Brenda's Cream of Chicken Soup

Best. Soup. EVAH!!!

This is the first time I made Cream of Chicken soup, but because I had my family over, I made a huge pot because I know how much my family enjoy soup.  But amazingly, every drop of it was gone... even the bowls I set aside for my cousin to ta-bao, and the serving that was meant for my nephew (who wasn't able to make it for dinner) were given over to the second and third helping requests.

And yes, my daughter even said, "So yummy! Can you made this soup again?"

So to safe-keep the memory of how to make this soup, I'm putting up the recipe here. ;)

Ingredients:
2 Boneless Chicken Legs with Skin
2 tbsp Butter (I use butter for the flavour, but you can use olive oil too)
2 medium-sized Onions, chopped
3 stalks of Celery, sliced thinly
2 Russett Burbank Potatoes, diced
1 Carrot, cut into strips
1.5L Chicken Stock
1L Water
Dried herbs: Dried Oregano, Dried Basil, Crushed Black Pepper
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Flour
1 can, Nestle Cream

Method:

1. Fry the Chicken Leg skin-side down in the Happy Call Pan, on low-medium heat for 3 minutes, to allow the chicken fat to come out.  Keep the pan closed.
2. At the end of 3 minutes, open the HCP to see if the skin is cooked golden.  If it is, then use a tong to turn the chicken to cook the other side for 2 minutes.  Keep the pan closed because to enable the chicken to cook without drying out.  Once this is done, set the cooked chicken aside and DO NOT throw away the chicken oil. (If you don't have a HCP, you can fry the chicken in a normal pan, but make sure your pan is covered to prevent oil splatter.  The alternative would be to bake the chicken first, but with the skin side up... but same principle, don't throw away the drippings because that's where the chicken taste is.  It might be more work to use a large oven for only 2 chicken legs; or having to clean up a toaster oven for cooking the chicken legs one at a time, which is why the HCP is more efficient for this recipe. ;) )
3. Whilst the chicken is cooking, put the butter in a pressure cooker pot, and sweat the onions on low heat.  When the onions have turned translucent, throw in the potatoes and celery and stir it in.  When the potatoes are coated in oil, add in the carrots, chicken stock, most of the water AND the two fried chicken legs.  Add in the dried herbs and a bit of salt. (Not too much salt because we would still need to adjust the salt at the end of the soup.)
4. Close the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes. (Initially, I would have used the thermal pot and cooked this much earlier - at least 2 hours for the veggies to get soft.  However, my mother-in-law gifted me with an 8L pressure cooker, so I decided to try it out instead. ;)  If you don't have either the thermal pot or a pressure cooker, you can also stove-top-cook the soup until the celery and potatoes are softened - about an hour.  But do remember that in stove-top-cooking, water evaporates much more, so you may have to add more water to account for the water loss.)
5. While the pressure cooker is cooking the soup, add the flour into the HCP at medium to low heat, to mix with the chicken oils to form a roux.  Essentially, fry the flour evenly until you see the flour bubbling, and it gives a biscuit-like scent.  Then lower the heat and add in the rest of the water a little at a time, until you get a brown sauce gravy.  It is this flavourful gravy that will thicken the soup.
6. When the soup is done, remove the 2 chicken legs and allow it to cool before shedding the chicken meat and put it aside. (You don't need the skin any more... although my kids fight to get the skin because it's just so yummy and chewy...lol!)
7. Add the gravy into the pot and stir until the soup thickens a bit.
8. At this moment, the soup is still very chunky, so remove about half to 3/4 of the soup and blend it in a blender.
9. Add about a ladle of the soup to the cream and stir it to mix well.  Once all the cream has been mixed into the soup, pour the mix into the pot.
10. Finally, add the shredded chicken meat to the soup and warm it up to allow the soup to thicken and mix its flavours.  At this point, add salt to taste, and you're done! :)

Serve it with warm toasted bread.  Or just slurp it all up on its own.  I'm sooooo going to make this again and again, because it's really worth every step. :)

"So yummy! Can you made this soup again?"

Happy Call Pan No-oil Chicken Chop with Enoki Mushroom Sauce

I'm not starting with the first foods I've cooked, but with the one I did yesterday. ;)

And there's only one pic of the result and here it is:

The principles of using the HCP is very simple - low heat, timing and evapouration.

Because of the pan's construction, heat is distributed very quickly, so at medium heat, food can char very easily beyond 3 minutes.

Therefore, the best friend of the HCP isn't the silicon cooking utensils to prevent scratching on the non-stick ceramic surface (although that's a close second ;P), it's the timer on my iPhone! :)

The final priniciple is to remember that the HCP has a seal.  This means that most of the water that's evaporated from the ingredients are trapped in the pan, creating a steam-like environment, which is great for veggies, but not so much when you want crispy meats or fish.

So, how then do we achieve perfect Chicken Chop that tastes tender and moist, and yet has a crispy exterior?

It's simple with a HCP.

No-oil Chicken Chop
Ingredients:
Boneless Chicken meat with skin
Salt & Pepper to taste

(Yes, that's all.  No marinates needed. ;P)

Method:

1. Use a kitchen hammer and hammer the chicken chop.  The purpose of this is to tenderise the meat, and to get it uniformly flat.  If you skip this step, the chicken meat may not sit well on the pan, and some parts of the surface may be crispier than others. ;)  I usually use boneless Chicken legs which I buy frozen in 2kg packs from NTUC.
2. Salt and pepper your chicken after hammering.
3. Turn on the fire to medium heat and place the chicken skin side down on the pan and close the lid. (There's space for 2 to 3 large chicken pieces, so to save fuel, just put in as many as would fit)  Set the timer for 2 minutes.  Refrain from the urge to open the pan and lose all that lovely steam, which will cook the chicken into tender moistness. ;)
4. Open the pan to check the progress of the chicken at the end of 2 minutes.  My medium heat and your medium heat are different.  For me, I'll need another minute to get the skin a little more golden.  If your medium heat is a bit higher than mine, and you've already achieve some golden crispiness and chicken oil seeping out, you're done with this step.  If yours need more cooking, set your timer at 1 minute intervals to check until you get a light golden skin.
5. At this stage, use a silicon-coated tong to turn the chicken pieces, so that the skin side is up.  I know some people would prefer to flip the entire pan, but I don't like to do so.  I find it messes up the position of my chicken and I lose all that lovely heat that's evenly distributed on the bottom pan. ;) Set your timer to 3 minutes and lower the heat.  Don't fully close the lid though - put something thick between the magnetised handle to all the lid to cover, but not seal the lid.  We want the steam to evaporate and retain all that crispy skin.  I use the handle of my stove lighter to wedge the handle, but you can use a wad of thick cloth, or find a bottle or something to wedge the handle.  By now, you'll note that the bottom of the pan has oil that came from the chicken... all those lovely chicken fats are full of flavour, and it's the best oil to fry the meat side of the chicken. :)
6. At the end of the 3 minutes, open the lid and check the progress of the skin side.  Determine if you need more time for a golden finish (it ought to be darker than the skin side), or if it's just nice.  If it's ok, you'll just need to flip the chicken one more time, for one more minute at this heat for the skin to really crisp up.  Remember to have the lid partially open with the wedge so that the steam can evaporate.
7. Remove the chicken from the pan and then put it in an aluminium foil and keep it covered for about 5 minutes (or until all the chicken chops that you're cooking are done).  This final step, also known as 'rest', helps the chicken juices to redistribute through the meat so that the meat is moist.  Don't cut the chicken before it has rested - otherwise all the moisture will be lost, and you end up with dry, gummy chicken!
8. If you're cooking more chicken, pour the residual chicken oil on the pan into a glass/porcelain bowl and wipe the pan down with a kitchen paper before beginning the process again.  I usually use a tong holding the kitchen paper to scrape down the debris and throw the paper away.  Save that chicken oil for making the sauce!
9. When the 'rest' is done, you'll find that there is a lot of fragrant chicken juice left at the bottom of the aluminium foil.  Add this juice to the chicken oil to make the sauce.

This method of cooking chicken skin-side down first, is also the way I cook my Salmon fillets.  The heat renders the fats and I don't need to add extra oils to cook my meats on the non-stick surface.  With the fragrant fats, I find I don't need to use too much condiments to add taste to the food. ;)

Simple Brown Sauce

And it's really simple.  Brown sauce is made from thickening the fats that have dripped from cooking meats.  If baked in the oven, the fats and juices are retained and cooked with flour, and water is added to form a gravy.  It is then seasoned to taste.  In a HCP, this is very easily done.

Ingredients:

Flour, about 1 tablespoon

Hot water, about half a cup

Salt and Pepper to taste (Salt can also be replaced with light soya sauce or a mix of the two is also fine)

Method:

1. After frying the chicken and while the chicken is resting, there's no need to pour away the oils or wipe down the pan.  Just pour whatever oils and chicken juice that's available into the hot pan and add in about a tablespoon of plain flour to the pan.  Once most of the flour is absorbed, heat the pan to low heat and stir the mix until it's brown - it takes about 1 minute.
2. Add in water to the pan and close the lid for 1 minute.  When you open the lid, stir to blend the mix so that it looks like gravy.  Add more water if you need to thin it, or allow the pan to evapourate the water if it looks too watery.
3. Add in the salt and pepper to the taste you want.

The brown sauce is versatile in that you can add other flavourings to get different kinds of sauces.  For a wine sauce, replace the water with red wine.  Others have added A1 sauce for a more sourish-sweet sauce, or honey for a sweetish finish.  Play and experiement to your preference; try adding fresh herbs etc, and then strain the gravy through a sieve for a smooth finish if necessary.

Enoki Mushroom Sauce

For my Enoki Mushroom Sauce, all I did was to add 2 packets of Enoki Mushroom into the Brown Sauce and close the lid for 1 minute (I cooked 5 chicken legs for dinner).  After that, I adjusted the water, and stirred the mushroom a bit and it was done.  After I did the sauce, there was still more juice from the resting chicken during the time I cooked the sauce, so I added those into the sauce and stirred it in.  Yum!

Because I wanted to retain my chicken's crispy skin, I put the Enoki mushroom on the plate first and then the chicken on top.  Not only it looks better, I won't end up with soggy chicken skin. :)

Enjoy your Happy Healthy Happy Call Pan Meals! :)

Air-fried Chicken Chop

I bought a Philips Air Fryer about 2 weeks ago, and was inspired to try modifying a baked crispy chicken recipe.

The initial recipe can be found here, but I felt that the baking time of 60min is too long for boneless chicken parts.  Anyway, the idea of using mayonnaise as a coating base appealed to me - it sounds perfect as a coating base for the Air Fryer.

The Air Fryer works like a mini-oven, but with a better air-circulation, thus ensuring that food is cooked on all sides evenly.  Unlike oven baking, where one side is usually heated more than the other, and there is a need to flip the food, the Air Fryer eliminates this need.

Anyway, this is my easy version of Air-fried Chicken Chop:

Ingredients
Filet of Chicken
Herb, Spices & Salt for marinate
Mayonnaise (I used my homemade mayo)
Crushed Cream Crackers mixed with pulverised Oats (but you could use Breadcrumbs or panko)

Method

1. Use a meat hammer to flatten the chicken.  Doing so not only ensures that the meat has an even thickness so cooking is even, but it also tenderises the meat.  Then, marinate the chicken with your favourite blend of herbs and spices and salt.  Try to keep it a dry marinate.  For this particular version, I used dried oregano, basil, paprika and pepper.  You don't have to marinate it long - about 10 minutes will do.  However, if you want to marinate it longer, it's up to you. ;)

2. Because it was a dry marinate, dipping it into a mayo undercoat ensures that the chicken is evenly coated.  After the mayo dip, dip the chicken into the Cracker mix.

3. Put the meat into the Air Fryer basket, and fry the chicken for 10 minutes at 180degC.

And that's it... crispy coated chicken, with a moist, tender texture.  Yummy, simple and if you're using homemade mayo, heart-healthy oils. ;)

 

Edna's Chicken Chop with Mashed Potato

Adult version

This is the full meal - mashed potato with herb butter, and Fresh Tomato Soup.

The chicken chop can be made smaller like nuggets, or served as a main course, or even between bread or in a bun like a chicken burger. ;)

Chicken Porridge

We usually have Chicken Porridge for our Sunday lunch, because it's just so simple to make.

All the ingredients go into the Thermal Pot in the morning before we walk 5 minutes to church. After church, we simply walk home to a piping hot meal of Chicken Porridge.

CHICKEN PORRIDGE

INGREDIENTS

2 Chicken Legs, bone in

1 tbsp Cooking oil

2 cups Rice

1 litre Hot Water

5 slices Ginger

Salt to taste (about 1 tsp - we can always add light soy sauce later if the porridge isn't salty enough)

Fried Shallots, Sesame oil, White ground pepper and Spring onions for garnishing

METHOD

1. Wash the rice, drain it and put it into the inner pot. Put the salt and cooking oil into the damp rice and shake it about to coat it. My granny swears by this method to get a very smooth congee. ;)
2. Into the pot, add the chicken, the ginger slices and the hot water, and set it all to boil. I usually boil the water in my electric kettle to save on boiling water on the stove; it's quicker for me, especially when I'm trying to get 3 kids ready to get out of the house. If you don't have hot water, just simply add water into the pot and then boil it with the other ingredients.
3. After vigorous boiling for a minimum of 5 minutes, turn off the heat and put the inner pot into the Thermal Pot.
4. Go out. Have fun. Go online. Watch grass grow.
5. After about 2 hours or more, remove the chicken from the pot and shred the meat. BE CAREFUL! IT'S STILL VERY, VERY HOT!
6. Pour more hot water into the pot to get the consistency you prefer. Since my kids like their porridge thick, I usually scoop their out first. I love my porridge thin, so I'll add more water into the pot after I've distributed the porridge out into bowls.
7. Put the shredded chicken on top of the porridge and garnish with fried shallots, sesame oil, white ground pepper and spring onions.
8. Serve with you tiao if you can find it. ;)

I like my porridge with egg, so before ladling it out to my bowl, I crack an egg and put it in the bottom of the bowl. I make sure that the porridge is HOT before ladling it on the egg. The heat from the porridge will cook the egg, thickening the porridge to a yummy texture.

Pasta Fast to Cook, Good to Eat

Pasta - before instant noodles, these were the instant noodles! ;)

We had 2 versions of a pasta lunch today, and I thought it would be good to blog about how to cook these fast to cook, good to eat meals. Unfortunately, it's a lot of estimation because I literally just threw in stuff into the pot... we've made these so often that I didn't measure it out.

Chicken Alfredo (for 2 Adults)

INGREDIENTS

1 Chicken thigh, cut into strips

1 stalk celery, sliced thinly

About 1 tablespoon Olive oil

About 1 tablespoon Flour

About 1 cup Milk

120g Dried Pasta, cooked in water until ready to use (we used Fusili today)

Salt and pepper to taste

Grated Cheese for garnishing

METHOD

1. In a pot, heat up the oil and fry the flour lightly. When the flour has browned a little, whisk in the milk until you get a thickened white sauce.
2. Add in the celery and chicken strips.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. The sauce is done once the chicken is cooked.
5. Either separate the pasta into 2 dishes and pour the white sauce over, OR put the pasta into the sauce, give it a good stir and then serve it out into two dishes.
6. Garnish with grated cheese. You can add in sliced olives too.

Prawn Aglio (for 1 Adult)

INGREDIENTS

6 to 8 prawns, shelled and the shells kept aside

1/4 cup Olive oil

1/2 Small Onion

1 tsp Minced Garlic

1/2 stick Celery (or equal amount of hardy veggies like French Beans)

Sliced Olives

60g Dried Pasta, cooked in water until ready to use (I used Fettucini today)

A dash of Paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. In a pan, heat up the oil and fry the prawn heads and shell with a little salt, until you get the lovely, yummy fragrant prawn scent. Use a sieve and a spoon to squeeze and drain the oil from the prawn shells.
2. Return the reddish prawn oil into the pan and add in the onion, garlic and celery. When the scent of the spices are released, add in the prawns, cooking it until they're done.
3. Add in the pasta and olives, and give the mixture a good stir to coat the pasta.
4. Finally, add in the paprika, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve it up on a plate.

Baked Chicken Stuffed with Avocado

This is so easy and healthy to make. The resulting stock from this dish, we used to make chicken noodle soup with the leftover fettucini. =)

A tip: NTUC sometimes has Avocadoes from Mexico in a bundle of 4 for about S$4, which is the cheapest I've found Avos in Singapore. Most places sells them for about S$1.50-S$1.90 each. Cold Storage retails the Australian Avos for S$2+!

Baked Chicken Stuffed with Avocado

http://video.about.com/homecooking/Avocado-Stuffed-Chicken.htm

Ingredients:

8 chicken breasts/legs, pounded flat

4 avocados

6 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoon garlic powder (You can also use fresh minced garlic)

16g fresh, minced basil leaves

400g diced cherry tomato (You can also use normal tomatoes, but dice them smaller to make it easier to stuff)

150g chopped sweet onion

pepper mill

Method:

1. Slice the Avocados
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cut the avocados lengthwise all the way around. Twist the halves and using your knife, strike and remove the pit.
3. With a large spoon, scoop the avocado out of its peel. Then, with a small paring knife, slice the avocado lengthwise.
4. Put the lime juice on the avocados to prevent them from turning brown.
5. Place the avocado slices in a mixing bowl. Add the pepper, the garlic powder, the minced basil, the diced tomato, and the chopped onion. Mix this all together.
6. Divide this mixture into two parts, so that you will stuff the chicken with one part and retain the other half as an accompanying salad for your meal.
7. Lightly oil a deep baking dish with cooking spray. Make sure that the baking dish is deep to hold all the chicken stock that will be produced by the chicken.
8. To stuff the chicken, lay a piece of chicken out on a flat surface. Scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and lay it onto the chicken. Roll the meat over the mixture and tuck in the ends.
9. Place the stuffed chicken in the dish. Do this with all of the chicken. Then sprinkle the top of the chicken with the cracked peppercorns.
10. Bake the chicken in the oven for 45 minutes.

Serve the chicken with the carbohydrates of your choice. We like it with Aglio Olio fettucini, as we can drizzle the resulting chicken stock over the fettucini.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken

Delicious over rice, this baked Teriyaki Chicken is quite simple to make.

Terikayi Chicken
Ingredients:
1 pieces of Chicken thighs (Or any other meaty parts, or boneless parts if you like)

Marinate:
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil

Teriyaki Sauce:
3 tbsp mirin
1 1/2 tbsp Kikkoman sauce
2 tbsp Japanese sake
1 or 1 1/2 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you want)
50 ml of water

Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with the marinate ingredients for at least an hour. It's best if it's marinated overnight.
2. Bake the chicken on a wire rack in the oven set at 200 deg C, for about 10 minutes on each side. Use the leftover marinate to baste the chicken while baking.
3. While chicken is being baked, put all the ingredients for the Teriyaki Sauce into a frying pan and allow the mixture to simmer. Once the sauce thickens to your liking and taste, put the sauce aside.
4. Arrange the baked chicken pieces on a plate and pour the Teriyaki Sauce over the chicken. Serve hot with rice.

Chicken Pie

One of our favourite meals is the humble Chicken Pie. There's something just wonderful cutting into a pie, releasing that delectable aroma of whatever's underneath the pie crust.

Chicken Pies also make great gifts or potluck items because they travel well, and disposable pie tins ensures that you don't need to wait around to collect the serving dish. *winks*

This pie crust recipe comes via Leelee Hugbear. It's very special because of the inclusion of yoghurt, which gives the crust a lovely aroma and a non-oily feel.

Pie Art? Nah, just leftover pie crust, cookie cutters, and a whole lot of imagination! *hee*

A Mini Version

Chicken Pie (with Yogurt Pie Crust)

Pastry for 9" Pie
Ingredients:
200g butter
250g plain flour
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
110g plain yoghurt

Method:
1. Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except yoghurt, and mix to a crumble.
2. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough.
3. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 mins to harden.

Chicken Pie Filling
Ingredients:
350g diced potatoes
1 cup water (2 half cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1 big onion, diced
50g frozen mixed vegetable
1 can of Button mushrooms, sliced
2 chicken fillets, diced
1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 2 tbsp water
1 tsp oregano flakes
1 tsp basil flakes
1 hard-boiled egg, sliced, or 4 hard-boiled quails' eggs, halved, or 8 hard-boiled quail's eggs, whole

Method:
1. Heat abt 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes with 1/2 cup of water and salt until soft, then set it aside.
2. In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil and fry the onion until transparent.
3. Add in the mixed vegetable, mushroom and chicken. Fry for a while to break up chicken.
4. Add in the potatoes.
5. Add in another 1/2 cup of water and simmer for about 5 mins.
6. Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture.
7. Add in the basil and oregano. Stir and then set aside for later use.

Assembling the Chicken Pie
1. Split the pie dough into half, if making the large pie, or divide the dough into smaller amounts required. Keep the dough which is not in use in the refrigerator.
2. Roll out the pie dough between baking paper until the size is large enough to cover the bottom and sides of a pie dish. Don't worry if there is a tear; fix it by pressing leftover dough into the tear. Use a fork and poke some holes into the pie base so that the pie can breathe. You wouldn't want your pie to explode! *winks*
3. Put 1/2 of the filling on top of the pie base. Arrange the eggs evenly on the fillings and then cover the eggs with the rest of the fillings.
4. Roll out another pie dough to cover the top. Crimp the sides of the pie to seal the top crust with the sides of the base dough. Decorate the pie with leftover pie dough, if any.
5. Poke some holes on the top crust with a fork to allow the steam in the pie to escape. At this point, you can refrigerate or even freeze the pie until needed. If freezing, ensure that the pie is well wrapped to prevent freezer burns. Just thaw the frozen pie in the fridge until required.
6. Before baking, give the top crust an egg wash to ensure a lovely warm browned crust. Brush the pie with 1 beaten egg.
7. Bake the pie in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 30 mins.

Enjoy!