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I found the recipe for this Spicy Hot Chicken Soup in the latest issue of the Penzey’s Spices catalog.

I can honestly say that I don’t like plain chicken noodle soup. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve voluntarily eaten plain chicken noodle soup in my adult life. It’s bland and boring and I don’t want to eat it. Not even if I’m sick.

That being said, I immediately wanted this soup when I saw it in the catalog. If it were plain chicken noodle soup, I would have turned the page…but the addition of ginger, cayenne pepper and green onions to chicken noodle soup made me stop and salivate.

If you’re in the mood for chicken soup with a kick, make this. Just keep the Kleenex on the table as your nose is probably going to start dripping.

I’m not going to add the recipe to this page as it can be found here on the Penzey’s website.

I did make a few changes to the recipe:

• Their recipe calls for just powdered ginger. I used a bit of powdered ginger and a good 1 1/2 or 2 tablespoons of finely minced fresh ginger. I like ginger.
• The recipe calls for cayenne pepper. I didn’t have any so I substituted ground ancho pepper powder, a dash of chili powder and a dash of Spanish sweet smoked paprika. I decided that it wasn’t quite spicy enough so I threw in a good teaspoon or so of Sriracha.
• Penzey’s used egg noodles. I don’t particularly like them and they warned to keep them separate from the soup (as they get really soggy if kept in the soup) for leftovers. That’s kind of a pain so I used orzo instead. I’ve made lots of soup with orzo and it doesn’t get soggy like a lot of other pasta does. I used about 3/4 of a cup of it and cooked the soup for about 20 minutes after adding it.
• I used regular chicken broth instead of the “Chicken Soup Base” the recipe prescribes. I used 6 cups of broth and 2 cups of water.
• It’s not mentioned in the recipe, but you’ll want to add some salt and pepper.

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It’s been brought to my attention that I should continue to write blog posts despite not having internet access at home. This is a good point. A point that I am going to attempt to put into practice. Starting with this very post.

I really should be writing posts while I’m without the internet as I have a lot of old food pictures to blog. If I don’t post them soon, I may very well never post them. That would be a waste.

The pictures in this post are the results of my copying dinner directly from another food blogger’s post. Over at A Good Appetite, they posted the pulled barbecued chicken sandwiches with rice and fennel salad recipes. I found a picture of the rice and fennel salad on Food Gawker and immediately wanted to make it in the near future. Upon visiting the blog, the pulled chicken sounded pretty tasty as well. I had to make dinner that night and prior to visiting A Good Appetite, I didn’t have a clue what to make…so all credit for this lovely meal goes to them!

The pulled chicken was pretty easy. I used 4 or 5 chicken breasts. I brined them for an hour or two in a mixture of salt, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, garlic powder and chili powder. After the brining, I cooked the breasts on my charcoal grill with some hickory chips to add some smokiness. I then shredded/pulled the chicken with my hands and tossed it in a light mixture of sugar and cider vinegar with a hint of chili powder.

The boyfriend absolutely loved the chicken. He thought it was better than my pulled pork…which is fine by me as the chicken is far quicker and easier to make…not to mention, chicken breasts are a lot healthier than fatty pork butt. We put some store bought barbecue sauce on the sandwiches but the chicken would have been fine on its own without the sauce.

Just in case you were wondering, I also made the wheat buns for the chicken sandwiches. It was a very productive day in the kitchen.

I made the rice and fennel salad pretty close to the original recipe. I used a mixture of brown and jasmine rice. I didn’t have any fennel seeds so I skipped them entirely. I also added some toasted and chopped walnuts for crunch.

I loved this rice salad but the boyfriend preferred the wild rice salad I made twice earlier in the summer.

Thanks again to A Good Appetite for a great blog post and a delicious dinner!

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