Hey everyone! It’s FANTASTICAL FRIDAY! Yes, that time of the week where we celebrate not having to clock in for 48 hours if you work a normal work week, but really isn’t the same for those of us who have to work one of those days. Yeah, I’m one of those people, so I know your pain if you have to work either Saturday, Sunday or both.

As you know Shadow Guardian and the Three Bears is doing great in numbers! Thank you all! Remember, if it gets to number on in new releases, I’m going to take a pie in the face… Maybe I still will. You never know. Want to find out? Grab your copy here!

Burly villains are terrorizing the city Shadow Guardian protects, and this superhero is pulling double duty of trying to protect the city and not fall in love.

With that being said… Shadow Guardian and the Big Bad Wolf is done! I have it edited and sent off to my editor! While I was finishing it up, I came up with two new characters for the next book, Shadow Guardian and the Boys that Woof! I’m ironing out the details of the plot now, but I know the beginning already.

Now before I give you the recipe for puchero, don’t forget to grab this great read.

Welcome back to Temple High!
Damien Benoit-Ledoux returns with the third, heartwarming volume of his young adult gay romance series, Love Grows in Honest Places.

Now in place of a TikTok, here’s the recipe for puchero. 

What you’ll need are garbanzos, a piece of fat back, one whole boiler chicken, salt, carrots, potatoes and some people put celery in it. If you don’t use a whole chicken, you will need some type of chicken bone to help make the broth. You’ll need mint for making the noodles or rice. You can substitute the chicken with a turkey leg.

If you’re using dried garbanzos, soak them in cold water overnight. If you’re using canned garbanzos you can just pop the can open and use right away. Get one large pot that will hold the whole chicken. Fill it with water. Add three dashes of salt. You can add more salt to taste. Even if you’re using chicken breast and some chicken bones, get a good size pot. The broth is key in Puchero.

Add about a handful or so garbanzos, add about three average sized potatoes, peeled and cubed, and about six or seven baby carrots. If you’re using celery, you’d add about two stems diced as well. Finally add the fatback. This is why you don’t add too much salt at first. The fat back will supply the salt and give it a little flavor.

Now put the pot on medium high heat, slightly covered, for about two to three hours. You’re not going to forget about it. You’re going to come back and add water as necessary and scoop out the fat that floats to the top. The broth should take on a cloudy state as it cooks. Once the fatback and the chicken are tender, you can reduce heat to low. Now at this point, carefully pull the chicken out of the pot and set it aside to cool off.

From here you’re going to scoop out the broth into another smaller pot to cook your noodles or your rice. Make sure you get some of the vegetables and garbanzos in the broth. Use long grain rice and angel hair pasta for the best results. Add about two springs of mint and then bring the broth to a boil. Once boiling, add your rice or noodles. Once they are tender, turn the heat off. I normally do three cups broth to one cup of rice or a quarter of a box of angel hair pasta, but I’m cooking for one. You want more broth than you do rice or noodles because you’re making soup.
 
Now the chicken should be cool enough to handle. Peal and shred the chicken into a bowl. If you’re doing pasta, you can add cubed diced ham or chop up two boiled eggs per bowel like I do. Add the rice or noodles from you pot. If you need more juice, pull it from the original pot. Add salt to taste and enjoy!

            Now the fatback. Some people will enjoy this as a second course, called la Pringá. The fat back is sliced and put between two pieces of bread, and eaten. Now this isn’t sandwich bread. This would be a good crusty French role or French bread. I never did that myself, but my mother did.

            Okay, so now you have a whole bunch of chicken and a ton of broth. It’s not going to waste. Scoop out the broth and divide the chicken up between however many containers you have available and freeze. You can pull it out the night before and put it in a slow cooker to warm up during the day or put on stove to heat up under medium heat for about thirty minutes. You may have to add a little water. Then decide if you want rice or noodles.

If you have more chicken than you have broth, throw that bad boy back in the pot and make more Puchero to freeze. If you still have a bunch of chicken left, you can shred the chicken to make croquetas. It’s rare I have too much extra chicken because my little diva, Bonita, loves Puchero.

            Puchero is really great for when you’re not feeling well. Got a cold? Puchero. Upset stomach? Puchero. Broken arm? Puchero when you get back form the doctors. It’s a soup not a miracle cure.  

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