Kitchen Knives

I had the brilliant idea last night to put some of my woods knives to use in the kitchen since I'm not getting much time in the woods. With two sick kids, homemade chicken soup seemed like the best option and I just happened to have the necessary ingredients in the pantry and refrigerator. Carrots, celery, and onion (mirepoix) are the base for lots of recipes so I keep those ingredients on hand all the time.

I used the F1 to peel the carrots and cut off the ends, trim the celery, and cut the ends and peel the skin of the onion. It's a bit thick to do the slicing but the razor sharp edge really excels at basic cutting tasks. The Spyderco Swick did a fantastic job of slicing the carrots and celery. It had a bit of difficulty with the onion due to the blade length but that was a problem easily overcome.

The chicken was seasoned with salt and pepper and then a light coat of olive oil was applied. While I was prepping the chicken I was pre-heating the cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. I used the F1 to trim off excess fat and connective tissue from the chicken breasts prior to seasoning. Once the breasts were nicely browned on the front side I flipped them for just a minute or two (long enough to seal in the juices) and then pulled them from the pan and allowed them to rest momentarily. I added the carrots, celery, and onion along with a bit of sliced garlic into the hot pan and let everything caramelize. Then I gave the mirepoix a good stir and added the chicken breasts back onto the top and tossed the skillet into a 400° oven for 10 minutes.

Once everything was cooked through, the chicken breasts were shredded, the stock was warmed, and the noodles were par-boiled (mostly cooked) and kept warm. Assembly of the soup is as follows:

1. Bring the chicken broth to a boil for 2 minutes.
2. Add the mirepoix and reduce heat to a simmer.
3. Add noodles and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken and remove from heat.
5. Sprinkle soup with chopped tarragon and parsley.
6. Serve with a half lemon or squeeze prior to serving.
7. Eat.

Simple and good.

The Swick did a great job with the slicing duties, the F1 was used for peeling and also on the cooked chicken prior to shredding, and both did very well at their assigned tasks. I would normally use an 8" chef and a paring knife to do all the prep work so using two knives is pretty normal for me.

Thanks for reading,


B