Frugal Kitchen: Chicken and Chickpeas

Oh, the weather outside is......

The weather here in Austin is warmer than normal.  It's beautiful.  As Christmas quickly approaches, I spend my days wrapping up paperwork for the Fall semester and getting ready for my first grandchild.   For many reasons, my cooking / eating has been a bit off, and I long to return to my Susie Homemaker mode to putt about in the kitchen.  I miss cooking.

I have posted several other chicken ideas, and today, I wanted to share a couple more.  I bought 5 pounds of chicken thighs on sale.  I froze 1/2 of the package.  With the other thighs, here is what I prepped.

Chicken fajita baked potatoes
Chicken stock for loaded baked potato soup

I also finally made the Buffalo Ranch Hummus I had prepared for over the weekend.

Here's the preparation instructions:

With 3 chicken thighs, carefully trim the meat from the bone.  Also trim the skin from the meat.  Don't worry about cutting all the meat from the bone.  Put the skin and bones in a saucepan and cover with water.  Add 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped celery and salt / pepper to the water.  Simmer on low for about 20 minutes.

With the bulk of the thigh meat, cut into small strips.  Add to a heated skillet with 3 Tab. oil, chopped garlic and onion.  Season with cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Simmer and stir until meat is cooked through.

Once the chicken stock has cooked and then cooled, remove any meat pieces from the bones.  Discard the bones and skin.  Save the stock and chicken pieces until you are ready to make the loaded baked potato soup.


For the chicken ranch hummus.....................and this stuff is really good, you will need 2 cups of cooked and cooled chickpeas.  I make my own chickpeas.  It is much less expensive and less wasteful.  I am the only one in my family who eats hummus, so I need to make small portions.

In my food processor, I added 2 cups of cooked chickpeas, 1/4 cup buffalo hot sauce and 1/4 cup ranch dressing.  Blend well together.  I ate mine with gluten free crackers, carrots and celery.  It was wonderful.

Blueberry Lemonade: Leftover Soup

Just for fun, I decided to do a search on the history of soup.  I have this idea in my mind about the origins of soup, and a preliminary search did not reveal anything of value.  I had to do a bit of digging, changing up my search terms to find something close to what I was looking for.

In my mind, soup originated from poverty.  One small rabbit and a few almost rotten vegetables thrown into a pot with some roots and herbs would go much farther than the rabbit and vegetables cooked like a roast.  According to one article I found, soup originated to serve invalids.  I hadn't thought about that.  Regardless of its origins, soup continues to be popular in all socio-economic circles.  In our family, it provides a way to use every small piece of food.  We live on a very tight budget, and waste cannot exist.

Some items naturally make great soup.  Others do not.  Similarly, finding the combination of items that work best takes some practice.  I make various types of soup from leftovers, and over the years through trial and error, I have established a standard 3 recipes that I only slightly vary.

Fish
Vegetable (chicken, pork, beef)
Taco

Today, in the crockpot, is the vegetable soup.  I had the ingredients in the fridge and had not moved them to the freezer soup bowl.  The freezer soup bowl is a plastic container I put all leftover vegetables into and then use to make soup once the bowl is full.

In the crockpot is:  a few potatoes and carrots from a roast, a small piece of grilled pork chop, leftover green beans, a small amount of leftover au gratin potatoes, 1/2 chopped onion and a cup of frozen mixed vegetables.

Warm a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and add chopped onion.  Stir and cook until onion just becomes tender.  Add the leftover vegetables from the roast and heat slightly.  Add 1 cup of water and stir well, allowing the ingredients to mix well.  Pour into the crock pot.  Add a tablespoon of butter to the skillet and melt.  Add 2 tablespoons flour and mix well.  Heat through.  Add 2 cups of water to the flout mixture and stir to make sure no lumps exist.  Add to crock pot.

Add the other ingredients.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I like to add some rosemary and thyme. Turn the crockpot to low and cook for about 1 - 2 hours.

I hope you can find some tips and techniques to help expand your food use.  Check back often as I will post more frugal chef recipes.