Mexican Shrimp Meatball Soup (Albondigas de Camerones)

Mexican Shrimp Meatball Soup

The snow will just not stop where I live! We are buried, I tell ya’! So of course I made more soup (spicy too!) to ward off the snow demons and hopefully melt them.

I made this earlier in the year from a recipe at Cooking on the Ranch, but the hubs said there was too much seasoning in the shrimp meatballs and he couldn’t taste the shrimp. So I made a notation on the recipe to make it again but with noted adjustments. I did, and the meatballs came out so much better this time! We really enjoyed it so I hope you do too!

Mexican Shrimp Meatball Soup
Adapted from Cooking on the Ranch

For the meatballs:

1/2 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (weight after peeling)
1 thick slice onion, quartered
1 tablespoon tomato paste
A pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
2 heaping tablespoons flour
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

For the soup:

1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 roasted Hatch chiles, peeled, seeded and chopped (can sub 1 4-ounce can mild green chopped chiles)
3 to 4 cups shrimp, fish, or chicken stock
2 bay leaves
Ground black pepper and salt, to taste
Fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

Shrimp Meatball Mixture

Add the shrimp, onion, tomato paste, spices and herbs, flour, egg yolk and salt to a food processor. Pulse until well combined. Cover and chill in refrigerator for a half hour.

Meanwhile, start making the soup. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot or Dutch oven and saute the onion until translucent and soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more. Add the tomatoes and chiles and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.

Simmering the Soup Base

Add the stock, bay leaves, and pepper and salt, to taste. Bring up to a simmer again, then simmer on low heat while you make the meatballs.

Get a bowl of water ready and add parchment paper to a large cookie sheet. Dip your hands in the bowl of water, and using a spoon, scoop out a large teaspoon of the shrimp mixture, and roll into a ball and place on the cookie sheet.

Shrimp Meatballs

Dip hands in water as needed, it prevents the shrimp mixture from sticking to your hands. Repeat until shrimp is gone. Drop the meatballs carefully into the soup, then bring to a simmer again heat the meatballs until cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Simmering the Shrimp Meatballs

Remove bay leaves, and serve soup in bowls garnished with chopped cilantro.

Mexican Shrimp Meatball Soup

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Quick and Easy Posole

Quick and Easy Posole

Happy New Year my friends! I thought about freshening up my good ol’ black-eye pea recipe for today, but instead decided to give you a quick and easy posole recipe that can make good use of any leftover meat you may have hanging around from the holidays. This includes pork, chicken, turkey, or beef!

I delivered this meal to a friend as a pre-packaged “make it yourself meal” when she said she wished she had some easy dinners to cook for her family. All the ingredients were packaged up in a box along with pre-printed step-by-step instructions. She said it was a huge hit with her family so I thought I’d better try it out myself. (Yes, I sent her a blind, untested recipe.)

This posole is huge on flavor and does not even skimp in the filling factor. Plus it’s very versatile, too! Thumbs up all the way around!

Posole Ingredients

Quick and Easy Posole

2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon flour
Posole Seasoning Mix (divided, recipe below)
3 ounces tomato paste
1 cup water
4 cups chicken stock (can also use turkey, pork, or beef)
4-ounce can chopped green chiles
15.5-ounce can hominy (gold or white, drained)
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded (can also use turkey, pork, or beef)
1 fresh lime
Fresh cilantro
Crushed tortilla chips, shredded cheese, Mexican sour cream, for garnish (any or all optional)

Posole Seasoning Mix
Hint: Make a double or triple batch to store for future use!

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon New Mexico Red Chile powder (or sub with regular chili powder)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Finely dice the onion, then add it to a soup pot or Dutch oven along with the oil. Sauté the onion in the oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until tender and transparent. Add the flour and a tablespoon of the seasoning mix and continue to sauté for two minutes more.

Posole Soup Base

Add 1 cup water, tomato paste, and the rest of the seasoning mix to the pot. Whisk the ingredients together until the tomato paste is dissolved. Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, at which point it will thicken.

Big Ladle of Posole

Finally, add the stock, shredded meat, diced chiles, and hominy. Stir to combine and then heat through for about 10 minutes.

Cut the lime into wedges and roughly chop the cilantro. Top each bowl with chopped cilantro, crumbled tortilla chips and cheese and a wedge of lime to squeeze over top.

Quick and Easy Posole

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Lipstick on a Pig Texas Chicken Spaghetti

Lipstick on a Pig Texas Chicken Spaghetti

Some dishes are just not photogenic. I made this dish last week and the family just gobbled it up and it got raves all the way around. So when I went to take a final “plating shot” I scattered some cilantro over the top of it and thought, “you know, this is just like putting lipstick on a pig.” HA! But mind you, this slow cooker dish is just the ticket for a bowl full of creamy, cheesy, chicken-noodley goodness. You will be licking that bowl clean! (And even better, this recipe is completely versatile!)

WARNING: Unpleasant food photos ahead. Really, there is nothing very appetizing to look at while making this dish. But the taste…! And yes, I am making fun of my photography, because sometimes it just works out that way. 😉

Lipstick on a Pig Texas Chicken Spaghetti

1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast (mine was 12 ounces, and frozen!)
Salt or Mrs. Dash and ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (canned or otherwise, with liquid)
1 roasted Hatch chile, peeled, seeded, and diced (or sub with 2 tablespoons of canned diced green chiles)
2 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock (or sub low-sodium store-bought broth)
4 ounces spaghetti noodles, uncooked
2 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups grated cheese, any kind (I used half Gruyere and half sharp cheddar)
1 teaspoon New Mexico chile powder (or regular)
1 teaspoon lime juice
Cilantro, for garnish (the lipstick on the pig!)

Season the chicken breast with salt or Mrs. Dash and pepper, to taste, then add to the crockpot. I actually added mine in frozen, no need to defrost — really!

Peeled and Seeded Roasted Hatch Chile Pepper ~ Hmmm, how exciting.

Chop up the onion and peel and dice that roasted pepper. Wait, you don’t have a roasted Hatch chile pepper sitting around? Canned is fine.

Veggies and Chicken ~ Can’t see the raw chicken? You don’t want to. Trust me.

Toss in the onions, tomatoes, chiles and chicken stock/broth. (And I used turkey stock, see how I am?) Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

Remove chicken breast and cover with foil until cool enough to handle. Shred the chicken with a fork and add back to the crockpot.

Shredding the Chicken ~ Hey, let’s take a really close up shot of the shredded chicken so you can even see the tomato bits stuck to it!

Grate your cheeses. No, don’t grate the cream cheese.

Grated Cheeses ~ Finally, something tolerable to view. But it’s just cheese.

Break the uncooked noodles in half and add to the pot along with with the cheeses, chile powder and lime juice.

Adding the Dried Spaghetti ~ Really Kathryn? That’s just ick.

Stir around as best you can, then cover and cook for another half hour to an hour until the noodles are done. Give it one final stir to incorporate well, then serve in bowls garnished with lipstick, um, cilantro. 😀

Texas Chicken Spaghetti ~ Because putting a really old crockpot in the background with half-spent cilantro makes it look better, right?

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

 

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas Suizas

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas Suizas

I wanted to try a new spin on my standard Chicken Enchiladas, and a fresh bag of spinach in the fridge armed me with the perfect ingredient for this filling dish of creamy Tex-Mex delight. This can easily become a meatless main by tripling the spinach and adding a bit more cheese to the filling, if you so desire. I was quite satisfied with the outcome of my first try at these, but next time around I’ll make them spicier by adding another can of diced green chiles, or perhaps adding some fresh diced  serrano pepper to the onions when they are cooking. If you’re not into spicy, then this probably has the perfect balance of heat and cream.

I almost always cook the chicken for this ahead of time during the day, debone and shred the chicken breast, then add the bones back to the pot and simmer for another hour or so to make another batch of chicken broth for the freezer. I did do this as I was getting short on chicken broth in the freezer, but by all  means, if you are pressed for time, feel free to use a rotisserie chicken or any other leftover cooked chicken you may happen to have available to shorten the prep time.

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas Suizas

2 cups cooked and shredded chicken breast
1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder (or regular)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup light or regular sour cream
4 cups chopped fresh spinach
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Ground black pepper, to taste
9 to 10 corn tortillas
Spray oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter or substitute
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup light or regular sour cream
1 or 2 6-ounce cans diced green chiles
Additional sour cream and cilantro, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, add the shredded chicken, ancho chile powder, cumin, 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese and the sour cream, combine, and set aside. In a skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and chopped onions. Cook for a few minutes until the onions start to soften. Add the minced garlic and stir for a minute more. In batches, add the chopped spinach until wilted through. Take off heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes, then add to the bowl of chicken then stir to combine.

Sauteed Spinach and Onions

Lightly spray one side of a corn tortilla, then set on a plate oil side up. Spray the next tortilla and stack on the first one. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Cover with a paper towel, then microwave for 45 seconds. Spray a casserole dish lightly with oil. Now assemble the tortillas by spooning about 1/4 cup chicken and spinach filling down the center, roll up, and place seam side down in the dish. Repeat until casserole dish is full. Mine can only handle 9 tortillas.

Now time to make the sauce. Melt the butter in the same skillet, then add the flour to make a paste. Slowly whisk in the half and half, and keep whisking until creamy. Here is where I had a brain glitch, and forgot to pour in a little of the warm chicken broth to the sour cream first and mix it in so that the sour cream wouldn’t curdle. Alternatively, you could slightly warm it in the microwave. The main thing is not to add the sour cream cold to the mixture. Ah well, my sour cream curdled, but once I added the other half cup of shredded Swiss cheese, it smoothed out. Oh, yeah. Add the Swiss cheese now, plus the diced green chiles. Stir until mixed well, then pour on top of the assemble enchiladas. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until bubbling and starting to brown on top. Remove and let sit for 5 minutes, then plate and serve with additional sour cream and cilantro.

Dish of Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas Suizas