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Well, few foods are more comforting than something deep fried – especially chicken.

As a kid, I always remember my mother and I driving some KFC out to my dad as he was harvesting alfalfa in the summer in Wyoming (He had some pasture several miles out of town). We would sit on the tailgate of the pickup and swat mosquitos as we gobbled up the greasy stuff along with those nice salty buttermilk biscuits. Always tasted great but it was a long ride back to the house and a drink of water. Later, the leftovers always made a great midnight snack.

I recently tried making my own truly fried chicken for the first time – not our usual lo-cal “oven-fried”. The recipe I tried was pretty simple: seasoning the chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika, then dredging it in flour and plopping into the deep fryer for 10 minutes or so. Not bad, especially the drumsticks. But I think there must be better recipes out there. Do you have any?

Soup again? well, unfortunately, we’re still not out of cold & flu season so this month’s comfort food is (yes) chicken soup. I’s the old reliable that  always tastes great  when I’m under the weather. And wouldn’t a box of tissues with the recipe printed on them be great for um… multitasking?

First, if you are sick yourself then I will just recommend popping open a can of Campbell’s. But if you’re cooking for someone else, strap on a hospital mask and consider the following:

4 Cups water

4 teaspoons “Better than Bouillon” (it really is better*)

6 boneless chicken thighs

3 medium carrots chopped

1 stalk celery chopped

3 cloves garlic

2 potatoes cubed

1 bay leaf

1 tsp tarragon

salt & pepper to taste

one package Rustichella D’abruzzo** fettuccine broken into 1 inch pieces

Preparation is pretty simple. Get the water boiling. Add all of the ingredients except for the fettuccini noodles and let it go for an hour or more (crock pots work well too). Then add the noodles 20 minutes before serving (or pre-cook the noodles if using a crock pot). As with many soups, it tastes even better the next day. By then you will probably have caught the bug as well and you can enjoy the leftovers.

How do you do your soup? I would love to hear your take.

*I’m not paid in any way for products mentioned. I just genuinely like them.

** again, not a paid endorsement (but, of course, if the Abruzzos sent me samples I wouldn’t say no). This fettuccine is great because it’s thick and chewy like a good rustic noodle should be. If you’re really ambitious, homemade noodles are great too.

So I know that February is almost over but technically I’m still within the deadline for this month’s comfort food entry. (sorry I didn’t get this out sooner!)

This month’s comfort food is tomato soup. Tomato soup? what’s the big deal about tomato soup? Well nothing if your just popping open a can of Campbell’s. But this time I thought I would try it from scratch. Big difference. Recipes I found varied but it was essentially chopped tomatoes, a few veggies (like carrots, celery, onion and garlic), chicken broth, some seasoning, and heavy cream (recipes always say that it’s optional but you definitely want to take that option). Oh! and don’t forget a little butter.

Two tips which stood out to me. The first  was to roast the tomatoes  in the oven with olive oil before letting everything stew in the pot. The second was to puree everything at the end. E pluribus unum! (out of many, one)

It was great on a drizzly Seattle winter day. Especially with fresh home made bread or just a few goldfish crackers.