Pot Roast Soup

 Have you ever noticed that pot roast and roast chicken are exactly perfect bases for soup? Think about a pot roast: meat, potatoes, carrots, onion and celery.

I make my pot roast in the crock-pot and it turns out perfect every time. If I cook pot roast in the oven well, I get boot leather. So what do you with boot leather? Make soup!

As I stated above, I make my pot roast in the crock-pot. It is simple, quick and the meat can go in frozen. I usually get a roast big enough to make a few meals out of. The kids and I don’t really care to eat roast as leftovers. So why get a big piece of meat? I will slice it for fajitas, enchiladas, smother it in barbeque sauce or make soup.

Pot Roast Soup:
If you know you are going to make soup with your leftovers, return everything to your crock-pot and place in the refrigerator. The next day, I will lift out the solid fat crust and discard. Remove the vegetables and roast, leaving a gelatin broth with onions and celery in your pot.

Chop your vegetables into bite size pieces, adding more carrots and potatoes as necessary. Slice the roast into bite size pieces, remove all fat. Return meat and vegetables to pot, add a bay leave, two cups of beef broth or 2 cups of water and two bouillon cubes. Cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Chicken Soup:

Fifteen years ago, I watched Emeril Lagasse make his chicken noodle soup. After he striped a roast chicken carcass of meat, Emeril took the entire carcass and placed in a soup pot. Emeril made soup with the bones and skin, stating it gave the broth wonderful flavor. It did! 

I made chicken soup that way a few times, but this is not exactly smart. Since Emeril did not remove the skin and bones when he served the soup, it is not exactly child friendly. The young ones do not understand the concept of don’t swallow the bones. I had to come up with a new way to make chicken noodle soup where you get flavor, but not the bones.

I usually find the largest roasting chicken I can find (between 7 to 9 pounds), so we only eat half the bird. I follow the same rules for the pot roast soup with a few exceptions. Do not remove the fat; pull the meat from the bone and chop into bite size pieces. If you do this right between the breast, leg and thigh there should be plenty for soup. (Pickoff the back and remaining rib meat from the bones and save for Chicken Potpie.) Chop carrots, onion, celery, and place in pot with chicken. I also will add frozen peas and corn… about ¼ to ½ cup of each. Add pepper and garlic to taste. If need be, add fat free, low sodium chicken broth and cook on low four to five hours. Add in approximately 2 cups of dry yoke free, egg noodles an hour before consuming.

Time saving and last minute meal fixes to eat within an hour or two:
Crock-pot:
 Turn the crock-pot on high, place raw vegetables in an 8-cup Pyrex measuring bowl with four cups of water and bouillon cube. Cook on high in your microwave for ten to fifteen minutes. Pour into crock-pot add noodles.

Stove top method:
Place two boneless skinless chicken breast cubed, chopped vegetables, chicken broth, and seasonings in stew pot and bring to a boil for five minutes then reduce to a simmer. 15 minutes before serving add in noodles.

Cleaning tip for the day: To clean you grill and oven racks and grates. On a warm day, place racks and grates in a black trash bag, pour in a bottle of ammonia, tie shut and set outside flat in the sun for three hours. Flip after three hours for another two hours.(You might have to move the bag to keep it in the sun.) Remove grates from bag and wash them off with soap and water. Most of all the stuck and burnt chard should just wipe off.

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So you have roasted a whole chicken for dinner, what do you with the leftovers?

We all have a million and one recipes for chicken, it is so adaptable. When I roast a whole chicken, I pick every tinny tiny bit of meat off the bone I can. I might seem time consuming but between the wings, back, and those bits of the breastbones, you can gather almost a cup of meat. Why throw away enough food for another meal? Why throw away money?

You have played vulture and stripped the meat from the bones, now what? You can always use it in a salad, but have you thought about making a warm, fork licking, savory potpie? Now do not cringe and say "no, too much work" or "I don’t have time to make a potpie!" Ah but you do, and I promise it is easy to make. You can make it when you get home from work today if you have the ingredients.

I never made a potpie before because:

A.      I thought it was difficult and it intimidated me.

B.      I cannot make a beautiful piecrust to save my life. I keep trying, but it just is not blue ribbon, fair pretty.

C.      Always went to the store and bought frozen ones, not any more!

One day last winter, I sat and looked at recipes for Chicken Potpie. I then printed out my four favorite recipes, combined what I liked best about each to make one recipe.

Next came the piecrust. I can make a crust scratch, and do not even mind doing it. But what about when I am short on time or do not want to tackle making a piecrust? No problem, I cheat and go buy the dough already made. Mine still is not pretty, but I will only improve with practice.

My family loves this recipe and usually gorge themselves to the point there are no leftovers... pitty

Chicken potpie

Ingredients:

1 double piecrust dough for 9 inch pie (I used a Food Lion Brand)

1 cup boneless skinless chicken (you can use a breast, cut into small bite size pieces)

1 cup sliced carrots

1 small potato, peeled and cubed into bite size pieces

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup of butter (yes-real butter, unsalted would be best)

1/3 cup of all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon of salt*

2 teaspoon of pepper*

1 teaspoon of garlic* or one fresh minced clove

* I usually just eyeball and go by shakes of container, but those should be good estimates

2/3 cup of milk (1%)

2  chicken bouillon cubes (I use Knorr)

1 3/4 water drained from vegetables

1 can of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In saucepan, combine carrots, peas, potato, celery, salt, garlic and 1 teaspoon of pepper. (If using uncooked chicken add to pot) Add enough water to cover vegetables, add bouillon boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In skillet over medium heat, melt butter and cook onions until soft and translucent.

 Drain off 1 ¾ cup of broth from the vegetables and reserve. Drain any remaining liquid from vegetables and set aside.

To your skillet, stir in flour and pepper then slowly stir in milk, cream of chicken soup then the reserved broth until well-blended making thick gravy.

Place bottom piecrust in pie plate; add chicken and vegetables making sure bottom is well covered. Pour hot liquid over mixture. (Depending on your pie plate you might have extra vegetables and gravy mixture. Reserve them, and pour over a baked potato the next day for a hearty lunch!)

 Place top crust over mixture, seal edges, and trim any excess. Make several slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Wrap edges of pie with foil to prevent burning.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.