Chicken Apple Soup

It's finally October. I love this month. The cooler weather, the leaves changing, pumpkin spice lattes, football. It's the perfect month. Along with all of that comes sore throat season, though. I struggled with a terrible sore throat all day, so my boss sent me home from work early. I couldn't wait to get home and curl up on my couch and be miserable because my throat is still going to hurt because I can't get an appointment with my specialist until Tuesday. Fantastic. I should probably make soup, right? Right. Soup is always the answer. I made the trek across the river (I only lost one ox and 12 pounds of salted pork) to Giant Eagle after I left work to pick up some vegetables for the chicken noodle soup I usually make. While browsing through the produce section, I stopped in front of the apples and thought, "can I put apples in my chicken soup? I'm gonna put apples in my chicken soup." So I picked up a few apples. And some green cabbage.

I also picked up some of these grapes, which appear to be on steroids.

The first thing you have to do before you can start making soup is to put on your footie pajamas. If you don't have footie pajamas, your soup won't taste as delicious. It's science. Go out and buy some now. I'll wait.

My feet have wings!

Gather your ingredients. You'll need about some cooked shredded chicken (I used 3 breasts), 3 cloves of garlic, half an onion, 2 small apples, 1 potato, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 2-3 cartons of chicken broth, apple cider, and about half a head of green cabbage and some salt and pepper. Chop all those veggies up like crazy and slice the apples.

Heat some olive oil in a big pot over medium high heat on the stove. Throw in the garlic, onion, celery, and carrots. Let these cook for about 5ish minutes or so. Throw in some chopped fresh sage if you'd like. Because you love fresh sage and it makes your kitchen smell heavenly when it's cooking.

Pour in a few cartons of chicken broth over the veggies. Stir everything together.

Toss in everything else, sliced apples, chopped potato, chopped cabbage,  and shredded chicken. Toss in some salt and pepper. Stir everything together. I didn't have enough chicken broth, so I threw in some apple cider to add some more liquid to the soup. Bring it to a boil and stir. Lower the heat a little bit and put a lid on the pot and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or so.

While the soup is cooking, watch Jeopardy! with your cat and eat too many cookies that you made the night before.

Oops.

Make sure you check on the soup every once in a while and stir and smell the delicious smells that are coming from your stove.

 Once the soup is done cooking, pour it into a bowl, curl up on the couch, turn on the Monday Night Football countdown, and enjoy. When you're finished with the soup, try not to cry a little bit when you see the Pittsburgh Pirates logo at the bottom of your bowl.

Twenty. Years.

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Chicken Apple Soup

Ingredients 

• 1 cup cooked shredded chicken
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
• 2 small apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 baking potato, peeled and chopped
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 cartons chicken broth (can also substitute about 3 cups of apple cider for 3 cups of broth)
• 1/2 head green cabbage, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions 

1. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in large stock pot or Dutch oven.
2. Add garlic, onion, carrots, celery, and sage to oil. Cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Pour in broth (or broth/cider combination) over the vegetables and stir.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat and cover the pot. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Serve warm.

 

Lemon Parsley Chicken

Sometimes I feel like taking a nap. And sometimes when I lay on the couch I get the urge to try out a new recipe. Today was one of those times.

I got off the couch and browsed my fridge and pantry and brainstormed. Lemon parsley chicken! I love using fresh herbs when I cook, so I was excited to use the parsley I bought yesterday.

So gather your ingredients and follow along...

Chicken breasts. Fresh parsley. Lemon. Olive oil. Honey. Salt. Pepper. That's all you need.

Chop up a bunch of fresh parsley and put it in a bowl. Drizzle some olive oil over it, squeeze the juice out of a whole lemon into it, add a little bit of honey, and throw in some salt and pepper. Combine all of this together and pour over some chicken breasts in a shallow dish or container. Mix it all together and admire how pretty the chopped up parsley looks on the chicken.

Cover the dish and stick in the fridge for at least 15 minutes so all of the flavors can get inside the chicken.

While the chicken is marinating, maybe sneak in a quick nap. Or clean the bathroom that you've been telling yourself you would get to for the past 3 days. Or do some laundry. Or watch more Friends reruns, because let's face it, that's all you ever do anymore.

After the chicken has been marinating for about 15 minutes (or a few hours because you got distracted and went for a run after you watched a few episodes of Friends), take the chicken out of the fridge and place the breasts in a single layer in a glass baking dish. Make sure you pour all the remaining marinade over the chicken.

Put it in an oven that you had preheated at 400 degrees. Bake about 20 minutes-ish on each side. Take out of the oven and look how pretty!

When you put it on your plate, salt and pepper to taste, and pour a little of the marinade over it. Serve with some sesame sauteed carrots and oven roasted rosemary fries and enjoy!

How do you make the carrots and fries? Well I'm glad you asked! Both sides are ridiculously easy to make and ridiculously yummy.

For the fries, grab a couple potatoes, any kind. I used a sweet potato and a regular baking potato. Slice them up, then throw them in a bowl.

Pour some olive oil over the potato slices, then season with some salt, pepper, and dried rosemary. You could really use any herb you want. I've been on a rosemary kick lately, so that's what I went with. Toss everything together to combine, then spread the slices out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Throw in a 425 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes. Give the pan a shake a few times.

Enjoy a small snack while the fries are baking, silently cursing your roommate under your breath for leaving Hershey's bars on the kitchen table.

Once they're out of the oven and cooled, put them on a fancy plate so that you don't feel guilty about eating french fries for dinner.

For the carrots, slice up a couple carrot sticks. It's ok if they don't look pretty. They're still going to taste fantastic.

Heat a little olive oil over medium high heat on the stove. Toss in the carrot sticks and some sesame seeds (and a little salt and pepper) and sautee for about 10ish minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Once finished, drizzle a little honey over them.

Finish the dish with one of the chicken breasts.

You can now sit back and enjoy your dinner and relax. Until you realize that you still haven't cleaned your bathroom or done any laundry. Realize that you can either do those things now or watch more Friends reruns while finishing the last of your fries. Realize that you have a Friends addiction. Weep silently to yourself. Eat more fries. Everything will be ok.