Chicken Chili

One of the things I miss, being on the hCG diet, is big cooking projects.  Things that take at least a few hours to get really good, and fill the house with amazing cooking smells.  Cooking small quantities of things doesn't take much time at all, and there's not always time to develop the big, bold flavors that you find in things like chili or pot roast or stew.  But that's one of the things I've been working on, and here's my latest: a diet friendly chicken chili with plenty of heat and rich flavor.

Recipe:
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons chili or taco seasoning (I used chicken taco from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon regular chili powder (I like chili 9000 from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3 oz. chicken, chopped

Heat a skillet or shallow pan over medium heat.  Chop tomato and add to pan.  Stir in jalapeno and garlic, cook for about 3 minutes.  Stir in chicken broth, vinegar, and seasoning and cook for 5 minutes.

Add chicken.  Simmer, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.  Serve.

I used leftover pulled chicken in this batch, which added some nice barbecue smokiness to the chili.

This came out really well - it has a rich flavor, a fair amount of heat, and it really felt like a hearty chili.

Beef and Onion Soup

I'm a big soup fan.  I could eat soup everyday, even in the summer.  It's been cold and grey, which always puts me in the mood for nice, warming comfort food.  Like soup.

Recipe:

1 cup beef broth (Pacific makes an organic beef broth that has no fat)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 oz. onions, sliced thin
3 oz. beef, cut into small cubes (use a good cut, like sirloin)
Sea salt, pepper, thyme

Place a saucepan over medium heat, when the pan is hot, add sliced onion and 2 tablespoons of water.  Cook 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add garlic and beef broth.  Bring to a boil, add seasoning, then simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add beef.  Simmer 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mmm...nice and comfort food-y.

I've started another round of the hCG Diet, so coming up with good wintery comfort food takes a little creativity, but this really did the trick.  It has a good meaty flavor and really felt like a hearty soup.

Pot Roast

This started with the traditional pot roast recipe in Nourishing Traditions, but after the first few steps I took it in my own direction, since it was mostly seasoning-related.  This takes some planning, since it really needs a couple of days, but it is totally worth it.

Recipe:
3-4 pound pot roast
2 cups buttermilk (or Saco buttermilk powder and water)

1 bottle Guinness
1-2 bulbs garlic
1 onion, sliced
Salt
Black pepper
Seasoning such as English Prime Rib Rub, celery seed, thyme, rosemary

Place the pot roast in a 9" x 13" baking pan, pour the buttermilk over it, cover and  refridgerate it for 2 days, turning at least 3 times.

Heat oven to 350°.  Pour the buttermilk out of the pan, season the roast as desired, cover with garlic and onions, pour Guinness over it, and bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.  Baste with pan juices.

Continue to bake the roast at 250° for another 5 hours.  Check and baste it every 45-60 minutes.  When the meat starts to brown, cover it (for me this was into the second hour of cooking).

About 1 hour before serving, add vegetables to the pan and continue baking.

For gravy: remove the roast and vegetables to a serving dish.  Pour the pan juices into a sauce pan and bring to a low simmer.

Place 1/2 cup of juices and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a lidded container and shake until cornstarch is dissolved.  Add to pan of juices, and stir until slightly thickened.  Add seasoning as desired.


Obviously I only had carrots.

This came out so good.  At one point I was basting the roast and I poked it with the spoon to see how it was coming along and it started to fall apart.  A spoon!  So yeah, this was melt-in-your-mouth tender.  The flavor was great too, the earthiness of Guinness really compliments the beef's natural flavor, and herbs like thyme and rosemary are really fantastic with it.  If you need comfort food, here it is.

Pulled Chicken Soup

So I made last night's pulled chicken into soup tonight.  It's almost a chicken chili, but with more of a smoky barbecue flavor.

Recipe:
1 cup Chicken Broth
1 Tomato, peeled and seeded
1 teaspoon Barbecue Seasoning (same as used on the chicken)
2-3 teaspoons Cilantro or Parsley
3 oz. Pulled Chicken

Heat the chicken broth over medium heat.  Chop the peeled tomato and add it to the chicken broth.  Add seasoning.  Cook 5-7 minutes.  Puree with immersion blender.

Add chicken and simmer for 8-10 minutes.  Serve.

Like I said, it's kind of a chicken barbecue chili.  Very flavorful and spicy, perfect on a cold and rainy day like today.

Pulled Chicken

Here's another dish that I recently modified to be hCG diet friendly.

Recipe:
2 Chicken Breasts
2 tablespoons Barbecue seasoning (I use Penzey's BBQ 3000)
1 tablespoon Chili or Taco seasoning (I use Penzey's Chili 9000)
1 cup Water
3/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
Sea Salt

Season chicken breasts liberally, and grill or pan fry until done (I use a little electric grill).
Transfer chicken to a cutting board.  Using two forks, shred the chicken into small pieces.
In a shallow pan, bring water and apple cider vinegar to a boil.  Add shredded chicken.  Add more barbecue seasoning if desired.  Salt to taste, if necessary.  Simmer for 8-10 minutes and serve.

Delicious!  I eat mine in a lettuce wrap, but it would also be good in a sandwich or taco.  It's very flavorful and juicy, you'd never guess that it has no sugar and no added fat!

Waldorf Salad

This recipe is pretty much out of the booklet I got when I started the hCG diet.  It's quick, easy, and pretty tasty.

Recipe:

2 ounces Chicken (cooked)
1 stalk Celery
1/2 Apple
Sea salt, lemon juice, and seasoning.

Chop the chicken into small pieces.  Dice the celery.  Chop the apple.  Combine the chicken, celery, and apple together, sprinkle with sea salt and lemon juice, season as desired.  Mix until well combined and serve.

Tasty!  And a good way to use up chicken leftovers.  I have a container that I put all of my little extra bits of chicken in when I'm measuring out my mealtime portion, so I had chicken from 2 or 3 different occasions in there.  But, chopped up fine and mixed with other things, it wasn't really noticeable.

And again, for mixing, I just put everything into a lidded bowl and shook it, so this took less than 5 minutes to throw together.

Beef Stroganoff Soup

This is my first attempt at making something like the amazing beef stroganoff soup at Uncle Cheetah's Soup Shop.  It's not perfect, but it's still pretty tasty.  And soon I'll be on my own again and I won't be able to just pop down to the soup shop and get delicious foodies.

Recipe:
Olive Oil, Water
1/2 pound Stew Beef or Ground Beef
3-4 cloves Garlic, chopped
1 cup Guinness or other dark beer
1/2 pound Crimini or Portobella Mushrooms, chopped
Salt, Pepper, Seasoning
1/2 cup Half & Half
Noodles

Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add garlic and cook about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add beef, add salt and pepper to taste, and cook until brown.  Add beer and desired herbs or seasonings (I used fresh sage, basil, and a Bavarian herb blend from Penzey's).  Add enough water to just cover the meat, bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes.  Add mushrooms and cook another 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles of your choice.  Something a little heavier such as egg noodles or bow ties are better.
Reduce heat to low and slowly add about 1/2 cup of half and half.  Simmer until soup is somewhat thickened.
Serve over noodles.

I'm pretty happy with how this came out, I think it's be better with a little sour cream stirred in, but I didn't have that on hand.  But it's still delicious!  Nice and earthy and herby.  Very comfort food-y.

Cheeseburger Eggsplosion

I saw this the other day over on Serious Eats, and it was just about the best thing I'd ever seen.

I love egg-in-a-basket, and I love burgers, plus I haven't been eating meat for lent (and it hasn't swayed me to the vegetarian side, the last few days I've practically started drooling at the sight of meat).  So, this seemed like the perfect thing to break the fast with.

I'm not going to reiterate the recipe here, since it's pretty straightforward, and if you haven't been to Serious Eats, you should remedy that.  But, here's my pictures:

An ordinary cheeseburger?

Hardly!  There's an egg fried into the center of the patty, and how fantastic is that?  It's pretty fantastic.