Rotisserie Chicken Soup for the Soul

Chicken soup is always good for the soul but especially during a cold winter night. I might be part of the minority who loves soup all year round though. Recently, I made chicken soup using a rotisserie chicken. Store bought rotisserie chickens are amazing. They are inexpensive, delicious, and usually around $7.99 and can last several meals. The only downfall for me is that I don’t really love white meat and I don’t want to eat chicken for more than a couple meals in a row. So I decided to save the dark meat to eat on its own and use the rest of the chicken to flavor a pot of chicken soup. I’ve never tried making soup this way before but was recently inspired by another food blogger. Typically, I make soup from scratch with raw chicken but this method was a lot easier and was still flavorful. It tastes even better the next day and it’s still delicious as leftovers after being frozen.

Rotisserie Chicken Soup (serve about 6-8)

Ingredients:

1 whole Rotisserie Chicken (store bought)

4-5 celery stalks, trimmed and sliced

3 whole carrots, peeled and sliced

1 small sweet yellow onion, diced

1 medium sized white potato or 2 small ones, peeled and cubed

1-2 cobs of corn (shaved) or 1 can of roasted or regular whole kernal corn (fresh is better and sweeter though)

2 cloves of garlic, mashed

1 chunk of ginger, peeled

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

2½ tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

dash of sugar (optional)

3½ quarts of water

Directions: First, I remove the dark meat from the rotisserie chicken. I love to eat dark meat with rice, soy sauce, chili, and cucumbers. I separate the dark meat from the bones, save the dark meat in Tupperware to be eaten later, and set the bones aside. Then I remove the white meat from the bones and break it up into shreds with my hands and set it aside, keeping all the bones. I usually use about 1½ cup to 2 cups of shredded white chicken meat in the soup and the rest I save to use in my salad.

In a 8-quart pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic and lightly brown. Place all the bones from your rotisserie chicken (including some skin and wings, for more depth and flavor) into the pot and pour in 3 quarts of water. Make sure bones are mostly submerged. Toss in carrots along with bay leaf, ginger, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, and a dash of sugar. I personally prefer to cut up 1 carrot into big chunks to use at the beginning and cut 2 carrots into thinner slices to be added in later. Because of the thickness of the carrot chunks, it can withstand being cooked longer while sweetening the soup early on. The thinner slices are added in later so it won’t be overcooked and mushy but will be better for the aesthetic and for eating, in my opinion. Simmer for 45 minutes on medium to medium low heat, covered with lid slightly ajar.

Remove ginger and discard. Add celery, potatoes and corn to the pot. At this time, you can also add in the thinner slices of carrots. Toss in shredded chicken. Pour in 2 cups of water. Simmer for 45 more minutes with lid slightly ajar.

Taste broth. Add more salt, if necessary, and cook for a few more minutes. Remove all of the bones with tongs and discard.

Enjoy!

Braised White Wine & Soy Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms

In my early stages of learning how to cook, I made many meals from a cookbook that I think was called How to Cook Everything. It wasn’t mine. It belonged to my live-in boyfriend at the time and it was a huge book! Probably the size of a dictionary. From what I remember, it had some good recipes. It has been awhile, maybe 15 years since I’ve last seen that book but I remember making a chicken dish that I really liked that had white wine, soy sauce, and mushrooms. And that is really about all I remember from the recipe. This week, I wanted to try to recreate it. So I played around with some ingredients and came up with this recipe. I think it’s pretty good. It’s simple and easy to make and it only requires a few main ingredients.

BRAISED WHITE WINE & SOY CHICKEN THIGHS WITH MUSHROOMS (serves 2-4)

Ingredients:
• 1½ lbs chicken thighs (about 4 small, bone-in with skin)
• 10-16 oz of white button or crimini mushrooms, sliced (depending on how much you love mushrooms)
• 1 sweet yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced
• 4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
• ½ cup of white wine
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ Tsp salt
• ½ Tsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ cup of water
• parsley, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Season chicken w salt and pepper. In a braising pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat. Pan-sear chicken for a few minutes with skin side down, until golden brown. Then set aside.

Lower heat down to medium. Add another tbsp of olive oil. Brown onions and garlic. Add mushrooms and cook until they have shrunken.

Pour in wine and soy sauce. Add salt, pepper, sugar, and thyme and gently stir. Return chicken to the pan, skin side up. Cover pan, with lid slightly ajar, and cook for about 30 minutes.

Remove chicken and set aside.

Taste the sauce in the pan. It should be very flavorful and maybe even a bit salty. Add about ½ cup of water or less to dilute. Increase heat if need and let the sauce reduce and thicken for about 5 minutes.

Serve chicken over rice and spoon over a generous portion of mushrooms and sauce on top. Sprinkle w parsley.

Yogurt-Marinated Chicken with Tzatziki

You know how I came up with the name Love in My Belly for my blog and Instagram handle? It came to me 8 years ago when I lived in Hong Kong and I was homesick and craving a homemade meal. Most people ate out almost everyday. It’s part of the culture. Plus, kitchens in the average Hong Kong apartments are really small. Street food was not only delicious but was also fairly inexpensive. I had one friend there who loved to cook and often invited me over for dinner. Whenever she did, it made me so happy. I would respond to her Blackberry messages (back when Blackberries were a thing) with a heart emoji followed by “in my belly.” And the phrase Love in My Belly stuck with me ever since.

One of the meals she first made me was yogurt-marinated chicken. She never gave me the exact recipe (because she never measured anything) but she did give me a general idea of the ingredients. I made it a couple times in Hong Kong but haven’t made it since. It has been 8 years and suddenly I felt the urge to make it again. I altered the recipe a little bit and this time, I wrote everything down so that I could share it with all of you! I’m not really sure how to categorize it. This yogurt-marinated chicken recipe has Moroccan and Middle Eastern influences. But my friend originally made this dish with garam masala, a blend of Indian spices. I chose to omit garam masala from the recipe simply because I did not have the spices, but I did keep the ginger paste and the chili from her version and also added lemon and paprika. The recipe is not perfect yet but I thought it was pretty good! The spices are so fragrant and the chicken is so moist and tender.

Yogurt-Marinated Chicken (serves about 2-3)

Ingredients:

• 1¼-1½ lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (you can use chicken breast but I prefer dark meat)

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt

• ½ cup cilantro, chopped (and more for garnish)

• 6 small pearl tomatoes, cut into chunks (optional)

• 3 tbsp lemon juice

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp grated ginger or ginger paste

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp chili powder (½ tsp = mild, 1 tsp = a little spicy. I prefer 1 tsp)

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• 1½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Tzatziki (optional)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup or small package of full fat Greek Yogurt

• ½ cup cucumber, minced (squeeze all the water out before mixing with the yogurt)

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• ½ tsp extra virgin olive oil

• ½-¾ tsp salt

• 1 garlic, minced

• 2 tbsp chopped dill

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients (except for the tomatoes) in a bowl. Score the meat and then smother it with the marinade. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let meat marinate in the fridge for several hours or overnight. I marinated mine for 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake chicken for about 30-35 minutes or so. Half way through, add the chopped tomatoes. For the last 5 minutes, broil the chicken. Serve with rice and garnish with fresh cilantro. I served my chicken with garlic onion rice and a side of Tzatziki.

The Tzatziki is not necessary but it is definitely a nice addition if you end up finding the chicken to be a little too spicy for you. The yogurt in the Tzatziki helps tame down the spice. Plus, Tzatziki is a very refreshing and delicious side/sauce. If you choose to serve with Tzatziki, mix all the ingredients above and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. When serving, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on top and some freshly chopped dill.

Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup

I love tortilla soup. Even though I always look for it in the ready-made food section of the grocery store, I’ve never tried making it myself. One of the reasons I have never tried making it before is that I didn’t know how much of it I would actually eat and I only know how to cook for 6-8 people, never for one. I wasn’t sure it was the type of soup that I could eat lots of and freeze for later. As it turns out, I can eat a whole pot of it on my own without any leftovers to freeze!

With a lot more time on my hands during this pandemic, I have been challenging myself with new recipes and finally attempted to make tortilla soup. It’s sooooo delicious and hearty! And it’s so easy to make! I used store-bought chicken broth, store-bought rotisserie chicken, and store-bought tortilla strips. A lot of recipes have you make your own chicken and tortilla strips, and sometimes even your own broth (which I normally prefer), but buying all of these ingredients is so much easier! A whole rotisserie chicken is pretty cheap and you will still have a lot leftover to use for other meals. I don’t like beans and never have so I chose to omit them from the receipe but you can include them if you’d like. The toppings are my favorite part—the melted cheese, the crunchy tortilla strips, and the creamy avocado. Yum, yum, yum… I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

EASY CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP (serves about 5-6)

Ingredients:

• 1½ - 2 cups of shredded roasted chicken breast (depends how much you like meat!)

• 1 sweet yellow onion, diced

• 4 cloves of garlic, diced

• 1 jalapeno, deseeded and sliced

• 1 can of corn (or about 1.5 cups of frozen fire roasted corn or 1-2 cobs of corn shaved)

• 1 can of unsalted diced tomatoes

• 32 oz of chicken broth (low-sodium)

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp paprika

• 2 tsp oregano

• ½ - 1 tsp chili powder

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 lime, juiced

• 2 - 2¼ tsp salt

• 2 tsp ground black pepper

• 4 cups of water

• 1 tbsp olive oil

Toppings:

• 2 small avocados, cubed

• ½ cup of cilantro, finely chopped

• thinly shredded Monterrey Jack & Cheddar cheese mix

• tortilla strips (in the grocery store salad section by the croutons)

• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

In a 3 quart pot, heat olive oil on medium-high heat. Sauté onions until golden brown. Throw in garlic and jalapeno and lightly toast.  If your pan gets a little too hot and dry, lower heat a bit and add maybe ½ cup of water.

Add shredded chicken and 1 cup of the chicken broth. Season with salt, pepper, chili, cumin, oregano, and paprika. Toss in the bay leaf. Pour in another 1 cup of the chicken broth and stir. Cook for a couple minutes. Add canned tomatoes and mix. Pour in the rest of the chicken broth. Turn heat down to medium and cook for about 30 minutes. You may need to lower the heat to medium low if it starts bubbling too much.

Add 4 cups of water, corn, and lime juice. Stir and then cook for another 15 minutes. Then taste the broth and make adjustments as needed with salt, pepper, chili, or water and cook for another 15 minutes. I prefer my soup a little brothy because of the additional toppings that you add into your bowl after. You may need to adjust based on your preference and also whether you decide to add more chicken and/or beans.

In each serving bowl, top with cubes of avocado, shredded cheese, tortilla strips, cilantro, and a wedge of lime.