Happy Sunday and welcome back to dinner, sorted. Let’s get your dinner, sorted.
IT’S MY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!! This Thursday I am one year older and I am so excited. I certainly don’t feel 34 but I’m proud to have the privilege to age. While I’m not big on big birthday celebrations (I love planning a party but don’t love being the centre of it), I do love to do lots of fun things and eat lots of delicious food. Kyle has been making this week so special already. We kicked things off on Friday with a cold plunge, something I first did in Iceland last summer and I loved. It’s awful but incredible and really just makes you forget everything. Yesterday we did a fabulous brunch followed by a Saturday fun day of shopping and eating (and some fun beverages). And on my actual birthday next week we’re hitting up an Italian restaurant that is new to me and I cannot wait to eat my weight in cheese and carbs.
Since it’s my birthday and with Christmas coming up, I wanted to give you all a GIANT thank you for supporting me with some gifts! This is my best birthday yet and a big part of that is getting to do what I do every day. SOO I’ll be doing a special giveaway for you over the next 3 weeks.
There is a big giveaway exclusive for paid subscribers, so scroll down to the paid section to see that.
And for all subscribers, I’ll be giving away 3 x 6-month subscriptions to the dinner, sorted newsletter (1 per week starting next week). If you’re here, you’re entered to win.
So best of luck and thanks again for being here!
But back to the food.
I’m THRILLED to kick off my holiday appetizers series this week: simple but elevated apps that travel well (name still tbd lol). I tested so many last week, and I’m very very excited about every one of them. They are delicious at room temp. They are elevated. They will wow. And they will make you look like you worked a lot harder than you did.
And for this week’s dinner, sorted we have a chicken fried rice soup. I knew I wanted to a hearty, veggie-packed soup for the post Thanksgiving meal (bonus points are that you can include leftover turkey, but it’s not necessary).
I started with inspiration from a traditional egg drop soup, but loaded it up with layers of flavors, veggies, and protein. With the egg and chicken, my mind immediately went to chicken fried rice. I tested this with rice in the soup but it felt too basic. Delicious, but not cool enough for you guys. So to jazz things up, we top the soup with chunks of crispy rice for texture and flair and wow was I pleased. I did try the viral crispy rice recipe where you cook it in the oven, but found every time that the rice separates so you’re just left with super hard individual grains. For the chunks of rice, you need to do a pan fry like this.
There’s also lot’s of ways you can spin this recipe depending on what you’re feeling (lower carb, fully from scratch vs rotisserie/leftover chicken, play with the broth etc) which as I always I share below.
I hope you enjoy!