Thursday, June 25, 2009

How To - Making Chicken Noodle Soup in the Crockpot By KC Kudra

Making homemade soup can take a long time, but with your magic crockpot, you can get a wonderful batch of chicken noodle soup while you are taking care of other tasks. While you are out and about, your soup will be happily simmering, creating a delectable bowl of comfort. This is a meal you can easily make whether you are an accomplished chef or if you only cook when absolutely necessary. Your chicken soup will turn out much better than any canned soup you can buy.

If You Use Only the Freshest Ingredients...

If you only use the freshest ingredients, the crockpot can still make your soup easier. Remove the skin from your chicken. You can use a whole chicken, parts or boneless breasts or thighs... whichever you have handy. Put the chicken in the crockpot with enough water to cover it. You can add a stalk of celery, an onion, a carrot, and some herbs if you wish. Let it simmer on high for three to four hours.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it and let it cool off. Strain out the vegetables and herbs you may have put in with the chicken and toss them. Remove the cooled meat from the bones and cut it into small pieces before adding it back to the broth. Add some freshly chopped vegetables of your choice: perhaps some carrots, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, celery, or other favorites. Add a little garlic and some herbs if you wish.

Leave the crockpot on high and let it simmer a couple more hours before opening the lid. Taste the broth a little less than an hour before you want to serve dinner. Add any salt that is needed. Once it tastes the way you want, add your noodles. You can use egg noodles, linguine, curly noodles, or bowties. If you make homemade noodles, you can add them about 20 minutes before you serve.

Simply Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

If you prefer to keep it really simple, here is another method. This chicken noodle soup recipe is so easy a teenager could make it. You can use leftover chicken or one of those rotisserie chickens from the supermarket.

Put the chicken in the crockpot, bones, and all. Cover with a large can of chicken broth. Simmer the soup on high for three or four hours. This will add the chicken's flavor to the commercial broth. Remove the chicken and let it cool before deboning it. Cut up the meat before putting it back in the crockpot.

Add some vegetables. You can use fresh sliced carrots or other vegetables, or you can use frozen vegetables. To make it really easy, just put in some whole baby carrots from the market. No peeling, slicing or dicing! Let the soup cook for a couple more hours.

About half an hour to 45 minutes before you want to eat, add your favorite noodles. You can use any kind of noodles you like, from ruffly egg noodles to ramen. Large ribbon noodles are fun. This is also a great way to use up small amounts of noodles in your cupboard. Mix and match if you need to. Break up some spaghetti, put in a handful of macaroni. It is your soup, do what you want!

Everyone loves chicken noodle soup. It helps us feel better when we're sick, or just feeling blue. For more inspiration, check out ChickenNoodleSoups.com for recipes, cooking tips and fun facts about everyone's favorite soup.

If you are looking for some great recipes or tips on cooking chicken soups and stews of your own, the site will be very helpful. Whether you want a quick and easy soup, a creamy one, or an old fashioned chicken stew, you are sure to find it there. Recipes like our classic chicken noodle soup recipe and many more chicken soup recipes.

If you are in the mood for chicken stew with an international, flavor our any other type of wonderful chicken soup we have a selection that is sure to fit the bill.

Nothing but chicken soups of all kinds. Also find informative articles related to chicken soup's health benefits and other interesting information like soup cooking tips.

Look for our heart health recipe guide to find soup recipes that can help you with your fight against heart disease. All recipes include nutritional information to help you make informed healthy choices about your next recipe decision.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Cooking With a Crockpot - How to Convert Recipes to the Crockpot By KC Kudra

How many times have you been planning meals and came up disappointed when you discovered you didn't have time to make the meal you wanted? Most people will not even think of putting a recipe in the crockpot unless it is written expressly for the crockpot. Did you know that many standard recipes could be converted to crockpot recipes?

The low setting of most crockpots is around 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The high setting is about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. An hour of cooking on the high setting is about the same as 2 to 2.5 hours of cooling on the low setting. You will find that most recipes for crockpots recommend cooking the food for around 8 to 10 hours on low.

Advice for Converting Recipes to Use in a Crockpot

When you convert a recipe to the crockpot, there are a few tips you will want to keep in mind. You will want to reduce the amount of liquid the recipe calls for. In the crockpot, liquid does not evaporate. You normally wind up with quite a bit of liquid at the end of cooking time. Reduce the amount of liquid you add to the dish by half, unless you are also using rice or pasta.

The spices you use may need to be adjusted. Ground spices may lose some flavor over many hours of cooking, so do not add them until the last hour of cooking. Whole spices will have their flavors intensified by long cooking times, so you may want to reduce them by half.

If you plan to make chicken soup or other liquid-based meals, only add enough liquid to cover the other ingredients. You can add more liquid towards the end of cooking time if needed. If you are making a cream soup, do not add the dairy products until close to the end to prevent curdling and separating.

You can make dried beans in the crockpot. Cook them overnight on low instead of spending the time soaking them. Add your beans and then cover them with water. Add a teaspoon of baking soda. In the morning, drain the beans before combining them with your other ingredients. Bean soup, chili, and other tasty meals can then proceed in the crockpot as usual.

Not All Foods Love Crockpots

Be aware that some foods do not fare well when cooking for 8 to 10 hours. Rice, pasta, seafood, some vegetables, and dairy products are all too delicate for such long cooking times. When making a dish that contains these ingredients, do not add them until the last couple of hours before serving when your pot is set on low. If you are cooking on high, hold off until the last hour before adding these delicate ingredients. If you really must have milk added to a recipe early on, try evaporated milk.

Browning your meat can be done before adding it to the crockpot to add that lovely coloring. Browning may also reduce the fat content a little bit on some kinds of meat. Browning is optional, however. Roasts can turn out very flavorful in the crockpot with or without it

Crockpots save time and make mealtimes easy and delicious. If you want to explore more options for your crockpot, check out ChickenNoodleSoups.com for some delicious recipes and crockpot tips. It is easy to make nutritious, home cooked meals using your crockpot.

If you are looking for some great recipes or tips on cooking chicken soups and stews of your own, the site will be very helpful. Whether you want a quick and easy soup, a creamy one, or an old fashioned chicken stew, you are sure to find it there. Recipes like our classic chicken noodle soup recipe and many more chicken soup recipes.
If you are in the mood for chicken stew with an international, flavor our any other type of wonderful chicken soup we have a selection that is sure to fit the bill.

Nothing but chicken soups of all kinds. Also find informative articles related to chicken soup's health benefits and other interesting information like soup cooking tips.
Look for our heart health recipe guide to find soup recipes that can help you with your fight against heart disease. All recipes include nutritional information to help you make informed healthy choices about your next recipe decision.

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