I went to my freezer and pulled out corn, peas, chopped chicken, and broth (I always freeze the broth when I boil any kind of chicken- such a great money saver). Then got some rice out of my pantry. Thaw the broth at least half way, then toss everything in the pan including some salt and pepper. As soon as your rice cooks, its done! And it was so yummy!! I could have added some other veggies, but again, I was going for ease last night :)
I did this the other night with tortilla soup. Start with the chicken base, add corn, blackbeans, chopped chicken from the freezer, chili powder, cumin, salt/pepper- serve with cheese, sour cream, tortilla strips or chips and cilantro.. YUM!!! You can also add some tomato sauce or salsa to the cooking soup as well.
Just get creative with that broth in your freezer- its a great base for so many yummy meals! Some other chicken based soup ideas include:
- Chicken Artichoke (one of my favs!)
- Chicken and Dumplings (not exactly soup, but close.. and easy!)
- Cream of Chicken
- Chicken Noodle
- Thai Chicken Curry Soup- use coconut milk, chicken stock, green peppers, chicken and green curry to create a quick yummy thai-type soup that you can serve over rice. Let me know if you find an actual recipe for this one that is easy!
What other timesaving soup ideas do you have (besides opening a can :)?
Jas,
ReplyDeleteThe last time I made tortilla soup I squeezed some fresh lime into the broth, and man oh man, it was good! I love your frozen chopped cooked chicken idea. Thanks for sharing. Loving this blog.
i am making chili right now (kinda hot to do it since it will be 104 today, oops!) with some frozen beef i had, dry red beans i soaked all night, and some local veggies i got on a great price at our local health food store. i put it all together in the morning, let it cook all day til dinner, and always make extra so it will be either another meal during the week or freeze it for a quick meal later. mostly a time saver by making extras for later.
ReplyDeleteI like to first sautee my veggies in a little butter or coconut oil so the whole thing cooks faster. Do that, pull the broth and chicken out of the freezer...wa la! I love soup.
ReplyDeleteI also realized what a money saver it can be for me, too. I think you buy uncooked chicken and roast it. But for me, as a timesaver I do buy the chickens from costco that we eat on Tuesdays. Right now one actually feeds all of us for $5, which is great for a family of 9, and we have leftover dark meat for the soup. Anyway, I feel like costco chickens are about as close to a healthy, non organic chicken you can get, and I had been buying the pacific foods organic broth. It finally clicked with me that if I threw the costco chicken carcass (dark meat still attached) in my crockpot every week and filled it up that it made broth worth more than I had paid for the chicken!
Cool with me.