Super Quick and Easy Turkey or Chicken soup

Another way to use up turkey leftovers is to make a super quick and easy soup. I made this tonight. I can’t waste such a tasty bird. I’m sure there are a lot of recipes out there for Chicken/Turkey soup but here is what I did.

Quick and Easy Chicken/Turkey soup

Ingredients:

Leftover Chicken or Turkey Shredded

8 cups Chicken Broth (homemade, carton or 8 c. hot water with chicken bullion cubes; follow directions on package)

2 cups hot water

2-3 celery stalks chopped

1 small white onion

a couple handfuls of baby or regular carrots, sliced

1/2 pkg egg noodles

pepper

*salt if needed*

Directions:

In a large pot over high heat add chicken broth, hot water, shredded chicken/turkey, celery, onion, carrots and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30-45 minutes or until carrots are cooked through. In the last 8-10 minutes of cooking add 1/2 package of egg noodles to the soup. Cook until noodles are done. Serve hot.

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Using Thanksgiving Leftovers

I hope that everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now for the Christmas rush to get everything done. This year I intend on making a lot of gifts…so far I have only put a little tiny dent in my list.
In the meantime, I had to figure out a way to use up turkey leftovers. We spend this Thanksgiving with my friend and her family and they made 2 turkeys. Needless to say there were plenty of leftovers, enough for me to come home with half a turkey. Tonight I decided to make Rotel chicken casserole and use turkey meat instead, it’s a bird right. I have been making this for years. It’s a recipe my mom made when we were younger and I think that she got it from one of her friends. It’s super easy and can be whipped up in no time. Plus it can feed quite a few people depending on how much meat you use.

Rotel Chicken/Turkey Casserole

Ingredients:

Shredded chicken, in this case leftover turkey

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1-2 cans Rotel tomatoes with chilis, * depending on how spicy you like your food*

1 cup chicken broth, or water * if using 2 cans of Rotel you can omit this* It’s just to thin out sauce a bit

8-10 corn tortillas

2-3 cups shredded cheese, in the past I have used Mexican mix, Colby jack, cheddar, Monterey jack

cooking spray or a little bit of oil

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350°. Prepare a 13×9 baking dish with cooking spray or a light coat of oil. In a medium boil mix, 2 cans of condensed chicken soup, 1 can Rotel and up to 1 cup chicken broth or water.  Stir well, it should be the consistency of thin yogurt or pudding. Spoon a thin layer of the Rotel mixture into the baking dish and spreed evenly making sure to put some sauce in the corners of dish. Place a single layer of corn tortillas in bottom of dish, you may have to break a couple of tortillas in half so that the fit with out too much overlapping. Tortillas can overlap but make sure to put a little of the sauce in between tortilla layers. Next spread a couple spoon fulls of sauce, about 1/3,  on top of tortillas, layer 1/2 of shredded chicken/turkey and 1/3 of cheese, make another layer just like this and top casserole with layer of tortillas, topped with remaining sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove foil and continue to bake for another 10-20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling evenly across the top and cheese has melted.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. This is just a general recipe, I don’t have anything really written down. You know how some recipes are passed down by word of mouth, well that’s how I got this one. Feel free to adjust the levels of any component you just want to make sure that the tortillas are evenly coated because they can get dry and crunchy in the baking process if they don’t have enough Rotel sauce.

Cold weather cooking

Well the weather has finely gotten a little chilly here in Oklahoma, and with chilly weather comese warm beef stew. I made beef stew the other day and plan on making this recipe a lot this winter. This is a recipe for stew mix and the stew that I make with it. But you can make your stew how you like and just use this mix instead of a store bought mix. You could measure out a couple portions of mix and give as gifts too along with recipe.

 

Beef Stew Seasoning Mix (makes 26 TBS)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons basil
4 1/4 tablespoons salt
4 1/4 tablespoons black pepper
4 1/4 tablespoons garlic powder
4 1/4 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons celery seeds
4 1/4 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemaryMix all dry ingredients in a ziplock bag or an air tight container, shake well.

Use 2-3 TBS per 2 lbs of meat.

Beef Stew Recipe

Ingredients:

 1.5lb-2lb stew meat

salt and pepper

couple handfuls baby carrots, or 2-3 carrots diced into 1/4 inch pieces

4-5 red potatoes, washed and cubed. (I leave the peels on but you can choose to peel them)

2-3 stalks of celery, diced

1 white onion, cut into medium size chunks

1cup frozen peas

2 TBS vegetable oil, divided

3-4 cups Beef Broth, Or 4 cups hot water and enough bullion cubes to make beef broth (proper measurements on the side of bullion cube container)

Directions:

Dry beef and season with salt and pepper. In a large heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat  add 1 Tbs of oil to pot and place half the meat in the pot, making one even layer. Brown meat on one side (about 2-3 minutes) and take tongs to rotate pieces of meat and brown for an additional 5 minutes or so. Take this batch of meat out and place in a bowl. Add the other TBS of oil and repeat this step with remaining uncooked meat.

Return browned meat back to the pot and add, onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes, 3-4 cups beef broth and 2-3Tbs of beef stew mix. Reduce heat to medium low, cover pot and simmer for about 2 hours, checking liquid levels. If you wish you can add remaining broth into the pot. In the last 5 minutes of cooking add 1 cup frozen peas to the pot. Simmer until peas are cooked. Serve hot.

* You can also do this in a slow cooker, just brown beef as mentioned above and place all other ingredients into slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.