Fail or No Fail - Dinner edition

Improvised chicken soup = NO FAIL

delicious, filling, used up leftovers and produce odds and ends. I may make soup every Friday.

Improvised whole wheat cheddar biscuits = FAIL

Massively salty. Otherwise, not that bad. Plus we get to use these ridiculous little butter knives.

How I made the soup:

Warm a splash of olive oil in a dutch over (high heat.)

Slice 2 small onions and chop 5 stalks of celery, and drop into pan. Salt and pepper them generously. Stir occasionally.

Cut 3 carrots (or like 10 baby carrots) into thick slices and drop into pan.

If the pan seems too dry and the onions are sticking, add a splash of some liquid (I used broth, water or wine would be fine.)

Add the shredded meat from about half a cooked chicken. Stir. (Add any leftover cooked veggies you would like to see out of the fridge – I had a braised leek, which added a lot of flavor, and some sliced of potato.)

Sprinkle in a little (probably less than a teaspoon) McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Grilling spice. (YES it has sulfites, don’t judge me.)

Add 32 oz of chicken broth (that’s a box of Swanson’s Natural Goodness.)

Add fresh green beans (2 cups?) Lower the heat to medium.

Add a few handfuls of pea pods (what are these things called, anyway? I love saying pea pods, for some reason.)

Simmer until the beans are as tender as you like them.

This soup is flavorful (from the onions, which pretty much carmelize) spicy (from the spice mixture, which is awesome, chemicals and all) and has lots of texture and interest from the zillion servings of vegetables. It’s forgiving, cook-time-wise, so you can prep the produce and chicken as you go, as opposed to having to have all the beans strung and the chicken shredded before you turn on the burner. This allows you to improvise throughout, and also helps with the cleanup, eliminating all those annoying little bowls of mise en place.)