chicken two ways

last week, with the intention of making chicken soup, i bought a rotisserie chicken. for chicken soup, i pretty much always cheat and buy a prepared free-range rotisserie chicken and store-bought chicken broth, rather than making my own. chicken is one of my least favorite things to prepare at home...one, because of my unreasonable fear of salmonella poisoning and two, because of my fear, i have to sanitize my entire kitchen prep area before and after handling raw chicken. in any case, depending on the broth you get, i think it's pretty much as good as if it were all made at home.

there was a lot of meat on this particularly plucky fellow, so i also made chicken salad.

way too many strange pictures that appear when you look up "chicken" on google. i settled for this appealing and unoffensive one on www.flickr.com/photos/thesecondpancake/2774359404/

lazy girl's chicken noodle soup
servings: 6

ingredients
1/2 rotisserie chicken, shredded
canola oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 serrano pepper, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 or 2 celery rib(s), sliced
1 carrot, peeled & sliced
1 turnip, peeled & sliced
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
2 16-oz. cartons of free-range, natural chicken broth
2 cups of water
1-2 handfuls of pasta (i used bucatini, which i broke into small pieces)
handful of dill, chopped
handful of parsley, chopped
handful of cilantro, chopped (optional)

what you'll need
cutting board
knife
peeler
one large pot
ladle

prep
once you've shredded the chicken, heat a tablespoon of oil in the large pot, at medium-high heat. saute the onion and garlic. add the serrano pepper, celery, carrot and turnip to the pot and saute until slightly softened (about 5 minutes). add the shredded pieces of chicken, oregano and chicken broth. turn up the heat to high and boil. with a ladle, skin film off top and drop in pasta. note the pasta cooking instructions for the estimated time. when you add the pasta, some of the liquid will be absorbed. add a couple cups of water, until the soup has your desired amount of liquid. season with s&p. bring back to boil. then turn heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. add fresh herbs and serve.


chicken salad
servings: 3

ingredients
1/2 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1-2 heaping teaspoons of dijon mustard
1 cup of strained greek yogurt
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 fennel bulb, diced
handful of chopped walnuts
handful of dried cranberries
teaspoon of cilantro, finely chopped
teaspoon of dill, finely chopped
couple springs of fennel fronds, finely chopped
juice & zest from half lemon

salt & pepper

what you'll need
cutting board
knife
mixing spoon
bowl

prep
toss all the ingredients together. season with s&p, to taste. serve on your favorite slice bread.