Friday, March 07, 2008

Fun, Postponed, and a Recipe!

So, tonight I was to have dinner at a colleague's, but alas, this was not to be for the End Times that the meteorologists predicted appeared to be for real as opposed to a meteorological wish for a real weather event. See, I was raised in a place of much snow, so when the forecasters here get all excited, and when it turns out to be like 3 or 4 inches... well, let's just say that I've learned to take their predictions with a good grain of salt. But no! Indeed! 'Tis a real snowstorm! Hurrah!

Well, not really hurrah. I was looking forward to socializing this evening. However, I did manage to make my own fun. On the way home from my doctor's appointment this morning, I decided to stop at the grocery store (along with a bunch of other fools buying enough food for approximately 3 weeks, if one could live on beer and doritos for that long, a fact about which I'm not certain). My agenda was to pick up milk and cayenne pepper. But so anyway, boneless skinless chicken breast tenders were on sale, and I thought to myself, "Self, you know what would be delicious? Some sort of chicken stew! Sure, you've never actually made this before, and you don't have a shopping list, and you don't really know what you're going to do to make this, but if one can't experiment during a Big Snowstorm, well, when can one? And so, I invented a recipe with the stuff I had on hand and the chicken breast tenders.

[Aside: BFF and I joke that we're waiting for Iron Chef America to do the Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Battle. Come on. That's what most Americans are cooking in their kitchens! And think about the challenge of making it interesting! I do think that this recipe would be one to include for sure.]

Ingredients:
4 ribs of celery, chopped.
2 medium onions, chopped.
4 or 5 carrots (what I had left in the house), chopped.
5 turnips (what I had in the house), peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces.
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces.
1 can stewed tomatoes.
1 32 oz. box of low sodium chicken broth.
2 heaping teaspoons of flour.
salt, pepper, dried thyme to taste.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter

1. Chop up all of the veggies.
2. In a big pot, add the oil and butter and heat on medium-high
3. Add onion, carrot, celery, and salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook until tender. While that's cooking, cut the chicken.
4. Add flour, and stir to coat the tender veggies. Keep on medium to medium-high heat and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
5. Stir in the chicken.
6. Dump in the can of stewed tomatoes.
7. Stir in the turnips.
8. Add the chicken broth and adjust heat to high, bringing the contents of the pot to a boil.
9. When the pot reaches a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
10. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Hearty, filling, lowfat, easy, and delicious. And especially nice with a piece of hearty bread.

4 comments:

k8 said...

(first comment disappeared, so I hope this isn't a duplicate)
Sounds yummy! I love soups and stews.

The pre-storm rush cracks me up. It happens here in Wisconsin, too, and people up here should be used to snowy weather. I've never quite understood why a storm warning means that people need 2 fully loaded carts full of food.

Thoroughly Educated said...

Sounds yummy! I bought chicken today, too, but I cooked it and pureed it already for my elderly dog, who's decided it's the only thing he wants to eat.

We also have a real snowstorm, up here in the land of real snowstorms, and a dinner with old colleagues that I had really been looking forward to was canceled. It's probably a good thing we're not out there in it, but still, it's a disappointment. Sigh.

But hey, at least we have dog food!

Belle said...

I've never been pleased with the tenders, as they seem rather tasteless. If I'm doing stews/soups, I go for the stuff on the bones. Which, I admit, is about twice a year. Max.

PG said...

I 3rd the request for a boneless, skinless chicken breast battle on iron chef. I would say about 1/3 of my meals include it.