure out a quick, hearty soup to make for a meeting tonight. I don't usually use frozen vegetables, but since I was in such a hurry, they were great in a pinch.  Here is the result.  I think it came out pretty good.  It has a bit of a southwestern taste.  If you wanted to thicken it up you could blend a couple of ladles with a corn tortilla until smooth, pour it back in and bring it to simmer for a bit, but I like it just the way it is.

Super Easy Hearty Gluten Free Chicken Soup

2 T olive olive
4 chicken thighs with skin on
4 chicken breasts with skin on
2 cloves of garlic minced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 bag of frozen chopped onions
4 boxes of low sodium, gluten free chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 medium red peppers, chopped
1 bag of frozen corn
1 bag of frozen Lima beans
1 bag of frozen hash browns (cubes, not shredded)
1 t. cumin
a pinch or two of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to tase

Brown the chicken very well in the olive oil in a large soup pot.  Remove chicken and set aside.  There should be a good fond in the pan.  Sweat celery and garlic in the fat remaining and when somewhat cooked add the frozen onions, salt, pepper and cook together until veggies are soft.  Add the chicken stock , the bay leaves and put chicken back in the pot.  Simmer for about and hour. Remove chicken, set aside and let it get cool enough to handle.  Remove any skin or other bits remaining in the pot.  Add the peppers, the frozen corn, the Lima beans, the hash browns, the cumin and cayenne pepper. Cook until veggies are soft, about 30 minutes or so. Take the chicken meat off the bone and add it back into the pot.  Adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy!

Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Bow Ties

There a couple of little tricks to make a great shrimp and pasta dish. First, I always start with raw shrimp with the shells on. The frozen bags of shrimp come in an "easy peel" raw packaging and these are the ones I use. After gently thawing the shrimp, I peel the shrimp and make a stock of the peels by covering them with water and simmering them with parsley, a shallot and a couple of stalks of parsley. The second trick is to use the right cooking technique for the shrimp. The shrimp need to be as dry as possible. Then they should be cooked over high heat in small batches in a small amount of olive oil. If you are not careful to dry the shrimp and cook them quickly they will give off a lot of juice and will boil in their juices. This results in a rubbery and tough shrimp instead of the tender crisp shrimp you are looking for. The shrimp should be cooked on one side until slightly brown, turned over and cooked until just opaque.

With your perfectly cooked shrimp and stock, you can do all kinds of good things. For this dish, I made a sauce from tons of garlic (you can never use to much garlic in my opinion), shallots, stock, fresh lemon juice, crushed red pepper and butter. It tossed some bow tie pasta with the sauce, added the shrimp and served. It was very tasty.

Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Bow Ties

1 package frozen raw "quick peel" shrimp

water
1 shallot, halved
2 stalks of parsley
1 bay leaf
4 pepper corns
1/2 t. salt

2 T olive oil
2 shallots, diced
6 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 t crushed red pepper
3/4 cup shrimp stock
juice from two lemons
2 T butter

1 box fafalle (bow tie) pasta
1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water
2 T chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Thaw the shrimp according to the package directions.

Stock:
Peel shrimp and put peels in a small pot, cover with water, add the shallot, parsley, bay leaf, pepper and salt. Simmer for a half hour or so.

Saute shrimp in small batches in a small amount of olive oil per batch.

Sauce:
In the same pan as the shrimp were sauteed, cook the shallots in a bit of olive oil, then the garlic and crushed red pepper. Add the stock and reduce by half. Add the lemon juice and reduce by half again. Turn off heat and melt butter into the sauce.

Add the cooked pasta to the pan w/ 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Cook the pasta in the sauce until the pasta is coated with the sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add the shrimp and the parsley and toss together. Makes 4-5 cook size servings.

Enjoy!

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Chicken Fricassee

This is one of our family favorites. I made it today. It was the prefect comfort food for the rainy, icy weather. I like to use chicken breast on the rack as it produces a richer broth, but I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts because that's what was in the fridge and it was quick, easy and tasty. I serve this over brown rice cooked in a rice cooker, which make this meal a cinch.

3 large chicken breasts
2 ribs of celery, cut into chunks
4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 medium yellow onion sliced into small wedges
enough water to just cover
6 peppercorns
salt to taste
3 T butter
3 T flour

Put chicken breasts, celery, carrots, onion and peppercorns into a medium pan with a tight fitting lid. Add water to just cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Remove any scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover and cook until carrots are soft, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove chicken, celery, carrots, and onions, season these ingredients with salt to taste. Bring broth back to a boil, reduce by half. Knead the butter and flour together (beurre manie). Wisk 2 T of buerre manie to broth, which should result in a white sauce. Sauce should coat a spoon. If more thickening is needed wisk in additional buerre manie. Taste, add salt to taste.

Pull chicken apart into large shreds. Return chicken, celery, carrots and onions back to the pan and heat through.

Serve over steamed rice.