Nora Daza's Cream of Chicken Soup

Will make the chicken chunkier next time.

Of all the soups, the cream of chicken is my hubby's favorite. I used to buy the soup mix in the grocery until I found this from my Nora Daza cookbook.

This is waaay much better than the supermarket bought soup. Healthy too since there are no preservatives added into it.

This will have a regular appearance in our dining table I swear!

Recipe

1/4 kilo chicken breast with bones
6 cups of water
half onion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsps butter
1 large onion, chopped
6 tbsps flour
1/2 cup evaporated milk
salt and pepper to taste
fresh or dried parsley for garnish

1. Make broth by boiling chicken in water, onion and salt. 
2. Once the chicken is done, slice the chicken in cubes or shred it.
3. Set aside both the broth and chicken.
4. In a stock pot, sauté chopped onion in butter. Once transluscent, add the flour and cook over low heat until smooth and bubbly.
5. Add the stock and chicken. Boil until the liquid is thick.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Add the milk and turn off the heat. There's no need to boil the soup after the addition of the milk to prevent milk from curdling.
8. Garnish with parsley.

Serve hot.

Baking 101: Ham and Cheese Bread Roll

I was not feeling well last week, so I took a 2 days off from work to rest. I went to a doctor for a check up and apparently, I had a slight asthma attack na pala...I didn't even know I have that! So the doctor adviced me to take a rest. The whole thursday, I just stayed in my room and just literally sleep and rest...sarap!

Friday, though I can still sleep again the whole day J, I can't deny that I was bored. So my best way to kill boredom was to bake. For so many days, I've been wanting to bake breads...and I'm glad that i found the perfect time. I started early, 12 noon, because it will consume a lot of time, you need to rise the dough for 1 to 1 1/2 hours then knead, and then rise again for an hour before baking them. I finished at exactly 4PM just in time for snacks.

...and the bread? Soft and delicious! I just need to add more filling to make it more flavorful.

 

inside of the bread

 My family loved it! Will definitely try this again.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 tsps instant active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
4 to 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
egg wash
ham (of your choice) slices
Cheddar cheese

Procedure

WITH MIXER
1. Melt butter with milk in microwave oven. Let it cool to room temperature.

2. In a mixing bowl, mix the yeast and warm water and let stand for 10 minutes until creamy, thick and bubbly.

bubbly and creamy yeast in warm water

3. Whisk the sugar and eggs to the yeast mixture. Add the butter and milk mixture, mix well.

4. Add 4 cups of flour and mix over low speed, using a mixer with dough hook. Sprinkle the salt.

5. Knead at medium speed until the dough comes together and sweeps the side of the bowl clean. If the dough is too moist, add the flour by tablespoons from the remaining 1/2 cup flour. Total kneading time is 10 minutes.

6. Transfer the dough to a large and lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise and develop the flavors for 1 to 1 1/2 hours

The before and after

7. Punch the dough and transfer to a clean surface lightly dusted with flour. Cut the dough equally into 16 pieces. With a rolling pin, roll out each dough and put the ham and cheese filling at the center. Carefully tuck the filling inside the dough. 

8. Lightly grease a baking sheet and place the rolls in it.

9. Cover with slightly damp kitchen towel and let rise again for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. preheat the oven at 350F, 10 minutes before the rising time ends.

After the second rising

10. Brush the top with egg wash, and bake 25 minutes. 

uncooked bread inside the oven...

WITHOUT MIXER

Note: My cheap mixer broke down when I was mixing the dough. The dough became heavy that's why the mixer gave up (need to buy a new one). I decided to manually mix and knead the dough...my goodness labor of love!! I saw this process from my mother when I was younger. She manually kneaded all the breads that she baked before.

Those who do not own a mixer, you can still make the bread, here's how:


1. Follow steps 1-3
2. In a clean, flat surface, dump the flour. Add the salt. Make a well in the middle and pour all the liquid ingredients (from steps 1-3).  
3. Using your clean hands (or use gloves), carefully mix everything together. Knead the dough well until they become elastic. (I had swollen arms i swear!)
4. Follow steps 6-10.

Note: I used the bread recipe of yummy's cinnamon roll 

Enjoy!!!