Smokey Chicken Tortellini Soup

Created this dish for a soup competition we held at work. Didn't win unfortunately, but did get very positive reviews!!

Smokey Chicken Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 whole chickens (approx 4lbs each)
• 4 Carrots
• 3 stalks Celery
• 2 Onions
• 1 bunch fresh parsley
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• Whole Peppercorns
• Salt
• Pre-made tortellini
• Hickory and Cherry smoking chips/chunks
• Time (as in ‘waits for no man’)

Tools:

• Kitchen shears
• stock pot
• fine mesh strainer
• storage containers - large enough to hold your stock

Note: I used my egg to smoke the chickens but you could potentially use alternate methods (bbq with smoke chips, etc)

NoteNote: A good soup takes time to prepare. This one will take you a few days to properly create. Read the entire recipe and plan accordingly...

Day 1 - Chickens

Get your grill/smoker set to 250* with indirect heat.

Butterfly both chickens. Apply liberally your favorite poultry rub to the entire chicken, including the backbone you removed in the butterflying process.

Add your smoking wood, chickens, and backbones to the grill. Close the lid and DON'T TOUCH IT until the birds are cooked. :)

Pull the birds when cooked, allow to cool a bit and carve the meat off all the bones. Butterflying the chicken in advance should make it very easy to separate the pieces. No need to be pretty with the carving as you're not making a thanksgiving dinner here. Save the skin, wing tips, bones, and carcasses in a ziploc bag for Day 2. Save all the meat in a separate bag for Day 3.

Day 2 - Soup Stock

Get your favorite stock pot out.  Dump the contents of the bone bag into the pot.  Add enough water to cover the bones plus about an inch or so.

Heat the pot to a simmer. Cook uncovered for several hours (6-8 hrs).  Add water if needed to keep the level just above all the pieces.

Using a fine mesh strainer, drain the stock into a storage container.  Let cool and place into the fridge. Discard the chicken remains.

Day 3 - Soup Broth

Remove your stock from the fridge.  A layer of fat should have settled and solidified above the liquid.  Using a spoon or fork, peel off the fat and discard.  The liquid below should have turned into a jello-like consistency. The longer you left the pot simmering generally the thicker your 'jello' will be.

Roughly chop your carrots, celery, and onions. Add the veggies, parsley and thyme to the pot.  Toss in 6-8 whole peppercorns.

Add water to cover all the ingredients if necessary.  Bring to a simmer and let cook for 3-4 hours, stirring and tasting along the way.  After a couple hours, start adding salt to taste, but keep it slightly undersalted.  It's easier to add more salty flavour to a cooked soup than it is to take away!

Once you're happy with the taste of your broth, drain it into a container through your strainer. Discard the veggies.  Return the broth to the stock pot.

Chop or shred the chicken meat and add to the soup. If you'd like to add any veggies to be part of the soup (ie: carrots) chop and add them now.

If serving today, bring the soup to a simmer, add the tortellini and when the pastas have cooked, serve.

If serving another day, let the soup cool and refrigerate until use.

ommnomnomnom

Reason #1977 that I love cooking over charcoal...

...my cookin' clothes are taking on that distinctly rugged, outdoor wood fire smell...

ABTs for Thanksgiving

I've been wanting to make these for a while, but being the only one in the house who craves spicy foods they've been relegated to the back of my mind till now.  Finally an opportunity presented itself, so I cooked these bad boys up and took them along as an appy for Thanksgiving dinner.

As it turns out my fears of setting my wife on fire from jalapeno heat were unfounded.  She was one of their biggest fans.  By removing the seeds and veins you really cut down the amount of heat in the pepper, and a lot more is cooked away from being in the grill for 2 hours.

Essentially a Jalapeno Popper, Atomic Buffalo Turds are a common fixture in many BBQ joints, many with their own variation.  I used this recipe because it's relatively easy and lends itself to much variation in future attempts

This is the entire list of ingredients.

Like making a cabbage roll.  Only not.

Ready to settle in for a good smoke.

Ready to enjoy

Enjoyed.

Atomic Buffalo Turds

You will need:

• Ground Italian Sausage
• Bacon
• Cream Cheese
• Jalapeno Peppers (2-3 inches in length)
• rubber/latex gloves (for handling the peppers)

You will make:

There's no amounts listed for any of the ingredients, because honestly this recipe is totally subjective in the quantities needed.

Pull the cream cheese out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.

If cooking in your grill - set it up for indirect cooking, get the temp to around 235-250*.  Cooking in the oven, set it for 235*

Brown the Italian sausage, set aside to let cool.

Get your gloves on (or not if you're a toughguy), and start splitting your jalapenos.  You want to cut them along the length into little boats, leaving the stem intact.

Scoop out the seeds.  If you want a milder pepper, scoop out the veins as well. Much of the heat that lives in a jalapeno comes from the seeds and the veins, not the flesh itself.

Season the insides of the pepper lightly with salt and pepper, or your favorite bbq rub.

Your cream cheese should be soft and your sausage should have cooled enough. Combine both in a mixing bowl until smooth.  Add cream cheese or sausage as desired to get a consistency you like.

Stuff each jalapeno with the mixture, letting it round up over the pepper a bit (it won't melt or leak out much)

Stretch each bacon slice to maximum length.  Decision time - how much do you like bacon?  You can split each slice in half, or just wrap each pepper with one full slice of bacon.  In the photos above I used a half a slice per pepper, but once they shrunk down on the grill it didn't wrap up as neatly as I would have liked, so I think my next attempt will be with full slices of bacon.

Wrap each pepper with your bacon, trying to start and end on the bottom.  This will keep your pepper from unraveling in the oven without needing toothpicks to hold it all in place.

Place your ABTs on a rack in your grill, above a drip pan.

Smoke or bake for around 2 hours, until the bacon is dark and on the edge of crispy.

Enjoy!!