The nice weather here in New England was short lived. It is now cold and dreary, and looks to be the same for the next few days. Good thing Jenn's recipe this month is for a warm and hearty "stoup".
The weather is finally getting warmer! Spring means a few things to me. First and foremost- it’s my last chance to make all of those slow cooking one pot meals that I love. There’s a reason no one eats soup in July!
This one is almost a total fake out. The only part that takes a while is the roasting of the poblano peppers and garlic. Trust me… DON’T skip this step! Roasting the garlic makes it sweet and buttery. YUM!!
I’ve stolen part of the title… Rachael Ray has used the word “Stoup” to describe a one pot meal that is too thick to be a Soup and too thin to be a Stew… I think the word fits perfectly. I hope Webster’s goes ahead and adds it to the dictionary like they did with EVOO.
Chicken & Arugula StoupIngredients:
1 head of garlic, whole, plus 3 cloves, minced
3 tablespoons EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1 large SWEET onion, chopped (I used Vidalia, but Walla Walla or Patagonia works too.)
2 poblano peppers, whole
1 grocery store roasted chicken, cut into chunks with skin removed and discarded
2 cups white wine
4 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons flour
1 table spoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1- 15 ounce can of cannellini beans
1 bag of prewashed baby arugula, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon paprika
½ cup heavy cream
2 cups grated Monterey jack cheese, for serving
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top off of the head of garlic (about 1/3 of the way into the head). Drizzle olive oil over the top of the garlic and then wrap the whole thing tightly in foil. Put in the oven for a ½ hour on a foil lined sheet pan. After half an hour- remove the pan from the oven. Rub the outside of the poblanos with olive oil. Place the poblanos on the pan with the garlic and return to oven for about 10 minutes.
2. When you add the poblanos to the garlic in the oven, you can start making the Stoup. Cook the onions in the olive oil over medium low heat. The goal is to caramelize the onions which will make them even sweeter. Don’t try to rush it or you will wind up with burnt onions. This will probably take around twenty minutes.
3. After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven. Transfer poblanos to a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let them cool and then peel the skin off of the poblanos with your fingers. Stem, seed and chop the peppers after they are skinned. Let the garlic cool and then squeeze the cloves out of the head with your fingers, roughly chop and reserve in a separate bowl.
4. Once the onions have caramelized, add the minced garlic to the pan and cook until just fragrant. Add the flour and cook, stirring for just a minute or two. Increase the heat and add the white wine to deglaze the pan (for more information on deglazing see last month’s post). Then add the chopped poblanos, chicken, arugula, roasted garlic, chili powder, cayenne, beans and salt and pepper as well as the 4 cups of chicken stock.
5. Simmer the Stoup approximately 30 minutes until thickened. Then add the paprika and the heavy cream.
6. Serve each bowl with a mound of the grated monterey jack on top.
Sounds super delish as always! BTW - Jennifer celebrated a birthday this weekend! I hope someone cooked for her...Happy Birthday Jenn!
As we head further into spring my mind has been reeling on getting some cleaning done and purging, purging, purging. I have piles of clothes that don't fit ready to go to consignment shops and thrift stores. Boxes of items ready for our summer yard sale and even things that need to make their way to family and friends.
