Chicken Wing Soup

If there’s anything I’ve learned from this whole “blog what we cook” project, its that I suck at taking pictures of food. 🙂

If you know much about Buffalo, I’d be willing to make a bet that it has something to do with either snow or chicken wings. While the city has gotten an unfairly bad rap about snow, everything they say about the wings is correct. 😉

Almost every visitor to the Queen City has been, at some point or another, taken to one of the famous wing hot spots in town. Several local restaurant go a step further and serve CHICKEN WING SOUP!!! Since winter set in, I’ve had a hankering for some of it but as anyone with a 1 year old knows, going out to eat can sometimes be an extraordinarily frustrating experience. So, rather than go out on a cold, winter night, we made our own! 🙂

After some quick Google searches, I found a few contenders. I don’t actually know what the source is to the recipe…but, I definitely started with a Google search. 😉

This recipe was VERY good. I’d definitely make it again…it hit the spot and was a great dinner after a long day at work. My only “issue” with the recipe is that it calls for an arty-clogging amount of cheese. As I said, it was good but I’d like to shop around a little for a recipe that isn’t so cheesy. Who knows, maybe we’ll find an even BETTER recipe by the time we’re done! (In all fairness, chicken wings and chicken wing soup aren’t recipes particularly known to be “healthy”…so finding a lighter version of this soup may be impossible.)

Another item to note: We did our special trick for preparing chicken for recipes. When we plan to cook several recipes that call for cooked chicken as one of the ingredients, we crockpot a motherload (an exact measurement) of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a combo of chicken broth and water for 8 hours on low while we’re at work all day. When you get home, you have a crockpot full of chicken ready to be used in nearly any recipe you want to make! We’ll use the chicken in probably 3-4 recipes. The extras store well in the frig in some of the juice from the crockpot.

Chicken Wing Soup

INGREDIENTS:
1 med sized white onion, about 1.5 cups, chopped finely
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs chopped garlic
16oz shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup bleu cheese dressing
1 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup shredded carrot (we didn’t add this because we didn’t have any)
2 cans chicken broth (29ozs)
1 can cream of chicken soup (10oz)
1 can cream of celery soup (10oz)
3 cups chicken, chopped
chili powder, salt, pepper
1/2 cup hot sauce (Frank’s is the only way to go!)

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. In a big sauce pot, melt a stick of butter with 1/4 cup white vinegar and saute the onion and garlic for about 10 minutes.

2. Add 3 cups of finely chopped chicken to the mixture and sprinkle in some salt, black pepper, a tsp of chili powder and 1/2 cup of hot sauce. You can use raw or cooked chicken. Raw chicken makes it more flavorful. You just need to make sure its finely chopped or even run it through a food processor.

3. Cover with a lid and let cook for approximately 20 minutes.

4. Next, add 2 cans (29oz total) of chicken broth, 1 can of both cream of chicken and cream of celery soup, a cup of celery and approximately 2/3 cup of finely shredded carrot and the cup of bleu cheese dressing. Less simmer, covered at low heat for 45 minutes (or until celery and carrots are soft), stirring frequently.

5. Finally, add the 16oz of shredded Monterey Jack gradually, stirring the whole time. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes and serve.

We ate this all alone but it would be great served with some garlic bread or toasted bread.

(Please excuse the awful picture. The point and shoot camera appears to be dying.)

We do an annual holiday party at work the last full work week before Christmas. They call it “Swine Fest” as a way of pretty much implying that we’re all going to be a little piggly all week long and eat our weight in various holiday goodies. People bring breakfast pizzas, cookies, appetizers, dips, soup, desserts, stuff to make sandwiches, etc. Pretty much anything and everything. Usually I make breakfast casserole but last year I decided to branch out and I took in some chicken wing dip. I find that having breakfast casserole so close to Christmas kind of spoils the big Christmas morning breakfast we do. 🙂 This year, someone else decided they were making chicken wing dip so I decided to make cookies.

These cookies are sooooo good. And the recipe is sooooo easy to make. I literally followed the step-by-step instructions from Betty Crocker and ended up with 7 dozen cookies. Exactly 7 dozen! I’ve never had that happen before…usually I am a few cookies short of what they say you’re supposed to make. 🙂

**Please note that the recipe below makes 7 dozen cookies!**

Peanut Butter Blossoms

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
3 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Additional granulated sugar (about 2 tablespoons)
About 7 dozen Hershey®’s Kisses® milk chocolates

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda and baking powder.

2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in additional granulated sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.