Curry Rice

This is one of my all time favorite rice dishes.  The aroma of curry may linger in my tiny house a little longer than I prefer but it is completely worth it.  This dish travels well and is wonderful for a potluck.   I still happen to have a bit of this leftover in my fridge and may take a curry rice break. BRB!! 

mmm…just as good as a leftover…mmmmm…

So this rice is extremely easy to make and will easily impress.  Let’s get on with it..shall we? Oh, side note, you’re looking at someone that is not all that fond of raisins, but they really do make this dish.  Don’t leave them out the first time, even if you’re not a fan.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs butter

½ medium onion

1 cup Jasmine Rice

2 tbs yellow curry powder

¼ tsp salt

1 tbs chicken bouillon

1 snack size box raisins

2 ¼ cup boiling water

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt butter in oven proof saucepan over medium heat.  Add rice and onion and cook until onion is transparent.  Add the salt, curry, chicken bouillon and raisins.  Stir to combine.  Remove from heat and carefully add the boiling water. It will sizzle and splatter so do this with caution.  Stir once and cover.  Place the pan in the oven for about 30 min.  Fluff rice with fork and enjoy!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup (Fiesta in your mouth!!!)

What to do for dinner tonight?  I had a few ingredients in the fridge that were jumping out at me, but nothing was happening in my cooking brain.  I had a good workout tonight and didn’t want to ruin all the hard work.  So I decided to make something that I love and haven’t yet tackled.  Chicken Tortilla soup.  I’ve had this a couple times before at my favorite cantina’s.  So I looked up a recipe and slightly altered it to what I had on hand.  I got this recipe inspiration from Tyler Florence, I mean, he does make the ultimate recipes right?  By the way, either we’re pigs or this recipe only makes about 3 servings.  It would be really easy to add more of all of the ingredients to make a bigger batch.

This is so easy to make. It’s basically open, dump and stir:

Ingredients:

2 Tbs oil

½ white onion

2 cloves garlic

1 14.5 oz can tomatoes with green chili’s (warning I have had a can for a while now and think it got hotter as it sat in the pantry, if you want to control the heat, use regular tomatoes and add green chili’s!!)

2 Tbs Sofrito

1 32 oz box chicken broth

Shredded cooked chicken breast ( another place to use that rotisserie!)

1 avocado diced

6 corn tortillas + oil for frying

Kosher salt

Cilantro

Lime

Scallions

Preparation:

Heat onion, garlic, sofrito and tomatoes in oil over medium high heat for about 7-8 min until almost pulpy.  Add chicken broth, turn heat down to medium and let all ingredients simmer.

While soup simmers heat frying oil and cut tortillas into strips.  When oil is 350 degrees **** Add tortillas in small batches and fry until golden brown.  Remove from oil to a plate with a paper towel and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Once the soup has come to a simmer and is warmed through it’s pretty much read to dish up. Ladle the soup into a serving bowl.   Add about ¼ cup of the shredded chicken, a quarter of an avocado,  scallions, cilantro, tortillas strips.  Squeeze some lime on the top and you are ready to rock.  You can go a bit further and add rice or beans to the soup, jalapeños, cheese or sour cream.  This soup has so many bold flavors it’s really a fiesta in your mouth!!!!

**** Tip**** If you don’t have a thermometer, you can use the handle of a wooden spoon to test the readiness of the oil.  If, when inserted into the oil, you see bubbles coming from the wooden handle, it’s ready to go.