Minestrone soup


 
Brett-EDH

Brett-EDH

TVWBB Olympian
Seared up some salted bone in chicken thighs on high heat with some evoo.

After a few minutes I added sliced celery, carrots and one shallot. Browned them up a bit.

Added in sliced zucchini. Tossed them around.

Added one can of crushed tomatoes (28oz Cento brand).

Added dash of Italian dried herbs and oregano. Then added some fresh chopped Italian leaf parsley.

Added around 3 cans of 28oz water. Two tablespoons of chicken base powder and mixed.

Thighs were pulled at 195° and cooled to then debone the chicken.

Added chicken back in and made some small pasta shells.

Then assembled it all in bowls. Hot, tasty and mostly healthy. Mangia!

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Looks great! My grocery has had some really nice whole chickens lately. I've been breaking them down. My wife gets the boneless breasts for salads and I make myself a football game day meal out of the wings and drums. The carcass and thighs go into soup. I will have to give your soup a try.
 
Brett, that soup looks wonderful. Just right for this time of the year, cold and wet. Again, great job, thanks for sharing.
 
Brett-EDH said:
Seared up some salted bone in chicken thighs on high heat with some evoo.

After a few minutes I added sliced celery, carrots and one shallot. Browned them up a bit.

Added in sliced zucchini. Tossed them around.

Added one can of crushed tomatoes (28oz Cento brand).

Added dash of Italian dried herbs and oregano. Then added some fresh chopped Italian leaf parsley.

Added around 3 cans of 28oz water. Two tablespoons of chicken base powder and mixed.

Thighs were pulled at 195° and cooled to then debone the chicken.

Added chicken back in and made some small pasta shells.

Then assembled it all in bowls. Hot, tasty and mostly healthy. Mangia!

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Looks great Brett!

Nothing like a hearty Minestrone to warm you up in the Winter.
 
Joan said:
Looks and sounds great. Why don't you post it in the "Side Dish" site.
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TY. because then I'd have to actually write down a full recipe with measurements so people can follow along and recreate this soup.

if I have some free time to think, i will do that.

NOTE: additional and optional seasoning to the above soup are:
granulated or fresh garlic
black pepper
red pepper flakes
salt as needed for finished flavor/profile as desired.

my challenge is that i'm a scratch cook. i just make and assemble foods. i would have to measure, write down, and recreate a recipe as legit so people know it works. this has always been my personal challenge. i was taught to cook and adjust on the fly. bad education but with stellar results.
 
SparkyThomas said:
Looks great! My grocery has had some really nice whole chickens lately. I've been breaking them down. My wife gets the boneless breasts for salads and I make myself a football game day meal out of the wings and drums. The carcass and thighs go into soup. I will have to give your soup a try.
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i use carcasses for making stocks/bone broth. since this was more of a quick soup, i'd recommend only using chicken pieces that you can pick out of the cooking soup when cooked to debone the meat and then discard the bones. unless you're fully comfortable picking over bones as you enjoy the soup, which some people do.

the hard sear of the skin on chicken helps render the chicken fat which is a key base to this soup. and the bonus is you get to eat and enjoy some crispy skin. salting the skin/chicken prior to searing it helps keep moisture away from the skin which promotes browning and crisping of the skin.

add any veggies you have on hand. beans work well too (canned and rinsed ones) for a heartier soup. i cooked what i had on hand.

wife asked if i made kitchen sink soup to which i obliged, yes, the minestrone kitchen sink kind.

it was good for three people having two bowls each and two lunch leftover servings. so as of today, there's nothing left over :-(
 
DanHoo said:
I'm curious if the pasta shells were cooked and then added to the soup, or if they were added to the soup uncooked.
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cooked in salted water separately to 80% done, around 5-6 minutes. then added to each bowl of soup as the wife doesn't like a lot of pasta in her soup. this way you can also make mac n cheese with leftover shells.

the shells used were Winco bulk purchase. i keep these on hand to make various dishes with. mac n cheese is a hit with these as the cheese gets inside the shells.

note: i did add some of the residual pasta water to the soup as it's starchy and already flavored so it extended the soup and added a little body to it from the starchy water (little is key here).
 
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