Not Quite From My Cookbook… Not Quite From My Cookbook… Dave’s Chicken and Egg Soup with Pastina
If you made stock with your leftover Thanksgiving turkey bones (and you did make stock, didn’t you? And froze it for later?), here is an excellent use of it. Another example of good eats on the cheap!
There are over 300 recipes in my recently published cookbook, Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us (Click on the link in Note 1 to get your own copy). Even in these inflationary times, we can prepare delicious meals for our family and do so in a way that does not break the budget. And it’s all in the cookbook!
I’ve been on a roll…
For the past several weeks, I’ve been concentrating on recipes that put our Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday leftovers to productive use. The end game is delicious meals that are economical with our food and our time. This recipe is a great example of that.
Unfortunately, this recipe is not in my cookbook because I developed it after the cookbook was published, but I want my readers to have it anyway. The key theme of this recipe is the economical use of our time and resources, which is what my cookbook is mostly about.
I’ll be following this recipe up with two more that did not make the cookbook. I’ve really been concentrating on using holiday leftovers in tasty ways and that has caused me to really get on a recipe development kick recently.
For today, check out the recipe and see how delicious your leftover holiday turkey and a few inexpensive ingredients can be!!
David Giustozzi’s Chicken and Egg Soup with Pastina Pasta
I have to say that of all the chicken and pasta soups I’ve had, this one is the best. It’s been significantly updated to simplify the process in the almost 10 years since I first developed it. It’s very similar to a Greek soup called Avgolemono.
It’s another big batch recipe to feed a crowd or provide leftovers for the week. With the lemon, dill, and feta cheese, it has a Greek feel, and I think the combination is terrific. For this particular recipe, I used turkey stock I made after Thanksgiving and had frozen. It’s wonderful! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
Ingredients
11 plus 1 plus 3 cups of David Giustozzi’s chicken stock
turkey stock or stock of your choosing (Note 1)
2 tablespoons pure olive oil.
1 rotisserie chicken, picked, shredded and finely chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
2 lemons
4 cups baby spinach, chopped
¼ cup fresh dill, chopped
1 lb. pastina pasta (Note 2)
Crumbled feta cheese for topping
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Prepare stock per recipe directions. You will need at least 14 cups, which is just shy of four quarts, and preparing four quarts is a good guide for your stock recipe. Reserve any leftover stock to thin the soup as leftovers thicken in the refrigerator.
In a large Dutch oven, sauté the onion in olive oil until translucent.
While onions are cooking, crack eggs and yolks in a bowl. Whisk well and set aside.
Chop spinach and dill and reserve in a bowl or on a plate.
Make sure your pulled chicken is finely chopped. Reserve
Add 11 cups of stock to the onions in the Dutch oven and the juice of one lemon and bring to a boil.
Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions to just al dente. Pasta will continue to cook as we add more ingredients.
While the pasta is cooking, juice the second lemon in the eggs and whisk well. Reserve.
When the pasta is just done, add the spinach and dill and stir until wilted. Add chicken and stir well. Just bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
While whisking the egg mixture, add one cup of the remaining stock until well incorporated. This will prevent the eggs from cooking and scrambling.
Add the egg mixture to the soup, stirring constantly. Add more stock to reach the desired consistency, then simmer for a few minutes. Taste and add salt as needed.
Allow soup to rest for 15 minutes, adding additional stock as necessary.
Spoon the soup into bowls and top with feta cheese, passing pepper to diners as desired. Enjoy!
Notes
David Giustozzi’s Chicken Stock is included in my cookbook, Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us. You can get your own copy on Amazon or my website http://absuccesspartners.com. For this recipe, I used turkey stock from Thanksgiving, or you can make your own from the rotisserie chicken used in this recipe, or a high-quality purchased stock. I prefer stock to broth, but many people use them interchangeably. I use Better Than Bouillon when I make mine. Because it’s salty, be sure to taste the soup before adding salt.
Pastina refers to any small pasta and means “little pasta” in Italian. I prefer the star-shaped or alphabet pasta the best, but they are a little hard for me to find locally. You can substitute with any small pasta of your choice, such as orzo or what I used in this recipe, ditalini.
Dave’s Chicken and Egg Soup with Pastina
Afterburner Success Partners
What’s in it for me?
Good eats, that’s what!
Call to Action
Show someone how much you love them by preparing a delicious meal for them. Later, enjoy the time and money you save by relishing your leftovers, either for lunch at work or dinner at home. Take comfort in knowing you are eating hearty food you prepared. All because you made a good decision to follow the recipes and tips in the cookbook I developed just for you.
Besides getting a copy of the cookbook for yourself, it makes an excellent gift for those you love and care for, especially for those with a young family who are looking to save time and money in the kitchen. And learn a few things in the process! What a great idea!
Recommended Resources
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us by David Giustozzi (Note 1).
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Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/437OhVQ