Food For 'Tauk

Lemon Chicken Soup with Broken Spaghetti and Bruschetta Pannini's

with Genevieve Salamone

Photo by Genevieve Salamone

There's nothing better on a cold winter night than a steaming bowl of soup and dunkable sandwich on the side. It wasn't hard to decide what kind of soup I wanted to make for this "hearty" issue, because it's a favorite of mine that I've adapted to my own tastes. There's this little Greek restaurant near me that I like to frequent because they make a delicious lemon chicken soup (they call it "Avoglemeno") and it's light and aromatic and warms me down to my toes.

I researched a bit before I came up with my own version, and a lot of recipes, the truly Greek inspired ones, used egg yolks to thicken the broth. I don't really groove on the raw egg thing much, so instead I decided to use the tried and true method of adding flour to the sautéing onions. Same effect, less fat, thank you very much. As for my chicken, I chose to go the most delicious route, in my opinion - roasting fresh chicken breasts covered in lemon pepper seasoning; there's just no substitute for that level of delicious-ness.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Broken Spaghetti

1 pound cooked spaghetti, broken into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle your chicken breasts with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and sprinkle liberally with lemon pepper seasoning.

Rub seasoning into chicken. Roast for 40-45 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown.

Set aside and cool at room temperature. When cooled, remove skin from chicken, and shred chicken off the bone.

(Same idea if you want to use a rotisserie chicken: remove skin from chicken, and shred chicken off the bone).

In a large pot over medium heat, warm olive oil and butter, then add your onions, dried thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent, about 10-15 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon of flour to your onions, and let cook for 1-2 minutes, until the flour has cooked out.

Slowly add your chicken broth, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Then carefully add your shredded chicken to your pot of liquid and stir gently.

Let chicken simmer in the soup for at least a half an hour, or up to 3 hours. The longer it sits, the more tender your chicken will be.

Serve chicken over cooked spaghetti, with fresh parsley and a splash of olive oil for garnish.

Bruschetta Pannini

For your tomato bruschetta combine diced tomatoes, onions, parsley, salt and pepper, and stir gently to combine.

Create an assembly line of ingredients - bread, mozzarella, tomato mixture. Brush both side of bread with olive oil; on one side, place a layer of mozzarella.

On the other side, a layer of your tomatoes.

Bring both side together and press lightly to mold the ingredients together.

Cook on a pannini press, or a stovetop griddle pan and use a large, heavy bottomed skillet placed on top of your sandwiches to create the pressure of a pannini press. Grill for about 8 minutes a side on medium heat.

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