Chili and Chicken Soup at the YMCA

I made these yesterday at a cooking class I taught at our local YMCA. I didn't take photos of the ingredients in their beautiful, colorful 'before' stage, but here is the end product of each.

Tri-Color Sweet Pepper Beef Chili

1½# ½” thick beef round steak cut in cubes

¼c (½ stick) butter

¼ lg. onion diced

Combine these in a heavy 6-8 qt. pot, saute' to bring out juices, turn up heat until the meat sizzles. Add a little water, stir and begin the Browning and De-Glazing process (described here in an earlier post.) Brown again, deglaze with a little vinegar and oil. Repeat this process 4-5 times until meat is very brown, then add:

2 15-16 oz cans petite diced tomatoes and juice

1 can Bush's chili beans in Hot sauce

1 lg. green, yellow and orange pepper, slice-chopped

1 lg. onion – chopped

4 ribs of celery – sliced

Stir this together and bring to a simmer. Simmer 10-15 minutes then add the following drained, rinsed beans:

1 15-16oz can black beans

1 “ can garbanzo beans

1 “ can white or yellow hominy

1 bunch of cilantro – optional

Combine everything and simmer a little while to bring all the flavors together. If using cilantry, add that now. Also, if necessary, add a little sugar if it seems too acidic. If flavors are weak, add some powdered beef soup base, cumin or chili powder. Serve with crusty bread, soda crackers or cornbread. . .Lin

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

Lemon-Garlic Chicken-Rice Soup – Quick Recipe

1½# chicken breast or thigh meat

cut into bite size pieces

½ lg. onion chopped

¼c (½ stick) butter

¼ chopped green pepper

⅔c 20 minute white rice

Combine the above ingredients in a heavy 5qt. pan. Simmer on low until the ingredients are combined and the water is out of the chicken – 5-10 minutes. Continue to saute and add water in ¾c increments, until meat reaches the desired brownness and rice is a little bit 'snappy.' Then add the following chopped or sliced vegetables, lemon juice and zest to the pot with 4-6 cups of water:

4 stalks of celery

4 med. carrots

1 bulb of fennel – sliced

5 cloves of garlic – minced

1 lemon – zest and juice

Simmer and stir until rice is cooked and vegetables are tender, then add:

chopped celery tops

fluffy fennel greens

½ bunch of chopped curly or flat-leaf Italian parsley

Simmer this 5 additional minutes.

Check flavors, add Better Than Bouillon chicken soup base if needed. . .Lin