Recipes

During my husbands last deployment he had a decent meal one day. That in and of itself is amazing because as most sailors will tell you, ship food sucks. As he was describing the deliciousness that he ate, my interest was piqued.

“Okay, I’ll bite…what did you eat”

“Chicken and rice soup but some of the rice was black but didn’t taste burned”

“That sounds like chicken and wild rice soup”

“Yeah! That’s it!”

So I perused a million recipes on Pinterest trying to find a recipe that I had all the ingredients for or could at least obtain. Of course I couldn’t find a perfect recipe. Luckily for me, taking several recipes and making them a hybrid of availability has made this a family favorite.

When it comes to cooking I love to wing it and adjust to taste. That is really what inspires my food passion. Creating something from nothing. Rice and chicken are pretty blah on their own, but add a little of this and a little of that and voila an amazing experiment.

Frankenstein Recipe

The first thing I did to all the recipes I found was eliminate the canned broth suggestion. I wanted to make my own broth, a bone broth. I wanted flavor and all the extra vitamins and nutrition I could get. Simple solution was to get a whole chicken and throw it in the crock-pot. I cooked the chicken for 6-8 hours until completely cooked. I also eliminated the water suggestions since I would be exclusively using the bone broth as the sole liquid minus the small amount of milk needed.

FUN FACT: Why 6-8 you may ask, power in Japan… the hertz is different than in the states so timed things and heat temp are effected. This is most prevalent in my crock-pot, my coffee pot (can’t set the timer to have coffee auto start because who knows what time it will actually trigger) and plug in alarm clocks (we use our phones exclusively now so that was an easy remedy). So I don’t know exactly how long it cooked for but that is my best guess.

After the chicken is cooked through and has released its juices into the crock I pull the whole bird out and let it rest/cool. Years ago I got a nifty cutting board from a friend who sells pampered chef that will hold up to 2 cups of liquid. I love this cutting board for meals like this because I don’t waste a drop of drippings while the bird cools or while removing all the meat. This makes putting the juices back in the crock-pot with the bones super easy.

De-boning the bird

When given the option, I prefer to use my hands when taking the bird apart as much as possible because I find it easier and less wasteful. I am not a master butcher so when I use a knife I feel like my cuts are not as accurate as they could be and I shred more of the meat unintentionally. Or that I leave more of the meat on the bones than I am wanting.

First I strip back the wings, the bird is so tender you could just high five the chicken and send the whole wing flying. I popped both at the joint and set aside. Next I divided the leg quarters (the thigh with the leg). After I removed the breasts. I checked the rib/ surrounding bones for missed meat and put them back in the crock-pot with the drippings.

Next I started removing the bones from the wings and quarters. The wings don’t have much meat so I eye ball them hard to see if they are worth my time to fiddle with. About half I left as is and just put it right back in the juices. Legs and thighs are much easier since the bones are bigger and there is more meat. After all the bones had been pulled I diced away and set aside.

Bone Broth

I add 8 cups of water to the bones which completely submerges them. I also put in any fat and skin. There is flavor and collagen and other goodness that we don’t want to miss out on. Plus since the bird is in the crock the skin doesn’t have that crispy texture that makes it tasty for snacking. I try to cook the bone broth as long as possible for maximum flavor and to try to get every bit of nutrition out of the bones and into the broth as possible.

Time Management

While the chicken is cooking (not the broth) take advantage and dice your onions and celery and carrots. Save the ends that you would throw away because those can be put in the bone broth for extra flavor and they will get strained out before it goes into the soup. If you are smart you will toss a bay leaf in the bone broth too. I am not always smart.

If I can coordinate well I will start the bird before bed and then start the bone broth first thing in the morning to cook through the day. Then I will assemble the soup because after the chicken is cooked and the broth is made the rest just whips up fast. Everything can be prepped ahead of time to make it almost a dump and go soup the next day.

I like cooking the veggies before I assemble the soup. There is extra flavor to be had if you can get some browned edges on the carrots and such. I also toss in some minced garlic but I don’t pre-cut it like the other veggies. I mince it fresh. Cooking the veggies first also eliminates some extra liquid in them so their own juices wont dilute the bone broth flavors.

Starting to look like soup

Next I add the stock. To do this I put a mesh colander over my stock pot and pour the crock-pot contents right in. I let it drip dry over the stock pot to not waste a drop. I ladle out some of the stock trying not to get too many chunks into a protein shake blender bottle. It is my kitchen secret weapon. I pull out a cup or so to let it cool but I will explain that more in depth in a bit.

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Throw in the chicken and the rice and let the rice cook and soften. The black (wild) rice takes the longest so if you are taste testing for ‘done-ness’ then make sure you nibble one of those.

Learn from my hard lessons!!!

Add the rice seasoning packet to the reserved stock and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1 cup of whole milk. Then blend it up. I like the blender bottle because it makes quick work of the corn starch and seasonings and leaves it lump free. Trying to sprinkle it in to the stock pot and work the lumps out…forget it.

“Ain’t nobody got time for that”

Big side note here for SAFETY do not shake hot liquid. If the liquid is hot it will build pressure from shaking and splatter the liquid. Possibly before you intentionally open it… I may have learned a hard lesson making some VERY creamy hot chocolate. It was the best cup of hot chocolate I have ever had and I have never made it like that again. If you let it cool and add the milk it should definitely be cool enough to shake safely. I love this method for making gravy too.

Pour the slurry into the stock pot. I usually add a few tablespoons of water back into the shaker bottle and give another shake to make sure all the bits and flavor get into the soup. Give it a good stir and then I turn off the heat and put the lid on. Give the cornstarch a little time to thicken the soup. We are inhaling the soup usually within 10 minutes or so. Of course season to your own tastes but I put tons of stuff in my soup because I LOVE a rich flavor especially because I worked so hard to build it.

Enjoy your labor of love

This is a dish that quickly became a staple in our house. If you’re looking for a feel good meal then this is exactly what you are looking for. It is quite easy to make but tastes super complicated. The hardest part of making the dish is time if you want to get the full effect of the flavors. I am sure I could whip this up in less time on the stove but the flavors wouldn’t have a chance to get as concentrated as they do with the slow cook.

We have actually made this twice in the last week because it is so good and so satisfying. I learned my lesson quickly that this should be made in bulk because it gets scarfed down. But it also keeps well in both the refrigerator and the freezer. I love to cook but I am not immune to lazy days. If I can have a home cooked meal at TV dinner convenience, count me in. So thawing some soup to warm my weary soul is perfect.

I hope you love this soup as much as my family. What foods warm you on a dreary day? Are you going to try this? If you try it comment below!

Wholesome Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

In a crock-pot cook:
1 Whole Chicken (lightly seasoned)

Dice and set aside:
1 Pound of Carrots
1 Whole Bunch of Celery
2 Medium Onions

When cooked remove chicken and separate meat from bone then dice. Return bones to crock pot. Add the following and cook all day:
8 Cups Water
1 Large Bay Leaf
1 Helping of Kitchen Scraps

In a large stock pot add in the diced vegetables and cook until tender and beginning to brown. When onions are translucent add:
4 Cloves Garlic (minced)

Put a strainer over the stock pot and pour in the bone broth. Reserve 1 cup of liquid. Add the following:
1 Chicken (diced)
2 Boxes of Wild Rice flavor “Rice-a-Roni”

Cook until rice is tender. In shaker bottle add:
1 Cup Bone Broth (reserved)
1 Cup Whole Milk
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Pink Himalayan Salt
2 Seasoning Packets from rice
1 Tablespoon Dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon Dried Basil


Pour into stock pot and allow to thicken. Serve hot.

Such a simple title for something so complex. There are more types of BBQ sauce than I can count. But for you guys, I’ll try…

Kansas BBQ- tomato based, sweet and tangy
Texas BBQ- tomato based, sweet and spicy
Memphis BBQ- tomato based, sweet (molasses not honey)
Alabama BBQ- mayonnaise based, tangy
North Carolina BBQ- tomato based, spicy and tangy
South Carolina BBQ- mustard based, spicy

Sauces can be customized even further, some people like a really spicy sauce *raises hand* other people like a really sweet sauce *eyeballs husband with judgement*. Other people like a very tangy sauce.

Of course all of the above listed sauces have MANY variations which change their flavor profile but that is just a rough estimate of what the flavor is. Did you know that other cultures have BBQ too? Korean and Japanese BBQ are very tasty. They are also very different from what people in the United States considers BBQ sauce.

Korean BBQ- Tamari based, sweet sauce
Japanese BBQ- Mirin based, savory sauce

However this is not a post about those sauces. This is a post about my homemade BBQ sauce. I am hoping to give some as gifts so I need to get a few jars made up. With trial and error on my recipe I have made what I call, ‘the perfect sauce’ because it has just enough sweet/spicy/sour/savory/smokey to make everyone happy. If you are truly sensitive to heat and spice this may not be the right sauce for you. Although the other flavors help to mellow the sauce…it IS still spicy.

Why not just buy at the store?

My family has very different tastes when it comes to BBQ sauce. As I mentioned earlier, I like spicy but Kevon likes sweet. By making my own I am able to get a sauce that everyone likes without having to buy several bottles to please everyone. For the record, that is exactly what we used to do.

I used to buy several bottles at a time. I have done it where ONLY one sauce per meat aka I have my pieces and hubs has his. However trying to keep track of which was which sometimes was a pain because they all look the same in the end. I have also bought and mixed different flavors to achieve what I was going for but it was never quite right.

Another good thing that comes from making your own sauce, I can gift my sauce to others. I am sure someone would be appreciative to receive a bottle of sauce from the store but where is the sentiment. Knowing that the jar I am giving was made with love and not machines. Perfection. I can’t be the only one who loves a homemade/handmade gift. Plus everything looks pretty in a glass jar and you can wrap or decorate it to suit the season.

Getting Cooking

My sauce it tomato based. When I think of BBQ it has to be tomato based. I have nothing against those other sauces, but I think of them as just a sauce, not a BBQ sauce. They have a time and a place in cooking. Today is neither the time OR the place.

First thing I do is get the ketchup into the sauce pan to begin warming. As of writing this post, I buy my ketchup at the store. I base the choice on the best bang for the buck. Usually whichever bottle is the biggest. I have a goal to learn to make all my own condiments by summer so hopefully I wont be using store bought ketchup for long. We also aren’t trying to cook the sauce per se, only warm it to bring out the potential in all the seasonings and to allow it to meld together. Just bring it to a boil once, then reduce it and keep it at a low simmer the whole time remaining.

After the ketchup is set up and warming begin to add the remaining ingredients. Next will be the vinegar. I use apple cider vinegar because I find that it has the best taste for this particular recipe. I have however made this with other vinegar like white, and once with a garlic vinegar that I had around for salad dressing. This is a big ingredient in this recipe and it would be a missed opportunity to not add the best flavor possible. So experiment like I did and make this your own. This of course also brings me back to making my own ketchup to get better flavor. *someday*.

Measure, Measure, Measure

After the vinegar, add the brown sugar. Dark brown sugar offers more to the flavor of the sauce than light brown sugar, but feel free to substitute if needed. I am fairly certain that in this particular batch it was a mix of both because I didn’t check the supply before starting.

I have already learned from renovations to “measure twice, cut once” but when it comes to cooking there is still room to learn “measure twice, cook once” too. It never seems to fail, I am ALWAYS missing SOMETHING. Frustrating, but I do it to myself.

Whatever dry rub you put on your meat is what I would recommend for this dish. I LOVE the way the rub and the sauce compliment each other when cooked properly on the meat. I make my own dry rub that I will be sharing with you as soon as my spice cabinet is back in full working order. Until then, just use a personal favorite.

After that add in the mustard, the honey, and the Worcestershire. At this point you have already made an amazing BBQ. However…lets kick it up a notch shall we. Add some liquid smoke for flavor I happen to be partial to hickory at this current moment but I have used others with equally delicious results.

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Then add adobo sauce. (I use the Embasa Chipolte in Adobo, 1 7oz can gives about 8 Tablespoons of adobo, and then you can use the chipoltes in something else!!).

Now you have created a sweet, sour, savory, smokey, spicy, rich full depth flavor barbecue sauce. You can slather it over some food or jar it up for another purpose. In the fridge it will stay good up to a month as long as you didn’t change the vinegar proportions in the recipe. Or you can keep it long term by canning it.

To can it, start by sanitizing your jars. It will process for 20 minutes but to me this isn’t a step worth skipping regardless of processing time. I take my family safety seriously.

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Fill the jars with sauce leaving 1/4 inch of head space. After apply the lid being careful to keep the sauce side sanitary. Wipe the edge of the jar to ensure a clean edge for a proper seal. Apply the right tightening just enough to secure but not wrenching it tight. There will be some air movement during processing, if the air cannot escape the jar you will not get the appropriate seal/preservation.

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After 20 minutes in the water bath remove to cool and wait for the telltale pop of the lid. Once cool, store or gift or whatever your plans for this sauce is because it is ready! In my case, slap a label on it and gift it.

BBQ Sauce

In a pan over low heat combine:
4 cups Ketchup
1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar
4 Tablespoons BBQ Dry Rub (use the same blend you will use on the meat!)
2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
4 Tablespoons Honey
4 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Liquid Smoke
8 Tablespoons Adobo Sauce

At first sign of boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Preservation

Fill jars with sauce leaving 1/4″ head space. Process 8-16 ounce jars for 20 minutes.

This meal is my husbands favorite dish. I get proposed to every time. We’ve been married for just shy of 8 years at this point, so I have been proposed to A LOT.

There are a few key things that make my lasagna different than a traditional Italian lasagna. For starters, I don’t like ricotta cheese. So I don’t use it. I know I could use cottage cheese too, however I don’t care for that either. When available I like to mix mozzarella and jack cheese, but frequently the lasagna only receives mozzarella. I also don’t use noodles. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes a girl just wants a REAL lasagna. In that case I 100% will use noodles. Usually I will spoil myself and make homemade noodles. But this is a zucchini lasagna.

FYI

There are other options too like eggplant which we have done before but again, texture. Frying the eggplant and making it an ‘eggplant parm’ makes a big difference. If you’re still gung ho for noodles and you don’t want to make them from scratch, my recommendation is the ‘oven ready’ pasta sheets. They are in the same pasta aisle, usually on the top shelf when I see them.

I have made this lasagna with the zucchini cut into discs and length wise into long strips. The strips are easier/nicer for layering, but the majority of the ‘noodles’ are the inner seed area of the zucchini and they tend to fall apart and shred. The discs hold together much better but they scatter when you are trying to serve the lasagna and make the serving less beautiful. The texture of the discs, since the surface area is less seeded, has a crisp crunch when biting. The strips are less crisp unless eating a piece that happens to be one of the first slices that typically don’t have seeds. The consistency of the strip lasagna is like cheesy spaghetti with zoodles. Not terrible, but not what I am going for.

Ya, but how do I make it?

Glad you asked. Start with the sauce. Get it heating and build the flavor from there. I like to use pre-seasoned sauces rather than a plain tomato sauce. When the sauce has extra flavor and is very herbaceous before the recipe even begins, that’s the best.

While that is warming slowly, start your prep work. This is an on the go meal. I diced the onion, the garlic, the fresh basil, and the zucchini during this time. By the time I had finished that prep, the sauce had begun to do that weird simmer/boil that thicker liquids tend to do. You know what I’m talking about, the slow bubbles that splatter everywhere. I had a screen over it but still.

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And then…

I got the meat cooking sometime during the prep work. The goal was a meat crumble consistency, and that can take some time. I would intermittently break up the meat *stab stab stab with the spatula* then go back to cutting the vegetables. Gotta make smart use of your time when you have a hungry family waiting.

I cooked the spicy pork sausage into an almost crisp texture first. That was planned so I could cook the ground turkey in the grease for both the flavor offerings and because turkey is a very lean meat anyways. The hubs and I are just not ground beef fans. If you are, go for it. But not me. I will usually use a turkey sausage in this recipe, but that was not something available to me at this time. I also wasn’t willing to make my own.

Keep on Juggling

With whatever grease is remaining in the pan, get the onion going. The color going in will be mostly white. I stir the onion around a bit to ensure that the pan bits evenly coat the onions. When the first few onions turn brown, add the garlic. Garlic tends to burn easy and onions take longer to cook. Always start the onions first! Alright, now that I have ingrained that life skill into you… When the onions are evenly brown outside but still white inside they are ready.

Don’t go to far past this point or you will caramelize the onions. Although that is DELICIOUS, it just isn’t the right thing for this dish. If you do happen to go that far, don’t waste it. Slather it on bread to soak up remaining sauce that you are bound to have when we’re done. Life skill #2 ladies and gentleman.

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Hearty Tomato Soup

Add all the ingredients into the sauce and stir. At this point I usually pull out a bowl and just start eating it. I love it. I always have. Most of the sauces I have grown up eating I will eat as a soup. I guess I’m weird like that but I have no regrets!! Yum.

Let the sauce simmer/boil for around 15 minutes to get a good flavor boost. Plus we are trying to get the heat of the sauce up to help the zucchini soften and cook before it goes into the oven. After that time, ladle sauce into the baking dish. Don’t add to much like I did.

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Final Boss Match

The goal of the first layer is to really just prevent sticking. The layer should be so thin you can still see the baking dish beneath. After that, add the zucchini all the way across the pan. Add more sauce on top sandwiching the zucchini in hot bubbly goodness starting their cooking process. Next comes cheese. Rinse and repeat until your pan runs out of room. I fit 9 layers into my pan. 10 if you count basil. Crazy!

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After I got all that deliciousness into the pan, I garnished it with basil. Everything is better garnished with basil. Then I popped it into the oven 190C for 15 minutes. I assume most of you reading will be in America so you should use 375F instead.

Fun fact, my oven frustrates the crap out of me. I can do okay with weights and distances in metric, but temperature. Pfft, forget about it. Here is what I KNOW about metric temperature: in the winter I like when the thermostat is set to between 23 and 25, and in the summer I prefer that it hover between 19 and 21. I would love to say that I also know 375F is 190C but I cooked mine at 180 and when I looked it up I realized why I was disappointed in the bake. Whomp whomp. At least I am letting you know the right stuff.

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Enjoy your hard work

Now the best part. Getting to eat this deliciousness. It truly is amazing. Even if it doesn’t look as pretty as pasta lasagna. This gives me happy tummy without the noodles and the hubby doesn’t mind so it stays on the menu. In all of its delicately placed plop goodness. Enjoy!

Zucchini Lasagna

Sauce

In a large pot combine:
4 Cans Seasoned Tomato Sauce (24 oz each)
1 Pound Ground Turkey (cooked, crumble consistency)
1 Pound Ground Sausage (cooked, crumble consistency)
2 Medium Yellow Onion (diced, cooked until brown on all edges)
4 Cloves Garlic (minced, cooked until brown on all edges)
2 Ounces Basil leaves (minced, about 2 small bushels , volume not weight)

Simmer 15 minutes. While sauce is hot, apply to baking dish to prevent sticking, use a very small amount.

Lasagna

Begin layering lasagna. Repeat in the order listed until no ingredients remain:
3 Zucchini (sliced, 1mm thin)
4 Scoops Sauce (heaping scoops, enough to fully cover the layer beneath)
16 Ounces Mozzarella Cheese (shredded)

Bake at 375F for 15 mintes. Garnish with basil before or after baking if desired.