Michigan Chicken, Bean and Sausage Stew

I've had this recipe floating around in my stores for a very long time. It's even written down in my family cookbook, but with no real directions, just ingredients and amounts. So, today I took the challenge of getting this together in a deliciously edible form to share.

I haven't the faintest idea why it's titled "Michigan", but it sure is good. Canned beans are fine, but I really prefer dry to start with. I almost always forget to soak overnight so I end up doing the fast soak method and the beans turn out just fine.

Any type of sausage will do, I prefer a good country-style sausage, but Italian is tasty and a smoky kielbasa would be great as well. The original recipe calls for salt pork to start, and I'll put that in the recipe, but I started with olive oil for a bit of a healthier alternative. I also added lemon juice to brighten it up and add some contrast.

Michigan Chicken, Bean and Sausage Stew
Printable Recipe
Serves 8

1 pound navy beans, sorted, soaked and cooked until tender OR 4 - 15 ounce cans of beans, drained)
4 ounces salt pork - diced fine OR 2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups diced onion
2 pounds cooked chicken (any cut) diced into cubes
1 1/2 pounds sausage, cooked and sliced thickly - about 1/2"
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
1 - 15 ounce can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon juice to taste

1. Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat and add olive oil or salt pork. If adding salt pork, render for several minutes. Add onions and garlic and saute until translucent, do not brown.
2. Add chicken and sausage and stir well. Pour in beans and stock and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes - uncovered.
3. Put in bay leaves, thyme and tomato sauce. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes - uncovered until thick. Remove bay leaves, add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

White Bean and Kale Soup (with Sausage)

White bean and kale soup is nothing new. In fact, there are a veritable treasure trove of recipes for this one across the web and in many cookbooks. The sausage is in parentheses here because it truly is optional.

Go vegetarian with vegetable stock, add carrots for color and feel free to use any sausage you like. Variation and additions can only make this one better. On a day like today (we had nearly a foot of snow overnight) this is a bowl full of bliss.

White Bean and Kale Soup (with Sausage)
Printable Recipe
Hands-On Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 6 - 8

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
6 cups stock - chicken or vegetable
6 cups water
1 pound kale, cleaned and chopped, large stems removed
2 cans (15 ounces each) small white beans, drained and rinsed
1 pound smoked sausage, sliced thinly
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook until
translucent.
2. Add stock, water and kale. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cook for 20 minutes.
3. Add beans and sausage and cook for another 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spicy Lentil Stew

Lentils are not one of those things that everyone likes. I would have to admit that my own feelings about lentils were formed by some not-so-tasty dishes I had early on in life. I distinctly recall thinking of lentils as the 'mud bean'.

Thankfully, I persevered, learned how to cook them properly, and came to love them.
Lentils don't benefit from overcooking and they are a legume that needs no soaking. On the contrary, if you soak them, you will certainly get mud for your efforts.

While there is meat in this, it's very easy to leave it out and retain the spice by adding cayenne pepper to taste. Substitute water or vegetable stock for the chicken, and you're good to go - vegetarian style.

Spicy Lentil Stew
Printable Recipe
Serves 6-8

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 pound hot Italian sausage - sliced
1 smoked turkey bone
8 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried thyme - crushed
1 bay leaf
1 lb lentils - picked through and rinsed once

1. Heat oil in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, peppers, carrots and garlic and stir. Cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add sausage and cook just until no longer pink (or, in this case - red)
3. Add turkey bone, lentils, stock, thyme and bay leaf.
4. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until lentils are done.

Anne's Chicken Gumbo

This is the gumbo I've been making for over 15 years. It was something my dad liked and everyone who has had it raves about it. I'm not sure how it would stand up in NOLA, but up here in the northeast it's pretty good chow. This one has an addition of hot sausage to it, add that in to the beginning vegetables and it will work well.

Anne's Chicken Gumbo
Printable Link

1/2 cup butter or oil
1/2 cup flour
1 large onion - medium dice
4 stalks celery - medium dice
2 large green peppers - medium dice
1 red pepper - medium dice
1 yellow pepper - medium dice
8 cups chicken stock
1 cup tomato puree
4 tomatoes concasse (peeled seeded diced)
2c. okra cut in 1" slices
1 pound boneless skinless chicken (breast or thigh) cooked and diced
2 cloves garlic - minced
1/2 Tablespoon dried basil
1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano
pinch Thyme
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 Tablespoon filé powder (ground sassafras leaves)
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 bay leaf
cooked rice for serving

1. Heat butter or oil in a large pot - add flour and cook until mixture is the color of a copper penny - not a new penny - an old one - nice and dark.
2. Add onion, celery and peppers - cook for several minutes until they begin to 'weep'.
3. Add stock slowly while stirring and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender - about 20 minutes.
4. Add all tomato products and simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. Add chicken, okra and all seasonings except filé powder.
6. Bring to a boil - reduce heat and simmer 15 min.
7. Turn heat off and add filé powder - stir well, remove bay leaf and serve.

For seafood gumbo:

Use 1/2 pound shrimp and 1/2 pound scallops in place of
chicken. Add during the last 15 minutes of cooking.
Use fish stock if available (otherwise chicken is fine) and replace parsley with chervil and add 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning.

Originally posted at Cooking with Anne on September 15, 2005.

White Bean and Sausage Chili

White Bean and Sausage Chili

If you missed the Illick's Mill Winter Nook and Chili Cook-Off held at Bethlehem's Municipal Ice Rink, I'm really, really sorry. There were some awesome chilis there this year and although I wasn't in it to win (that honor rightfully went to The Tally Ho Tavern) I made a terrific chili anyhow and wanted to share the recipe here.

I have to share with you the fact that there were also three kick-butt bands there this year, too: Steve Brosky (still doin' his thing as great as ever after all these years), Eighteenth Hour (they started off the night and I didn't hear as much of them as I wanted as I was buried back in the chili-tasting room) and my favorite, the Paul Thiessen Band - man are those guys tight! Self-proclaimed 'Face-Melting Folk Music', they deliver just that and more. I missed my chance to pick up one of their cd's at the last Illick's Mill function so I laid in wait this time (and probably looked like that, too between trying to enjoy the band and watch the kids from the window as they ice skated) and got their 'Stop. Hear.' CD. Awesome and awesome - can't say more. All of this was broadcast LIVE by WMUH as well.

The whole event benefits the Illick's Mill Project, of which my daughter, Megan is a part.

On to chili - this isn't a very spicy one, it's more mellow and smoky, but so full of layered flavors that it's hard to stop at one bowl.

White Bean and Sausage Chili
Serves 8
Printable Recipe

2 slices bacon - diced
1 cup diced tavern ham
1 shallot - minced
1 white leek - sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic - minced
1 medium onion - diced
1 large green pepper - diced
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
1 pound bulk sausage
4 cups cooked white beans such as cannellini, northern or navy
4 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried and crushed oregano
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sliced and fried green onion (a.k.a. scallions/spring onion) and leeks and sour cream for garnish

1. Heat a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp.
2. Add ham, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add shallots, leeks, garlic, onion and peppers. Stir well and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Crumble sausage well and cook until no longer pink - stirring often to break up.
5. Add stock and beans and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
6. Stir in oregano and cayenne and simmer for another 10 minutes.
7. Serve with sour cream and fried green onion and leeks.

Split Pea and Sausage Soup

I love split pea soup. It's basic, easy to make, thrifty and just plain good. I usually add ham to mine or at least a ham hock while it's cooking. This time I used up some bulk sausage I had and it was really a delicious move. I don't think pea soup is right without marjoram added to it, so I am generous when adding it.

Split Pea and Sausage Soup
Serves 6-8
Printable Recipe

2 tablespoons neutral oil - such as vegetable or canola
1 pound bulk country sausage
4 green onions - sliced (aka spring onions or scallions)
1 pound green split peas - rinsed and picked over
1 cup diced carrot
4 cups water
4 cups stock - chicken or vegetable is best
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
salt to taste

1. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat oil and add sausage, breaking up as it cooks.
2. When sausage has cooked through add green onion and cook for several minutes or until fragrant.
3. Add remaining ingredients and cook until peas are soft, about 45 minutes.
4. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup

Four major ingredients make one delicious soup. Your house may smell a little like walking into a polish grandmother's kitchen, but it's worth it.


Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup
Serves 6-8
Printable Recipe

1 medium onion - thinly sliced
1 pound kielbasa - sliced thin
6 cups cabbage - thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon dry thyme
2 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
8 cups beef broth

Saute onions with kielbasa until lightly browned. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until cabbage is tender, 30 - 45 minutes. Remove bay leaf and cloves before serving.

Kitchen Sink Soup

This started out as Portuguese Bean Soup, which is really wonderful in its own right, but I had picked up so many recipes for it and they were all so different that I attempted to come up with a combination of my own.

Well, this is what resulted instead and was so good I had to write it down.
The name comes from feeling like I had put everything but the kitchen sink into this soup.

Kitchen Sink Soup
Printable Recipe

1 lb hot sausage - sliced (Portuguese chorizo is great but not necessary)
1 lb ground beef
2 quarts chicken or beef stock, broth, or bouillon
1 large onion - sliced thin
3 large cloves garlic - sliced thin
1 large green pepper - sliced thin
1 small head cabbage - sliced
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato puree
2 large cans kidney beans - drained
1 large potato - diced small
1 c small elbow macaroni - uncooked
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t basil

Brown onion, ground beef, and sausage in a large soup pot. Drain well. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until macaroni and potato are done, about 30 minutes.

Better second day reheated.

Potato, Sausage and Cheddar Soup

This soup was a happy accident. Having several cooked potatoes and a bit of cooked sausage on hand, I decided to toss it together for a truly delicious and filling soup.

Potato, Sausage and Cheddar Soup
Printable Recipe

1 pound bulk sausage
5 large potatoes - cooked and diced
6 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon dry thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground sage

Break up sausage and brown well in a large and heavy soup pot.
Add potatoes, stock, milk, thyme and sage. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 - 45 minutes; use the longer time for a thicker soup. Mash slightly with a potato masher if you like and add cheddar cheese. Remove from heat, stir well and serve.