craveytrain

I love a good chicken tortilla soup but everyone makes theirs different. I got a base recipe from a fellow culinary enthusiast and web designer, Patrick Fox. He was kind enough to send this to me right before he left town for his wedding. His recipe read like it was going to be good, but you know me, I have to do things differently. Not dramatically different, it’s really more or less his recipe, but it’s got a couple changes that I felt made it a little more… me. This recipe has some spice to it, so those of you that are a bit squeamish, you may want to back off some of the spice.

The Prep time is misleading, as there is a lot of prep, but most of it can be done while other things are cooking to make things more efficient. I put these steps in order to minimize cooking time allowing for prep while cooking. Certainly any prep work can be done earlier in the process as time allows.

Btw, I’m using a new convention. T = tablespoon, t = teaspoon.

• Prep: 5 mins
• Cook: 90 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• 5 T vegetable oil
• 1 T salt
• 1 T ground black pepper
• 1T + 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t ground chipotle peppers
• 1 T ground coriander seeds
• 1 t Essence
• 2 Q water
• 4 dried whole chipotle peppers
• 1 whole yellow onion
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 poblano pepper
• 6 oz can whole corn kernels
• 6 oz can tomato paste
• 2 key limes, juice of
• 12 oz can black beans
• 10 corn tortillas
• 2 avocados
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1 pint sour cream
• 3 cups shredded cheese (Mexican blend, jack, cheddar, etc…)

Prep

Heat large stew pot to medium with 3 T veg oil.

While that is heating, rub chicken thighs with mixture of 1 T of salt, 1 T fresh ground black pepper, 1 t cumin, 1 t dried chipotle peppers, 1 t ground coriander.

Cook

Add chicken to oil and brown all sides of chicken. Once browned, add 2 Q water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cover. Boil for abount 40 mins (or until chicken is done).

Prep

Chop yellow onion. Mince garlic. Chop, seed and de-stem poblano pepper.

Reconstitute dried chipotle peppers. Place in microwave safe dish, cover with water and nuke for a couple mins (until soft). Slice stems off peppers, cut peppers in half and scrape out seeds. Dice up.

Cook

Once chicken is cooked, take chicken out to drain and keep the stock warm.

Heat dutch oven to medium with 2 T vegetable oil. Put in diced yellow onion and minced garlic, saute until translucent (couple mins).

Add half of the diced chipotle peppers, diced poblano, 1 T ground cumin, 2 t ground coriander, 1 t essence & corn and cook for another few mins to soften the poblano peppers.

Add tomato paste & lime juice and cook for 2 more mins being sure to coat everything in paste.

Add black beans & chicken stock from stew pot and bring to a boil. Once mixture is homogeneous, bring down to a simmer & cover cook for about half an hour.

Prep

Add rest of the diced chipotle peppers to the sour cream with 1 t of salt, mix and refrigerate.

Dice up bunch of green onions and refrigerate.

Take chicken off bone. Be careful to not keep any of the gristle or connective tissue around bone joints. This is most easily done by hand. You want shredded chicken. Small bites.

Preheat oven to 400. Take corn tortillas, cut them in half and then in half inch wide strips. Put them on a non-stick cookie sheet and put them in the oven. After about 5 minutes, take them out, mix them around making sure to separate the ones that have clumped together. We are wanting to toast them, so browning is good, black is bad.

Cook

After soup has simmered for half an hour, mix in chicken. Simmer for 10 more mins.

Prep

Roughly chop up avocados. Do this right before serving to keep from discoloration.

Serve

To serve, put soup in bowl, top with tortilla strips, cheese, chopped green onions, chopped avocado and a dolllup of the chipotle crema.

Yes, I have promised a recipe or 2 that is not up here yet. I am a slacker and hope to get them up this eveing or tomorrow. Stay tuned…

If you have read any of my blogs, you will notice I have a particular way of doing just about everything. Even really simple things, I have a particular method to most of my madnesses. I have had several people ask me for my recipe for banana pudding. Initially, I thought, well, it’s not really much of a recipe, it’s just the order I throw things together in, but that’s true with a lot of things. I just have a hard time considering anything a recipe or calling something cooking if no heat is involved (or for that matter, if the only heat used is a microwave). None-the-less, I can’t disappoint my fans (who the hell would have guessed I would have fans?).

• Prep: 30 mins
• Cook: 0
• Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 1 box Jello Instant Banana Pudding (not sugar free)
• 2 cups cold milk
• 1 box nilla wafers
• 1 tub Cool-Whip (pick your fav, I use extra-creamy, but vanilla would probably be good)
• 3 ripe bananas (spotted)

Prep

Put the pudding mix in a half gallon bowl and wisk in the milk. Wisk for a minute or 2 to get the lumps out (per the box instructions). Leave on counter so it doesn’t set too fast on you.

Line the bottom of the serving bowl (at least a gallon capacity) with nilla wafers one or 2 layers deep. Take a banana and slice it in thin rounds as a layer on top of the wafers.

While you were doing this, the pudding should have somewhat set. Slice up another banana in it and mix it in. You want to pour the pudding in when it is thin enough to seep in between the nilla wafers and bananas lining the bottom yet is thick enough it won’t float those items up from the bottom of the bowl. Once the pudding is poured in, place nilla wafers around the sides and push them down into the pudding. Once you have done this, place the pudding in the fridge and allow it to set (up to 20 mins).

Once the pudding is set, take it out and put a layer of nilla wafers on top of the pudding. Slice up the 3rd banana on top of that making another layer. Spread a layer of cool whip on top of that, at least 1” thick, but as much as you want. Finally, crumble up more nilla wafers and sprinkle them on top of the Cool Whip.

This pudding is best once it has set for a few hours, or even a day.

So, thanks to a couple x-mases from my grandmother, I had some $100 worth of gift cards to Dillards. Well, I’m not into clothes atm really, but I got a nice Le Creuset 5.5 Qt. Enamled Cast Iron Dutch Oven. Ain’t she purty?

What better to break her in on than an attempt at my perfect chili. I have been trying to perfect my chili for years. I have tried lots of different things from chili meat (coarse ground chuck) to ground beef, to stew meat, to caldillo, to venison, to pork, etc. And while I did stumble across a really tasty roasted green chile pork stew along the way, but I was looking for chili. Texas Red to be specific. Now, I am of the belief that chili doesn’t have beans. Now, that’s not to say that i don’t like beans in my chili-like concoction. However, I call that beef stew or chili soup or something along those lines. I didn’t grow up that way, that’s just how I eventually decided I feel about chili. So, after years of trials and tribulations, the inaugural cooking in my new pot is simmering away at this very moment while I write this post.

What you may be thinking (especially if you are from Texas) is What the hell? He’s gonna give away his chili recipe? You see, chili recipes are closely guarded secrets in Texas (and they may be else where). However, I like to share good recipes with the world (or with both of you that read my blog). That and I think this chili may be the first recipe post than I can truly call my own. Not saying that no one has done it this way before, but if they did, I didn’t know about it.

Depending on the crop of habs, this chili ranges from kinda mild by my standards to decent and spicy. However, if you want something with plenty of kick (I call it The Pain, partly so I can say I brought The Pain), don’t seed the habaneros. Warning, it will be hot. I’m not telling you it will be spicy, that it will burn your lips, or that it will tingle your senses. I am telling you right now it will be hot. Like you will regret it the next day hot. That’s what I do when I make chili for cookoffs.

So, without further ado:

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hours
• Servings: 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1 lb stew meat
• 1.5 lbs caldillo beef (chuck diced in 3/4” cubes)
• 2 tbsp Essence
• 4 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 tsp ground oregano
• .5 tsp cinnamon
• .5 cup of masa harina (corn flour)
• .5 cup of olive oil
• .25 cup manteca (lard)
• 1 large sweet yellow onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 habaneros, seeded & diced
• 3 chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce), chopped
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp adobo sauce
• 2 bottles of beer (I like Negro Modelo)
• 1 qt beef stock
• 1 oz bittersweet chocolate

Prep

Put the meat in a large bowl and cover with salt, pepper, cinnamon, Essence, 2 tbsp chili powder and 1 tbsp cumin. Don’t mess around with the spoon, get your hands in there and break up all the little pieces of meat, making sure seasoning gets on all of it. Cover meat with masa and again, make sure all the pieces of meat are coated.

Heat up a heavy bottomed pot (or a dutch oven) to medium high and add about a third of the olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan).

Cooking

When the oil is hot, add half the meat and then half the manteca. Let meat brown and start to carmelize. Don’t worry if ya burn some. Turn the meat and let it brown on all sides. Reserve it off to the side with a slotted spoon (leaving as much liquid as possible). Add another third of the olive oil and the rest of the meat. Add the rest of the manteca. Brown the meat the same way as before. When done, reserve meat off to the side with the rest.

Turn the temperature down to medium , add the rest of the olive oil to the pot and then the onions, garlic and habaneros. Saute for 5 - 7 mins until they get soft. Add the tomato sauce, the chipotle peppers and the adobo sauce. Add the rest of the chili powder, cumin and oregano. Bring to a boil.

Once it is boiling, add both beers deglaze the pot. Boil for 10 mins to reduce. Add the meat back and the beef stock. Simmer for 1.5 hours until the meat is tender.

Once meat is tender, add chocolate to chili and stir in to melt.

Serve it up, and drop me a line to let me know how you liked it.

• Prep: 15 mins
• Cook: 45 mins
• Servings: 4

I wish I would have taken pictures, but I’m sorry, I was too busy eating. That, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I will take pictures next time.

I am still playing with the recipe format, just follow it down, it’s written in best order of operation.

Thanks to Krog, your idea of using corn starch to thicken the soy sauce saved me from yet another pan of black tar and days of stench in the apartment.

Ingredients

Panko-Crusted Chicken Milanesa

• 4 chicken breast cutlets (or 2 boneless chicken breasts)
• 7 tbsp Essence (substitute favorite season salt)
• 4 tbsp ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• .25 cup canola oil

Soy Sauce Reduction

• 1.25 cup dark soy sauce
• .5 cup of sugar
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger root, minced
• 4 tbsp honey (preferably orange blossom)
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp chili oil
• 1 tbsp corn starch

Prep

Panko-Crusted Chicken Milanesa

Pound out cutlets to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. If you do not have cutlets (or don’t want to spend the money on them) simply cut the breasts in half. Lay the breast down on a cutting board, skin side down, and cut parallel with the cutting board, essentially giving you 2 thinner breasts (aka. cutlets).

Season the 4 cutlets with approx 4 tbsps of Essence and 4 tbsp ground black pepper. Put in fridge for at least half an hour (the more the better up to 4 hours). Anything more than 4 hours will usually results in in the chicken being “too seasoned” due to how thin it is.

Soy Sauce Reduction

Mince the garlic, ginger and shallots.

Cooking

Soy Sauce Reduction

Put shallots, garlic and ginger in a pot and set to medium-high. Give the items in the pan about 60 seconds then add everything else except the corn starch. Combine well with a wisk.

Bring to a boil. When sauce starts to thicken (easily identified by the bubbles getting bigger and starting to creep up side of pot) reduce heat to medium and add the corn starch. Make sure all the corn starch is dissolved (a wisk helps get the clumps out). Once the corn starch is dissolved, reduce heat to low until desired thickness is acheived. Remember, the sauce will thicken quite a bit once it cools. You want a syrup consistency once it cools.

Panko-Crusted Chicken Milanesa

Place flour and remaining Essence in shallow dish. Place panko bread crumbs in a separate shallow dish. Beat eggs and place in yet a third shallow dish. Dredge chicken in the flour then shake off excess. Dredge chicken in eggs then shake off excess. Dredge chicken in panko then press so panko adheres.

In a large saute pan over medium heat, add canola oil. When oil is hot, add chicken and pan fry until golden brown on both sides (few minutes per side).

Serving

Serve a fried cutlet on a plate and drizzle soy “syrup” over it. Be generous, and serve with lots of water…