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Guest Blog: Tomato Chicken Chili Beer Soup

March 27, 2013

The Ranting Chef Beer, Chicken, Chili, Kosher, Low Carb, Lunch, Soup , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Today we have Lillian from Lilly Sue’s Bites and Brews. When she sent this post I immediately fell in love with it. Beer with chilies, avocado and chili powder: YUM! Check out this great recipe and Lilly Sue’s Bites and Brews…

Life can be crazy. Some days or weeks or even months are crazier than others. Since the New Year, I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It’s not that I don’t know which direction I want to go but it is all the other things pulling me back and keeping me from it.

It is hard to juggle the things you want to do with the things you need to do. I am an engineer and currently working on my master’s degree which I really enjoy but I also have a huge passion for my blog and beer :) I made a horrible decision by taking on a HUGE project of putting together the first ever Engineering Internship and Job Fair on my campus. I have a quality that is overall good but sometimes very bad. If something will not get done well, I feel the need and responsibility to take control and well, that is what I did.

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Leading up to most big events in my life, a nightmare occurs. I am not one to have dreams/nightmares often but when I am stressed and fully involved in an activity, I have anxiety “dreams.” It was lunch time at the job fair and there was NO food…I completely spaced ordering food. How could I have done that?! Luckily, waking up in a sweat, I discovered it was all a nightmare :)

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My New Year goal for my blog was to experiment more in cooking with beer. Evident by the name, my blog is everything food and beer. Beer and restaurant reviews and recipes are shared with an occasional adventure here and there :) This journey of cooking with beer has slowed down my posts but for a positive end goal that will provide lots of fun experiments in the kitchen! The recipe I am sharing is one of the first experiments that I loved.

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This Tomato Chicken Chili Beer Soup is wonderful and perfectly in time for some brand new snow and cold weather, at least in Colorado :) I hope you enjoy it too!

Tomato Chicken Chili Beer Soup

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/4-1/2 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 32 fl oz (1 qt) organic low sodium tomato soup

1-2 Billy’s Chilies by Twisted Pine

1 can white beans

1 can hominy

1 lime

2 t Chili powder

Red pepper flakes (to taste)

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Chop onions. Cover the bottom of a large pot with olive oil. Simmer the onions on medium heat until tender. Add the minced garlic and let simmer for another 2 minutes.

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Add the tomato soup and 1 bottle of beer. Bring it to a slight boil. Place the chicken in the pot. Add a lid and reduce the heat to medium or medium-low. The soup should maintain a low boil. Check chicken after 8-10 minutes. Pull chicken pieces out when done. Add the other beer (if using two bottles). Add the lime and chili powder. Keep the heat on medium and let the soup return to a boil.

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Let boil on medium heat for 10 minutes. In the meantime, shred or cut the chicken. Drain the white beans and hominy and then add to the soup after the 10 minutes (may want longer for more heat). Bring it back to a boil and add chicken.

Bon Appetit!

Additional Notes:

Always watch the soup after pouring in the beer. It has a tendency of overflowing.

Using one beer makes an excellent mild soup. Using two beers should kick it up a notch but when I made it with two I did not think it was any hotter. To make it hotter, just add more time to boiling the soup before throwing everything else in at the end. This soup definitely does not taste two hot right away but can leave some heat in your throat :)

Twisted Pine is currently available in the following states: Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Check out their website to find out which locations it is distributed.

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Maggie Monday: Drinking My Cake

March 11, 2013

The Ranting Chef Baking, Beer, Dessert, Irish, Recipes, Vegetarian , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

It’s five o’clock somewhere, right? Good. Now I can have a slice of the cake that Maggie brings us…

I ran across this recipe a few weeks ago on the Better Homes and Gardens site, and two things made me give it a shot.

1)     I had just returned from Dublin, Ireland, home of Guinness.

2)     The Chocolate Guinness Cake I made last year was amazing, so I was encouraged to try another Stout Cake

This was pretty darn good. The folks in my office were more enthusiastic than my family. The cake is incredibly moist and has great texture. The Limoncello Sauce is amazing, and really gives the cake some needed sweetness. If you like real old-fashioned gingerbread you will probably like this. No matter what, use only MILD molasses. I had a jar of unsulfured molasses and it was far too strong and bitter for this recipe when you consider the beer. Just plain old mild molasses is the best.

I poured some of the lemon sauce over the warm cake as a glaze. I loved the look and texture of this cake, and the lemon sauce is a perfect complement to the bold flavors. Not my favorite cake ever, but I might try it again. If you’re planning a St. Patrick’s Day gathering, it will be a hit!

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Guinness Gingerbread Cake with Limoncello Sauce

What you need:

¾ cup Guinness or stout beer

2 ½ cups flour

1 Tbs ground ginger

2tsp cinnamon

1 ½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cardamom

1 cup butter, softened

1 ¼ cups brown sugar, packed

3 eggs

1 cup MILD molasses

1 Tbs grated fresh ginger

1 Tbs powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Limoncello Hard Sauce

¼ cup butter, softened

¾ cup powdered sugar

2 Tbs limoncello liqueur

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray a Bundt cake pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour beer into measuring cup and set aside for at least 15minutes. In a bowl, stir together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cardamom. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add brown sugar and beat until creamy, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in molasses and grated ginger. Next, alternate flour mixture and beer in three additions, mixing on medium speed until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove cake from pan.

Limoncello Sauce

With an electric mixer beat butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar,  lemoncello, lemon zest and vanilla. Mix until blended and smooth.

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Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar and serve with Lemoncello Sauce.

Maggie

Too Chicken to Drink Up!

November 3, 2012

The Ranting Chef Chicken, Grilled, Low Carb, Recipes , , , , , , , , , , 13 Comments

I cook with alcohol quite often.

Wine, of course, is so easy to cook with. It adds great flavor and can be used during a saute, braising or even to help build a sauce in the slow cooker.

The hard stuff is less present in my cooking, but bourbon, Grand Mariner and tequila make their way into the cookbook.

Beer is also a great ingredient to cook with. It is an ingredient that makes its way into a lot of my chili pots, as an agent to batter up fish for a deep fry and in the recipe below – Drunken Chicken.

The chicken was juicy and tender.

I didn’t follow the recipe below as I used some mesquite spices and my rosemary was dried.

So this it what a “sprig” of the dried rosemary looks like.

You can’t see it, but the chicken is sitting on the can.

Now the side view….

Drunken Chicken

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min | Makes: 4 to 6 servings | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

  • 1 (3-pound) chicken
  • Seasoned salt
  • House seasoning, recipe follows
  • 1 (12-ounce) can beer
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 1 cup salt
  • 1/4 cup black pepper
  • 1/4 cup garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat a charcoal grill over high heat. When the coals are hot and glowing, carefully push them over to the sides of the grill, leaving an open space in the middle of the grill. Wash and drain chicken. Coat the chicken inside and out with seasoned salt and House Seasoning. Open the can of beer and carefully insert a sprig of rosemary. Then, place the beer can into the body cavity starting at the rear of the chicken. Carefully place the chicken on the center of the grill, facing 1 of the banks of the coals, making sure not to spill the beer. Cover the grill and cook until chicken is done, approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning the chicken as necessary. The chicken is done when the juice runs clear.

Serve chicken with favorite BBQ sides.

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/drunken-chicken-recipe/index.html

Wait, Sear and Brine

April 4, 2012

The Ranting Chef Beer, Recipes, Tips, Turkey , , , , , , , , 46 Comments

“How do you keep your meat from drying out?”

It is a common enough question. In fact, I’ve been asked it here on the blog. All of us have had bone dry poultry put on our plate and the leaner the bird (as in turkey) and the leaner the cut (as in turkey breast), the greater the risk of it drying out. So what do you do?

  • My first tip actually comes at the end. Don’t cut into it too early. A good 10-15 minutes rest after it comes out of the oven (with a loosely tented piece of foil over it) will allow the juices evenly distribute back into the meat.
  • Sear. If you have the chance to heat up a nice pan to the point where oil is just about to smoke and allow the meat to cook for three minutes on each side, you create a barrier that makes it difficult for the natural juices in the meat to escape.
  • Brine. Letting the meat spend time before you cook it in a salt bath increases the liquid retention in the meat, so you start with a juicier piece to begin with.

Haven’t brined yet? It is simple. The ingredients are not difficult. The key is time. You need quite a bit of it. Overnight is best, so plan ahead. I planned ahead and made a Beer Brined Turkey Breast.

I served these with Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

You can’t tell, but the turkey is in the bowl. I used two Guinness and one Michelob Light. Don’t ask me why, they were the first three beers that I grabbed.

Post brining. The recipe calls for one on the bone, but my local store more often has the boneless kind, so just check it a little earlier as it won’t take as long to cook.

Spiced before cooking.

Still spiced after cooking.

I also roasted some potatoes. I quartered them, drizzeled olive oil over them and stripped a piece of fresh rosemary to sprinkle over.

Bake them at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Beautiful.

Beer-Brined Turkey

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hr 15 mins | Servings: 6 | Difficulty: easy

Ingredients:

  • 1 1-3/4- to 2-pound turkey breast portion with bone
  • 3 12-ounce cans beer
  • 1/4 cup coarse salt
  • 6 bay leaves
  • 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. Place turkey in a very large bowl. Pour beer over turkey. Add salt, bay leaves, rosemary sprigs, and sliced garlic. If necessary, add just enough water to cover turkey. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

2. Drain turkey, discarding beer mixture. Place turkey, bone side down, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. In a small bowl stir together the melted butter and minced garlic; brush over turkey. In another small bowl stir together the paprika, thyme, onion powder, sage, and pepper. Sprinkle evenly over entire surface of turkey; rub in with your fingers.

3. Insert an oven-going meat thermometer into thickest part of the breast, making sure it doesn’t touch bone. Roast in a 325 degree F oven for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until juices run clear and turkey is no longer pink (170 degree F). Remove turkey from oven. Cover with foil and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Makes 6 servings.

Source: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/turkey/beer-brined-turkey/

Gourmet Club Report: Irish Dessert and Drinks

March 12, 2012

The Ranting Chef Baking, Dessert, Drinks, Gourmet Club, Recipes , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 14 Comments

The Gourmet Club dinner last week started with the Irish Egg Rolls, continued with Irish Beef Stew and Steak and Guinness Pie and ended with a wonderful dessert. First off, take a look at the picture below. Can you believe that it started with a yellow cake mix? It did. It had the right balance of the chocolate and Baliey’s Irish Cream. Dennis made a dessert that was a great culinary finish to the evening.

Throughout the night we were treated to our choice of a number of Irish themed drinks. In addition to the milk of the Irish (Guinness), we tried the Dirty Irishman, the Nutty Irishman, Irish Coffee and Irish Car Bombs.

Bailey’s Cake

 1 box yellow cake mix
1 large box instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs room temperature
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish cream
1 cup chocolate chips (use regular size semi sweet)
 
Glaze
1/2 cup Bailey’s
1/2 cup sugar
Mix all cake ingredients except chocolate chips on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips, preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour bundt pan. Pour in batter and bake for 1 hour. Cool and remove from pan. Mix the Bailey’s and sugar together. Pour glaze on top of cake when completely cool.

Dirty Irishman

1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger Irish cream liqueur

1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger Irish whiskey

Fill a short glass with ice, and pour in the Irish cream liqueur, and Irish whiskey. Stir and serve.

Nutty Irishman

1  oz Bailey’s Irish  cream
1  oz Frangelico hazelnut  liqueur
1  oz cream
 
Pour ingredients into a stainless  steel shaker over ice and shake until completely cold. Strain into a chilled,  stemmed or rocks glass filled with ice.

Irish Car Bomb recipe

Irish Car Bomb is one of the most popular  drinks worldwide. The ingredients are simple and widely available, and beer  lovers will almost certainly enjoy it. If you ask for one of these in an Irish  pub you’ll be greeted with either a smile, or a black eye. Enjoy.
 
3/4  pint Guinness stout
1/2  shot Bailey’s Irish  cream
1/2  shot Jameson Irish whiskey
 
Add the Bailey’s and Jameson to a  shot glass, layering the Bailey’s on the bottom. Pour the Guinness into a pint  glass or beer mug 3/4 of the way full and let settle. Drop the shot glass into  the Guinness and chug. If you don’t drink it fast enough it will curdle and  increasingly taste worse.

That was from one of three Irish Car Bombs I finished that night! The sweetness of the whisky and Bailey’s give the Guinness a creamy and not bitter taste. Do drink them fast.

Bailey’s Irish Coffee

Fresh brewed coffee

Bailey’s Irish Cream

Whipped Cream

Pour hot coffee into a coffee mug (or tempered glass). Add Baliey’s until the coffee is a nice caramel color. Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

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