Thursday, February 2, 2017

White Chicken Chili w/ quick soak and cook methods for beans

I still has some turkey leftover from my 22 lb bird and wanted to make a favorite recipe. But alas, I hadn't soaked the beans overnight.
Never fear - there's a quick way to soak and cook beans. When I say quick, I mean 3 hours, not overnight + 5 hours.
sort and rinse 2.5 cups of white great northern beans (equivalent to 1 lb). bring 8 c of water to boil. Add beans to boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes. turn off heat, cover, add 1 tsp baking soda (you'll get the volcano effect - no worries). Set aside and soak for 1 hour.

For this recipe, I place my spices and cooked meat and most of the chicken stock (hold back 1/2 c of broth for step 2 below) in the crock pot at this point and let things blend on low. You can do this for any recipe. Just don't add veggies or dairy products this far ahead in the crock pot. You're still 2-3 hours from being done.

Back to the beans: After the hour is over, Drain and rinse thoroughly. With the beans in the pot, Cover with water, add 2T of veg oil, bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1-2 hours or until tender.

Once beans are tender, add to the crockpot where the meat and spices are already simmering. For this recipe- reserve 1 c of cooked beans.

White Bean Chicken Chili (makes 10 -12 servings)
(from tasteofhome slow cooker recipe book)
* 3/4 lb chicken (boneless & skinless) cubed-  cook in 2 T olive oil til no pink remains.
or 1.5 c cooked cubed meat (chicken or turkey)
1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper
1 med onion chopped (or 2T minced dried onion flakes)
1 tsp cajun seasoning
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
4 grated or minced garlic cloves (or 1 T garlic pwd)
2 cans (15 oz) white beans, rinsed and drained (or 1 lb cooked beans as made above).
3 c chicken broth (reserve 1/2 c of this)
6 oz shredded mozerella cheese
sour cream and minced fresh cilantro (opt.)

My tweaked recipe: Add 2.5 c. chicken broth to cooked chicken and all of the spices (using dried onion flakes + pwd garlic) in the crock pot right after you start soaking the beans (above). Put crock pot on Low. These should be cooking together for about 2 hours while the beans soak and then cook. Add soft, cooked beans (be sure to do step 2 below). Go on to step 3, but since the beans are hot and meat cooked with spices, this will only take 30 min, not 3 hours. Continue with step 4. Enjoy.

Original instructions:
1- Sprinkle raw chicken with salt and pepper. Cook chicken and fresh onions in oil 3-4 min. Add garlic, cook 1 min longer. Place in slow cooker.
2- In blender or small bowl, blend/mash 1 c cooked beans with 1/2 c broth. Add to slow cooker.
3- Cover and cook 3 hours or until chicken is tender.
4- Stir before serving. Sprinkle each serving with cheese.


Dough enhancer recipe

Homemade Dough Enhancer #1
Gluten: use ½ T. - 1 T. per cup of flour (before you measure a cup of flour put ½ T.-1 T. gluten in the bottom of your cup then measure flour as usual)
WHITE Vinegar: use the same amount of vinegar that you are using for yeast (for example 1 t. yeast - 1 t. vinegar)
Potato Flakes: use 1/8 to ¼ c. per loaf of bread you are making, experiment to see what works best in your recipe. (Do not substitute potato pearls they won’t work!)

see http://preparedness365.blogspot.com/2011/03/homemade-dough-enhancer.html

I noticed this ingredient on a few of the recipes I haven't tried yet. Apparently it helps the bread with whole wheat perk up and be less heavy when done. I'll try these with this enhancer recipe and let you know how it goes. 

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