Have you seen the prices on soups lately? OMG! Who can afford it? And thats just the ordinary soups. If you want specialty soups you can double those prices! Forget all that! Make your own soups and similar foods and youll save money, for sure. In addition, your foods will taste so much better than that canned stuff, and the batches you make will be much larger than those tiny cans.
Anytime youre making something that calls for boiled chicken youre in for a treat. The chicken has to be boiled until tender then the broth must be drained. The bones and skin have to be removed, the chicken put back in the broth, and all of it heated up again. Its a lot of trouble for some; no bother for others. If youre going to make the best and cheapest chicken soup or chicken and dumplings youll want to boil your own chicken and go through the steps to debone and skin it.
There is a shortcut so that you wont have to boil the chicken yourself but it will be much more expensive and provide smaller pieces of meat. This method requires purchasing cans of chicken which are sold in the tuna section of your grocery store. This canned chicken will keep you from having to do all the work to get the meat from a boiled chicken. When you boil your own chicken you then have a nice pan full of chicken broth. Purchasing chicken in cans means youll have to also purchase canned chicken broth. Sometimes you can find large cans of chicken broth which contain a whole, deboned chicken. If you boil your own chicken its much tastier if you add a little bit of poultry seasoning. If you use seasoned chicken broth from a can you can skip that step. After your broth is prepared and your meat is in it you can then begin making either chicken soup or chicken and dumplings. You can add finely chopped carrots, celery and other things to your soup if you want. To make chicken soup you have a number of options. Some people prefer flat egg noodles in their soup but there are other choices. One selection you can make is spaghetti noodles. Break the noodles into small pieces and place them in the broth. Its up to you how long or how tiny the noodle pieces are. Bring the soup to a boil until the noodles are soft. Chicken and dumplings is a favorite in the south and other areas of the country. Although many people who make the dish use flour, eggs and shortening to make homemade dumplings there is a much easier and cheaper way. Canned biscuits provide everything you need to make delicious dumplings. Dont purchase fancy frozen biscuits, or even cans labeled "rolls". Ordinary, cheap roll biscuits are perfect. Take the first biscuit from the can and begin tearing off pieces of it and drop them in the boiling broth. If you will add carrots, celery or other items to the mix do so before adding the dumplings. You can make the dumplings as large or as small as you want. Keep in mind that the dumplings will swell and also remember that, the larger the dumplings, the more doughy they will be on the inside. Both of the above recipes will render a delicious but soupy recipe. For those who like chicken and dumplings or chicken noodle soup to be much thicker combine a third cup of cornstarch with a quarter-cup of water. Stir until no longer lumpy. Slowly add the cornstarch to the broth or soup. If this is still not thick enough, mix the cornstarch and water again, then slowly add a little more until it is the consistency you desire. After serving, leftover chicken noodle soup or chicken and dumplings can be stored in the fridge or frozen for future use. You and your family will love your homemade soup or dumplings and youll definitely prefer it over the canned products. Some things cost more money to make homemade than to purchase from the store but thats not the case with these recipes. Theyre inexpensive, time-consuming but easy, and very delicious.
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