Warm and Hearty Chicken Soup!

Originally posted to my Squidoo lens on 2/11/08
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Hearty Chicken Escarole Soup with Mini Meatballs
My own recipe



Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
3 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 cup of carrots, chopped small
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 large cloves of fresh garlic, minced
splash of white wine
3 cups escarole, chiffonaded
2 packed cups cooked chicken cut/broken into small pieces
Reserved pan drippings from last night's chicken dinner
(see recipe from 2/10/08- roasted chicken with citrus and herbs)
(3) 32 oz containers of chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
Cooked ditalini (or other small) pasta- follow package directions for cooking
mini meatballs (ingredients to follow)

Mini Meatballs:
1/4 lb lean ground beef
1/3 lb ground pork
1 (from the 3 above) fresh garlic clove, minced
1/2 of a beaten egg
generous handful of seasoned bread crumbs
4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
(yields approx. 70 meatballs)

Combine well all meatball ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Roll out marble sized meatballs and set aside.

Next, heat olive oil in a 4 qt pan over medium low heat. Add carrots, celery, onion and 2 remaining garlic cloves and let them sweat down 5-6 minutes.
Once onions are translucent and carrots begin to soften, push the veggies to the sides of the pan creating a "well" and add meatballs into the center. Turn up the heat slightly and brown meatballs for approx. 8 minutes.
Once meatballs are browned on all sides, add a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan- 1 minute.
Slowly add the broth and drippings to the pan, turn heat to medium, cover and let simmer 10-15 minutes. Add chicken, reduce heat to low and simmer an addition 3-4 minutes. Just prior to serving, add escarole and let it wilt down 2-3 minutes.

Serve over 1 cup of cooked ditalini pasta* with fresh baked Italian bread.

This makes a giant pot of soup- enough to feed my 5 person family two bowls each and still have enough for a second meal! It freezes well, so you can have dinner set aside for a busy evening when there's no time to cook!

*Note: keep pasta seperate, if it sits in the soup it will absorb all the liquid, get puffy and soggy and will not taste very good!

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2/10/08 Roasted Chicken with Citrus and Herbs
My own recipe, hope you like it!



Ingredients:
7-8 lb roaster chicken
1/2 cup softened butter
fresh rosemary, thyme and sage (usually you can buy a package with all 3 together in the produce section called "poultry mix")
1 medium orange
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Seperate herbs into two bunches:
1) leaves from 2 sprigs each rosemary and thyme and three sage leaves to be chopped
2) whole sprigs and 3-4 additional sage leaves

In a small bowl, combine butter and chopped fresh herbs. Use a fork to mix together until well combined. Cover and put in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes, until firm but not hard.

Rinse and pat dry the chicken and add to your roasting pan. Gently slide your fingers under the skin to seperate it from the meat of the bird and rub 1/2 of butter mixture onto meat and the remaining half onto the skin of the bird and then season skin with salt and pepper.

Slice the orange in half and squeeze juice over the chicken. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with whole herb sprigs and orange portions.

Place chicken in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees F and then reduce heat to 350 degrees F for approx. 2 hours or until internal temp reads 165-170 degrees F. Remove from oven and tent with foil. (The chicken will continue to cook until it reaches a safe 180 degrees.)

This should produce a tasty and juicy chicken every time! Enjoy!

Side note- once the chicken is completely cooled, pick the meat off the bone and reserve for tomorrow night's dinner- homemade chicken soup! Strain the pan drippings into a plastic storage container and refrigerate. The fat will seperate from the broth and solidify, allowing you to scrape it off the top and have virtually fat free broth with tons of flavor!