realfood Archives - Cruisin with the Colemans

Recipe of the Week – Creamy Chicken Soup

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Cruisin Brian

As the weather cools, we love to start making heartier meals and one of my favorite things to cook are creamy, thick soups. Krissy at SelfProclainedFoodie.com has created a wonderful rich and creamy soup with lots of flavor and wonderful texture. I’ve made a few adjustments to her recipe as I’ve given it here, but you can compare her original recipe here.
Begin by heating one tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over med high heat. Add one pound of chicken thighs, making sure that the pot is not too crowded. The chicken will stick to the bottom of the pan, it will release on its own as the chicken cooks. Turn the chicken after about seven to nine minutes. Continue to cook until the chicken is done. Remove it to a bowl to cool.

Deglaze the pan with a half cup of dry white wine or dry sherry. A note on cooking with wine or sherry: never cook with wine that you wouldn’t drink. Most “cooking” wines have lots of added sugar and salt. If the wine tastes bad by itself, it will taste bad in a recipe. I never use expensive wine for cooking, but a $10-20 bottle that tastes good will add depth and complexity to any recipe that you add it to. Adding wine to the pan at this time will allow you to scrape up the bits of stuck chicken and browned bits that are full of flavor. Remove the bits and remaining liquid to the same bowl as the chicken.

While the chicken is cooking, dice one large onion, four stalks of celery, and two large carrots. Add two tablespoons of butter to the pot and once melted, add the diced veggies, called a mirepoix, to the pan and lower the heat to medium. If the butter starts to brown, the heat is too high. The liquid released from the veggies should help keep things from burning. Let the vegetables cook until soft and lightly browned. Remove the veggies to another bowl.

Add three more tablespoons of butter to the pot along with three or four cloves of minced garlic. Cook until fragrant and bubbly. Add six tablespoons of gluten-free flour blend and stir well. Cook the roux over medium heat until lightly browned, about five minutes, stirring constantly. Roux can be tricky, once the color starts to change, it can burn very quickly. If the roux gets too dark, or if you see black flecks, toss it out and start over because it will make the entire soup tasted scorched and bitter.

Add two cups of half and half and whisk until the soup thickens. Add four cups of chicken broth along with all of the accumulated juice and wine from the bowl of chicken. Add the cooked vegetables and use an immersion blender to partially puree the mixture. I like some larger chunks left behind.

Dice up the chicken, add it to the pot, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

We love to serve the soup with Pao de Queijo, a Brazilian cheese bread that is naturally gluten-free and a glass of the wine that was used to deglaze. If you try the soup, let us know in the comments what you serve on the side.

Creamy Chicken Soup (based on the recipe from Self Proclaimed Foodie)

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 T olive oil
1/2 c dry white or dry sherry
5 T butter, divided
1 large onion, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
6 T gluten-free flour blend
2 c half and half
4 c chicken broth
salt and pepper, to taste

In a heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat and cook chicken thighs until browned, about 7-9 minutes on each side. The chicken will stick and then release from the pan when ready to be turned. Transfer the chicken to a bowl.
Deglaze the pot by adding wine and scrapping the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add bits and remaining liquid to the chicken bowl.
Add 2 T butter and lower heat a little. Add all vegetables except garlic to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft and slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove to another bowl.
Melt remaining 3 T of butter and add garlic. Cook until fragrant, 2-3 minutes and add flour. Stirring constantly, cook flour until a rich light brown color. Be careful not to burn or scorch the roux. If it begins to burn, toss it out and start this step over after cleaning the pot.
Add half and half to the roux and whisk until thickened. Whisk in the chicken broth and accumulated juices and wine from the bowl of chicken.
Add the cooked vegetables to the pot and use an immersion blender to slightly puree the mixture. Leave chucks to your liking or puree completely smooth.
Dice the chicken and add to the pot. Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings to your liking with salt and pepper. Makes 5-6 servings.

Recipe of the Week – Bourbon Glazed Salmon with Rice Pilot

Posted on September 17, 2018 by Cruisin Brian

While staying in Houghton, Michigan, we decided to try a new experience and chartered a fishing boat with Sand Point Charters in Lake Superior. More on that story later because, true to form, it turned into a much bigger adventure than we expected! We had a successful day on the water and ended up with some salmon and trout. Once we got to Michelle’s parents in Illinois we made dinner for them one night with our freshly caught salmon. Here is one of our favorite fish recipes.

Start off by making the bourbon glaze. Mince a large finger of ginger. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but here’s how to do it. Begin by cutting the peel off of the ginger and slicing it into 1/8 inch slices. Next stack the slices and cut into julienne strips. Finally mince as finely as you’re able. I like to do a larger amount when I’m home and put it into a mini ice-cube tray with some water. Once frozen, I keep it in a baggy in the freezer to use as needed!

Mix 5 tablespoons of brown sugar (we use Whey Low Gold, a sugar substitute), 5 tablespoons bourbon (I prefer Evan Williams), 3 tablespoons San-J Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce, 2 tablespoons minced ginger, 5 cloves of minced garlic, and the juice of one lime in a resealable bag. Add four 6-oz filets of salmon and let marinade for about 30 minutes in the fridge.
While your waiting, dice an onion and shallot finely. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and saute onions and shallot until soft. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup of rice. Saute the rice until it starts to smell “toasty,” you may even hear some of the grains pop a little. You are adding flavor right now, so don’t skip this step! Add two cups of chicken broth (we prefer Kitchen Accomplice concentrated broths) and 1 tablespoon of dried parsley and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for fifteen minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.

While the onions are sauteing, it’s time to heat the grill. Once the broth and rice come to a boil, put the fish on the grill over medium heat. Use either a piece of foil or a cedar plank to keep the fish from falling through the rack! The fish should cook on medium to low heat for about 10 minutes. Do not flip it unless the filets are really thick and are not cooking through.
Take the remaining marinade from the bag and place it in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and reduce the liquid to half and allow it to thicken. This will become an amazing glaze to spoon over the finished salmon (I really like it on the rice too).

I like to serve this meal with either sugar snap or snow peas for some additional color on the plate, but the sweet corn had just come in so that’s what we enjoyed on this night.

Bourbon Glazed Salmon

5 T brown sugar
5 T bourbon
3 T San-J Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce
2 T minced ginger
5 cloves of minced garlic
the juice of one lime
4 6-oz filets of salmon

Mix all ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and let marinate for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Grill salmon over medium heat for about 10 minutes on foil. Turn only if the filets are thick and will not cook through otherwise. While the salmon is cooking, place the remaining marinade in a saucepan and simmer to reduce the liquid to half. Spoon glaze over the salmon at the table.

Rice Pilaf

1 sweet onion, diced
1 shallot, finely minced
1 T olive oil
2 T butter
1 C Jasmine rice
2 C chicken broth
1 T dried parsley

Heat oil over medium heat and saute onion and shallot until soft, about 5 minutes. Add butter and melt. Add rice and cook until it begins to smell “nutty.” Add the broth and parsley and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Recipe of the Week – Jerk Chicken and Stuffed Mini Bell Pepper Poppers

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Cruisin Brian

Who doesn’t love stuffed pepper poppers? Well, probably anyone who doesn’t like too much heat or is trying to eat healthy since they are breaded and deep-fried. The only guilt that you will feel eating these stuffed peppers is how many of them you will end up eating, but don’t worry they are actually pretty healthy too. The grilled jerk chicken is just a bonus yummy!

I know, it looks like a lot of ingredients, but lots of flavor takes a little work and it’s not really so much stuff. By the way, this recipe works best on the grill but it was pouring rain outside, so everything was done on the stove or in the oven and worked out just fine!

Start out by making the world’s worst smoothy. Combine 2-3 green onions (white and green parts), 1 large shallot, 1 T brown sugar, 2 T fresh lime juice, 2 T olive oil, 1/2 t allspice, 4 cloves of garlic, and a large Serrano chili in a food processor (or in our case, the Ninja cup). Someone will notice that in the first picture, we did not use a serrano. The store didn’t have them so I subbed an Anaheim. Use the chili of your choice based on heat and flavor preferences (our favorite is poblano). Blend it until smooth, and remember, be careful of touching your eyes, nose, mouth, or anything else you love. (On a side note, be really careful cleaning up afterwards, those pepper oils can really mess up the next thing you make in the same bowl.)

Pour the mixture into a bowl or baggie and add 6-8 chicken thighs, legs, drums, breasts, or what ever else you have lying around. We’ve used different cuts but prefer thighs for this recipe. Let it sit while you prep the peppers.

In another bowl, combine 1/4 c finely chopped green onion, another finely diced shallot, 1 T lime juice, 2 T chopped cilantro, 4 oz (half a package) of reduced fat cream cheese, 1/2 C FAGE 2% Greek yogurt and mix well. Scoop it all into a baggie and toss it back in the fridge for a minute.

Take a bag of mini sweet peppers and cut in half and core them. Arrange onto a grill pan. Take the bag of filling and snip the corner of the bag off to create a piping bag. Pipe filling into each pepper. I missed taking a picture of this step, guess I was too hungry!

Heat your grill and start the chicken first. The peppers will take almost as long so get them going right away. I usually place them directly on the grate but if the peppers are small, you may want to put down a piece of foil or use a grill pan so they don’t fall through. Turn the chicken and rearrange the peppers if your grill heat is uneven. You want the chicken crispy on the edges and the bottoms of the peppers blistered but not burnt. The filling will not get very melty if you use reduced fat cheese, so you have to peek underneath.

Serve with some fresh lime wedges and some crusty bread. Let us know how hot you like your jerk in the comments below!
Here’s the original recipe from Cooking Light magazine and here is the version with my modifications.

Jerk Chicken and Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers

Ingredients

Chicken topping

2-3 green onions
1 large chopped shallot
1 T brown sugar
2 T fresh lime juice
2 T olive oil
1/2 t ground allspice
4 garlic cloves
1 large Serrano chile, stemmed and seeded (depending on you heat preference, sub another pepper or leave the seeds in)
8 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned

Pepper filling:

1/2 C (4 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/4 C finely chopped green onion
another finely diced shallot
1 T lime juice
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 C light sour cream
1 package mini bell peppers

How to Make It

1. Preheat grill to medium-high heat. After preheating, reduce one side to low.

2. Combine topping ingredients (except chicken) in a mini food processor; process until smooth. Combine mixture and chicken in a medium bowl or large baggie; toss well.

3. Combine remaining green onions, remaining shallots, remaining juice, cheese, cilantro, and sour cream. Cut and core the bell peppers lengthwise; discard seeds. Put cheese mixture in a bag, cut off the tip, and pipe filling into peppers. Place peppers on grill rack coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Grill 7 minutes or until peppers are lightly charred.

4. Place chicken on grill rack coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Cover and grill 5 minutes on each side. Move chicken over low heat. Cover and grill 5 minutes on each side or until done.

Recipe of the Week – Honey Ginger Scallion Chicken

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Cruisin Brian

Ready for another tasty and easy marinade and basting sauce? Our original recipe for Honey Ginger Scallion Chicken is another great marinade that you can throw together in a few minutes and is sure to please everyone at the campsite.
To prepare the marinade, chop 4 green onions, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 T of fresh ginger. If you’ve never worked with ginger, don’t worry. Look for it in the produce department, often near the garlic and shallots. Ginger comes in “hands” because the large pieces often have several smaller “fingers.” If you’re like us, you don’t need that much at one time, but you can break off a finger to get as much or little as you need (think like breaking a bunch of bananas in half to buy just a few). I cut off the edges and thin skin to end up with a small piece about the size of 2 dice. Cut thin slices, cut again into julienne, and finally mince. In the picture, the ginger is in the center.

Combine with 1 T honey, 2 T soy sauce (or our favorite, San-J Gluten Free Tamari), a few dashes of Crystal hot sauce and mix well. You could marinate for 2 hours to overnight, but I wanted to try something different this night.

We picked up a grilling mat after hearing lots of people talking about how much they liked them. On this evening, after getting a good fire going, we flipped over the grill, and added the mat. Place the chicken on the mat and pour some of the sauce over. Once the chicken is done on the bottom, flip and add some more of the basting sauce. Flip once more just to make sure that everything is cooked through.

We served this with some store-bought coleslaw, but any deli salad would be a great addition. Let us know in the comments what your favorite deli salad is.

Honey Ginger Scallion Chicken

4 green onions
1 T minced ginger (about 2 inches of a ginger finger)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 T honey
2 T soy sauce
Dash hot sauce to taste

This makes enough sauce for 4-6 chicken breasts.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
On a hot grill, place chicken on a grill mat and baste with the sauce, turning and basting again as each side cooks.

Recipe of the Week – Asian Marinated Chicken with Corn and Basil Faux Fried Rice

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Cruisin Brian

When we’re camping, we love meat marinades. Before we leave town, we can weigh out several meals and prep various marinades then throw them into plastic storage bags and toss them into the freezer. While we’re out on the road, lay the prepped bag out in the fridge the night before and it’s ready to cook the next evening.
This Asian marinated chicken works great with the corn and basil fried rice, but it is also good with slaw, a salad, or any other sides that might be convenient at the campground.

To prepare the chicken, place 1/3 c sliced green onions, 2 t minced garlic in a plastic bag with 3 T of soy sauce (we use San-J Tamari since it’s gluten free) and 2 T of mirin. Wait, you didn’t bring mirin to the campground with you?! Mirin is a sweet rice wine common in Asian cooking but a good substitution would be any sweet or semi-sweet white wine that you like. I used Chateau St. Michelle Riesling. To the bag, add 4-6 oz of chicken for each person you are serving. The recipe calls for thighs, but we used boneless skinless breasts this time. Let the meat marinate for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator or overnight. If you’re not going to cook it within 24 hours, put it in the freezer.

When it’s time to cook, get your grill preheated while you prep the fried rice. Rinse 1 cook of basmati rice in a sieve. This will help remove some of the starches and will produce a less sticky rice in the end. Place the rice in a pan with 2 c of cold water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and leave the lid off to cool a little. Precooked rice in a bag from the grocery is a great alternative to cooking in the RV and getting things hot inside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, add 1 T oil. Add 2 T thinly sliced green onions and sauté for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn. Add ¾ c of frozen corn (or 2 smallish ears if using fresh) and let cook for another minute or two to thaw out the corn. Finally add the rice and 1-2 T of soy sauce. Let sauté for an additional 5 minutes stirring occasionally. You want the bottom and edges of the rice to get a little crispy. At the last minute, stir in ¼ c of basil cut into a chiffonade. To cut the chiffonade, stack the basil leaves with the largest leaves on the bottom. Roll them into a little cigar and then slice into thin ribbons.

Cook the chicken on the grill, discarding any marinade left in the bag.

To serve, divide the rice among four plates, top with chicken and zest a lime over the chicken. Cut the zested lime into slices and serve on the side.

Find the original recipe from Cooking Light, September 2012, here.

Asian Marinated Chicken with Basil Faux Fried Rice

Chicken:

1/3 c sliced green onion
2 t minced garlic
3 T soy sauce
2 T mirin (or sweet white wine)
4 4-6 oz chicken breast pieces or chicken thighs

Rice:

1 c basmati rice, rinsed
1 T olive oil
2 T sliced green onion
¾ cup frozen corn (or 2 small ears, kernels removed)
1-2 T soy sauce
¼ c basil cut into chiffonade

Place all chicken ingredients into a plastic bag and let marinate 2 hours or overnight.
Prepare rice by adding 2 cups of cold water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover, cooking for 15 minutes.
Heat a skillet or wok with oil. Add green onion and sauté for 30 seconds. Add corn and cook another 2-3 minutes. Finally add rice and soy sauce, cooking for an additional 5 minutes, allowing bottom and edges to get crispy.
Cook chicken on a medium high grill until done. Discard the bag with marinade.
Divide rice between four plates and top with chicken. Grate lime zest over chicken. Cut the lime into wedge and serve on the side.