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FM
Cazuela De Pollo
It’s snowing and it’s so cold here. Now snow can be romantic, I know, and it probably would be if I’d spend the weekend in some luxurious cottage in St. Moritz, completely snowed-in with George Clooney. But no, not me, in stead I caught my little man’s cold and am sniffling, wheezing and coughing my way through the days. Really romantic, huh?
Hearty chicken soup, there’s just no better cure for a cold. Now if you’re a food snob, turn your head for a split second! It’s for the best, really. What I’m about to do is nothing short of sacrilege—I’m going for the canned/jarred stuff! Oh yes, I am, don’t try to stop me. You know, sometimes you just have to make it easy on yourself!
This is a rather unique chicken soup recipe that I first ate when a friend brought some over during one of my previous colds. After a few bites I demanded the recipe. Lord, I even stooped to threatening her never to bring another Spanish Varilla to one of her infamous party tables again unless she’d reveal her secret. Of course she caved in.
I tweaked a little here and there and decided this is the version I like best. I love this chicken soup, it’s so flavorful and creamy. Real soul soup.
Ingredients:
1 large can/jar carrots and peas
1 cup sieved tomatoes
chicken (I’ve used legs)
chicken broth cubes
2 large potatoes
1/3 bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp butter
6 cups water
2 onions
pepper
salt
Optional: sour cream
Directions:
I’ve used chicken legs because that’s what happened to be in my freezer. You can do this with a whole chicken, or even chicken fillets will work. What you do need for this recipe is an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: please, do not rinse your chicken. You’ll cook the chicken and that will kill all the bacteria, rinsing it won’t. The only thing you’ll do is risk cross-contaminating kitchen surfaces and other appliances.
Onions rule my world and dominate my kitchen. Chop two of them (or one if you’re not an onion addict like me) and two medium sized garlic cloves. If you’re feeling sassy (or bloated:), add some celery, cauliflower or even leeks will do! You just can’t go wrong.
Wash and mince 1/2 a bell pepper. Color doesn’t really matter here even though I often find myself grabbing red bell peppers simply for their color. I don’t want to be predictable so I’ve used a yellow pepper this time.
I’m adding potato solely to make the soup creamy without having to use real cream. It works! I also use this method for my Creamy Onion Soup. Peel, wash and chop 2 large or 4 smaller potatoes.
Heat 1 tbsp butter and sautee your onions over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the bell pepper and garlic and cook everything for 3 more minutes.
Now simply add your potatoes, give everything a good twirl, place the chicken legs on top, pour 6 cups of water in there and add a few chicken broth cubes.
Bring everything to a boil, set your timer to 90 minutes, lower the heat and chill out. Go do something fun like folding laundry. Relax, I’m just kidding :)
Amazing how fast 90 minutes fly by, isn’t it? Remove the chicken from the pot, let it cool off or -when you’re in a hurry like me- just use two forks to pick the chicken off the bones.
See! Told you I’d do it! In all honesty, frozen and canned vegetables may actually contain more vitamins and minerals than their fresh buddies at times, so don’t feel bad. Drain them and add 1/2 of it to the soup.
Now you can substitute the sieved tomatoes for a can of (diced) tomatoes, if you do, this is the time to add them.
Blitz, blitz, blitz. That’s all you have to do to turn it into a creamy, flavorful soup. Add a generous amount of pepper and salt to taste.
Add the chicken and stir in the sieved tomatoes as well. If you like it spicy you can also add a little cayenne.
Now the original recipe called for 1 cup of cream, but really, it’s too much for my thighs, so that’s where the potatoes came in—it makes the soup creamy enough for me to get away with only using a moderate amount of sour cream. Just for a little extra kick and flavor. Stir in 2 to 3 tbsp. Add the remaining peas and carrots and simmer the soup over low heat for another 5 minutes.
Garnish with a dollop sour cream, some parsley and freshly cracked black pepper. This is probably one of the most nourishing soups ever, especially when you throw in some warm, crispy French bread.
Trust me, you’re gonna make friends with this soup! Right, George? George? :)
You’re not supposed to wash chicken???? When did this happen, seriously?! LOL
I’m always amazed to see how many people rinse chicken! It can be so dangerous—the kitchen sink, the splashing water on the kitchen counter, anything nearby can be cross-contaminated. While all the bacteria are destroyed by cooking the chicken anyway, so you end up getting sick for nothing :)
Unavailable photos. O_o I’ll check back later, this sounds amazing.
Iversen, I’ve noticed it, something went wrong over at flickr, it should be working now!
I have just discovered your blog (linked from PW’s site)……awesome photos and recipes! My printer is working overtime! Thanks so much for sharing your talents…..
Does the “do not rinse” rule apply to turkey also? I was just curious, because every single recipe that I’ve read recently for roasting a turkey has called for it to be rinsed thoroughly as the first step.
By the way, I LOVE your blog! :)
Sarah, I also never rinse my turkey, my general rule of thumb is not to rinse poultry. It’s also a very undutch thing to do, we don’t rinse poultry at all here.
The risks of washing it with all the bacteria and possibly salmonella being tranferred to numerous places in your kitchen, is far greater than just sticking the bird in the oven. The risk factor is 0 then.
Mmmm … my kind of food. One pot and delicious. I made nearly the same soup late night using beef.
Thinking the chicken version is on the menu tonight.
MommyKnows
That looks fabulous … the only chicken soup I’ve been making is my chicken tortilla soup (http://www.wheresmydamnanswer.com/WP02/?p=754). I may have to add this one to my go to list as well. I love the option of adding the cayenne :-D
I add cayenne to almost anything … love spicy foods :)
Hmmm. I have a killer chicken soup recipe but I want to try this one. NOT the bullion cubes though. They always contain MSG, at least here they do. I am not at all certain I have EVER seen a jar of peas and carrots. I am sure you can get 15 oz. cans of peas and maybe carrots but that is it. How much of those would I require? Would “sieved tomatoes” be the same as “tomato sauce”? I believe our “tomato sauce” is just pureed tomatoes. Sorry to be a bother. :)
Kait, you’re not a bother :)
They often put them in the same jar here. This was about a 15oz jar, so if you would get a smaller jar of both, you’d be using the same quantities. I keep forgetting there’s a serious use of msg there, that’s not so much an issues here. Just go for the pureed tomatoes! It’s pretty much the same thing.
With all the talking about the soup and seeing the photos I’m dying to have another bowl, so I just yanked a container out of the freezer (the soup also freezes well)
Kay,
I love this recipe! Your jar of carrots and peas are so cute!!! Never knew carrots and peas, could be cute? Well trust me they can! The last peas I saw in a can/jar were more of an unattractive olive drab color, ugh… Never thought about using potatoes to make a soup creamy! I just found out I may be allergic to eggs and dairy (milk, cream, butter, soft cheeses) so we are making some changes in our eating habits. This is hard for the girl who loves to make homemade croissants and cooks with butter and eggs daily! It just gives me an excuse to try new recipes.. hee hee ha ha… (read peals of sinister laughter!)
Thanks Kay! I will try it out this weekend. :)
Oh! And it freezes too?? Woooo hooooo. Most of my soups don’t do that very well. :)
Wow, this is comfort food!!
Wow. Absolutely beautiful post. This is a soup I’d like to make all winter. And it is winter now in Michigan.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that doesn’t rinse my poultry. I have a small fear of the germs/bacteria thus I don’t rinse it. This looks easy thus I will try it!
wow Kay! This looks excellent lovely and thick!
Oh, this looks delicious. I’m thinking that this would be an excellent way to use up some of the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. And I just read that it freezes well! Even better. Thank you.
What a wonderful bowl of soup. I have a cold and that would really hit the spot right now. Great photos like always.
Made your green beans from PW’s site for Thanksgiving dinner to rants and raves and recipe requests from many!
Love your site and your pics- made White Chicken Chili on my blog, http://www.prairieranch.blogspot.com, the other day, but this recipe looks yummy!
Gonna have to try it with leftover turkey!
Could not find the green bean recipe on your site- was going to post over there- is it only on the PW site?
Definitely going to be a permanent part of our Thanksgivings from now on-
Thanks!
Prairie Ranch, really glad you liked the green beans recipe, we don’t celebrate thanskgiving here but even made them myself yesterday!
I made the photo posting especially for Ree, so didn’t post it to my own blog, no.
Gonna check out your white chicken chili now … always up for new recipes :)
Do you really not wash chicken???
i understand about cross contamination, but i always feel like the chicken’s sightly slimy before i wash it. plus, when i was in culinary school, they always insisted we wash! confused now. :(
p.s:i have a new post up! photos slightly better this time!
Raj, I really don’t wash the chicken. I think the official federal government guidelines for cooks even says not to wash poultry.