Medium-Effort Chicken Noodle Soup

 What is medium-effort chicken soup? Well, it's not no-effort soup where you throw a bunch of pre-cooked ingredients into a pan and heat it all up. It's also not the "supreme" or "ultimate" chicken soup recipes you find on Cook's Illustrated, Serious Eats, or any of the other foodie websites. This soup takes a little prep work, some time, but not very much effort and makes a soup that is substantially better than what you can buy pre-made.

Note on ingredients: I like a combination of black and white peppers in this dish, but it's fine to use only one of them. Also, if you like a particular herb or spice in your own chicken soup, just add it with all the other dried herbs. I think carrots and celery are the best veggies for chicken soup, but you can also use turnips, parsnips, potatoes, or whatever you like (or have.) In other words, this chicken soup can be made any way you like it!

Ingredients

• 2-3 pounds of chicken thighs or drumsticks (any combination of dark meat), skin-on and bone-in
• 4-5 cans of low-sodium chicken broth
• 5-10 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried/dehydrated minced onion (not onion powder!)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 3 medium or large carrots
• 3 ribs celery (save the leaves from your bunch if it has them)
• 1/4 cup of fresh parsley leaves
• 12 ounces dried egg noodles
• 1 lemon, which you will both zest and juice.

Instructions

Put the chicken and garlic in a large soup pot, cover with the broth by about an inch. Turn the heat on high and while it comes to a boil add the dried herbs, spices, and salt. Once it boils, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 60-90 minutes, until the chicken is ready to fall apart. 

Carefully remove the chicken to a cutting board, keeping as much of the broth in the pan as possible. While the chicken cools, chop the celery and carrots into bite-sized pieces and place into the soup. Turn the heat to low and cover. 

Finely chop up the parsley and celery leaves and set aside. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the skin off and discard. Then pull the meat off the bones, discarding the bones and any cartilage or gristle. Chop or pull apart any large chunks of chicken into bite-sized pieces. 

Add the chicken meat and noodles to the pot, cover, and simmer until the noodles are tender, 7-8 minutes. Remove from heat. Zest and juice the lemon and stir in the zest, juice, parsley, and celery leaves. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Sheet Pan Sweet Potato Hash with Greens

I wanted something different to serve with some pork chops I was preparing. Potatoes are nice, but I thought that sweet potatoes would be a welcome change. Wanting to keep it simple, I decided to integrate the vegetables right into the potatoes in order to make a one-pan side dish. The high heat of the oven dries the greens out a bit while they brown, making it a little crispy and adds a great texture.

Ingredients

• 2 large (or 3 small) sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 large red onion, chopped large
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped large
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram (or oregano*)
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• vegetable or canola oil
• 1 bunch collard greens, thick stems trimmed off, leaves washed and roughly chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss the cubed sweet potatoes, onion, and bell pepper together in a large bowl with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil (enough to coat everything) along with the herbs and spices (i.e., everything except the greens). Once everything is evenly coated with the oil and spices, pour the contents of the bowl out onto a large rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan. Cover the top of the pan with foil and cook in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 15 or 20 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are softened and starting to brown. Remove the pan from the oven and spread the greens over the top of everything. Using a large spatula, gently flip/stir the greens into the potato mixture until the greens are mixed into everything. Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, or until the greens start to brown.

Serving suggestion: sous vide pork chops (see below.) Leftovers are awesome when topped with a sunny-side egg!

*a note on the marjoram/oregano: I like marjoram better than thyme or oregano for most places that either are called for. Not sure why, I just do. I'll probably never write my own recipe from scratch that calls for either. Since marjoram is not a particularly common herb, you might not have it - just use whatever dried herb you have and like - thyme, oregano, basil, whatever!

Glazed BBQ Meatloaf

I've been refining my meatloaf recipe for a number of years. My kids call this "Dad's Awesome Meatloaf," and I think it's earned the moniker! (2/12/2020)

Update: Still refining! I think the new process described here makes for a much improved texture! (3/9/2023)

Ingredients

Glaze

• 1 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce (my favorite uses chipotle chilis)
• 2-3 jerks Worcestershire sauce (about a tablespoon)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard powder

Meatloaf

• 2 teaspoons canola/vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (from 2-4 cloves)
• 25 saltine cracker squares
• 3.5 ounces milk (7 tablespoons)
• 2 pounds ground beef (I like 80-85 percent lean, don't get the extra-lean stuff for this)
• 1 pound ground pork
• 2 whole eggs + 2 extra yolks (save the white for some other purpose, you won't use it here)
• 2-3 jerks Worcestershire sauce (about a tablespoon)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Glaze

In a small saucepan, whisk together all glaze ingredients over medium heat. Once the mixture starts to bubble, remove from heat and set aside.

Meatloaf

In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and sweat the onion with a big pinch of salt for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook over low for 2 or 3 minutes more until the onions are translucent and very soft (if at any time anything starts to brown, turn the heat down.) Take the skillet off heat.

Add the saltines to the bowl of your food processor and pulse several times until ground into fine crumbs. Add milk, onions, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard to food processor and pulse together several more times until well mixed (it does not need to be smooth or homogeneous, just evenly distributed.) Turn on your broiler. Cover a large rimmed baking pan with foil and lightly coat the foil with cooking spray. Reserve half of the cooled glaze (about 3/4 of a cup) in a dish for serving at the table.

Put on disposable gloves for this next part. Add the meat, cracker mixture, whole eggs and yolks into a large mixing bowl. Mix together with your gloved hands for 5 or 10 seconds until the eggs have started to incorporate with the meat. Add the dried herbs and pepper then continue to mix with your hands until they are evenly distributed throughout the meat. Form into a rough ball in the bowl and then pour the ball onto the foil lined pan. Continuing to use your hands, form into a loaf shape that is roughly 9x5 inches. Put the meatloaf under the broiler about 2 inches from the heat. Broil until it starts to brown. Remove from broiler and brush on about 5 or 6 tablespoons of the glaze still in the pan (enough to cover the top and sides of the loaf.) Return to the broiler and cook for another 2 minutes, until the glaze starts to brown. Remove from oven and brush again with remaining glaze from the pan. Set the oven for 350 degrees and bake until it reaches an internal temp of 155 degrees, about 40-45 minutes. Transfer your loaf to a carving board and rest for 5-10 minutes. Slice thick and serve with reserved glaze.