New England Chicken Chowder

We weren't exaggerating in the last post when we said Mel marks nearly every other page of Rachael Ray Every Day magazines with cool recipes to try.  Be prepared for A LOT of home cooking entries while this subscription lasts!

Next up from the magazine pages:  New England CHICKEN Chowder.  New England Clam Chowder has always been one of Mel's favorite soups, but she eats it sparingly since the store-bought versions tend to be extremely unhealthy (due to the cream and salt).  While we wouldn't necessarily call this recipe healthy (there's still the cream and then the interesting addition of bacon), making something at home gives you the advantage of tweaking to make splurge ingredients a bit less indulgent. 

Due to some lackluster cookware we need to replace, the hardest part of this recipe wound up being getting the bacon crispy without burning it .  After that, it was pretty smooth sailing.  Mel hates cutting raw chicken because she just keeps thinking "salmonella" and "who wants to have to clean this sink/knife after cooking" and "not enough bleach in the world" - not really a fun way to get in the chef zone.  So rather than chopping up the thighs first, we threw them in the pot whole and let them simmer in the stock for a while.  Once they seemed cooked sufficiently (about 20-30 minutes), we took them out, chunked them and returned them to the pot at the same time as adding the cream/corn puree.  Then we just let the soup simmer on the stove a bit longer than called for in the recipe to let the flavors sink in.  Much less hassle and no impact on flavor whatsoever.  We also added a bag of frozen pearl onions to cut the salt a bit (and because we like pearl onions).  

We fell in love with this soup after the first bite.  And not just because of the bacon!  It really does taste so close to New England Clam Chowder, yet the consistency and flavor of the chicken gives the old classic a nice spin.  Will make this again for sure.

Rosemary and Butternut Squash Chicken Soup

Mel's cousin was kind enough to gift us a subscription to Rachael Ray Every Day.  We've tried lots of different food magazines in the past, but had yet to find one that was worth receiving every single month.  Every Day is definitely the winner.  As soon as it arrives, Mel goes through and winds up dog-earing nearly every other page for recipes to try.  We appreciate that the recipes are simple to follow and involve ingredients that are easy to find.  Really the two key elements for people who like to cook but don't necessarily have the time or skill to go full gourmet every day (ahhhh, just realized they were quite clever choosing the name for the magazine, weren't they?).

The first recipe we decided to try was the Rosemary and Butternut Squash Chicken Soup.

It actually involved using an ingredient which is very common but we've just never had a reason to use:  celery root.  We ordered it from Fresh Direct and were quite surprised by its appearance upon arrival.  Very alien-looking and frankly kind of gross.  Kudos to whoever was the first person to decide: "Hm, this looks hideous - let me cut it up and taste it."

After a quick Google search on how to cut up celery root (you simply slice off the outer skin to reveal the edible part), you wind up with something that looks much more appetizing.

Once it's diced up it resembles any other root vegetable, but you can tell from the delightful aroma that it will pack in much more flavor.

The rest of the recipe is very straight-forward.  The only thing we altered was skipping the creme fraiche and lemon zest, and it still tasted great!  A wonderful healthy yet filling soup for the winter months.