It’s soup season. Or at least it would normally be soup season, if it weren’t for the fact that we haven’t gone below 80 degrees in weeks. Yesterday it hit 87. It’s almost October and the lowest daytime high in the 10-day forecast is 79. It’s supposed to be in the high 80s again by this weekend. But it’s like a timer goes off in my body every late September. I want soup for lunch and none of y’all can stop me. Plus, everyone I know is getting a head cold right now, and I figure this can either fry the germs out of my sinuses or help clear them out if I catch one.
Every summer we have a garden, and every summer the only thing we end up with a ton of is jalapeños. My husband is the jalapeño whisperer. We’ve probably gotten at least 40 so far, and more are still growing out there. I can’t let them go bad, so I’m making a lot of jalapeño-based recipes. This one only uses two fresh jalapeños for garnish, but that’s two less in my fridge now. I used canned jalapeños for the contents of the soup, because it saves time and doesn’t really compromise on flavor. Plus, I have extra cans from when I sent my husband to the store for canned green chiles and he came back with jalapeños. Oops.
The base of this soup is a pound of chicken breasts and four cups of chicken broth. Those 32-ounce cartons of broth are perfect for this, because you can just dump one into your Instant Pot without having to measure anything. Toss in your chicken breasts along with it. You can do it directly from frozen if you want, just add five minutes to the cook time. I did it this way and it worked fine. To that, add your drained 4-ounce can of diced jalapeños, and a teaspoon each of salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin. Then put the lid on your Instant Pot, and set for pressure cook on high for 15 minutes if using fresh chicken, and 20 minutes if using frozen. After the cook time is complete, let it release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release the rest of the way. During that ten minutes, fry up three slices of bacon and mince two fresh jalapeños. Make sure to wear food-safe gloves!
Open the lid again and remove the chicken, letting it cool on a plate. Set the pot to saute and whisk in an entire 8-ounce brick of cream cheese that’s been cut or torn into chunks. When the cream cheese has mostly broken down, pour in a half cup of heavy cream and whisk some more, then add a cup of shredded pepper jack and a cup of shredded sharp cheddar, working in 1/4 cup increments. Make sure each handful of cheese has fully melted into the soup before you add more, otherwise you might get clumps. Once you’ve added all the cheese, turn off the Instant Pot. Shred the chicken with forks and stir it into the pot. Pour the soup into bowls or meal prep containers, and garnish each one with crumbled bacon and minced jalapeños.
Instant Pot Jalapeño Popper Chicken Soup
A creamy, cheesy, spicy keto soup made in the Instant Pot, perfect for a fall afternoon.
Add the chicken, broth, drained jalapeños, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and cumin to the Instant Pot. If using fresh chicken, set the Instant Pot to cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. If using frozen, set it for 20 minutes. Once the cook time has completed, allow it to naturally release for 10 minutes, then use the quick release method to finish venting.
Open the Instant Pot, remove the chicken, then set it to saute. Whisk in the cream cheese cubes and continue whisking constantly until it's mostly broken up. Add the heavy cream and continue whisking, then add the pepper jack and cheddar in 1/4 cup increments, making sure that each handful is fully melted before adding more. Once the cheese is melted, turn off the Instant Pot. Shred the chicken with forks and stir it into the pot.
Pour the soup into six bowls or meal prep containers, and garnish with the minced jalapeños and crumbled bacon.
Macros per serving: 450 calories, 5 grams net carbs, 30 grams protein, 34 grams fat.
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A kid-friendly keto version of your favorite Italian restaurant meal, this versatile Chicken Parmesan can be served as a sandwich or over a pasta substitute.
I’ve been gluten-free for approximately eight years now, so I’ve never actually tried the original version of Nashville Hot Chicken. My husband has, and last night he told me that this is one of the best recipes I’ve ever made. It’s definitely higher in calories than most of the things I create, but sometimes you just need to have something delicious. And I know there are a lot of people who do keto without tracking calories at all. This recipe is for you, because it’s only got 1 gram of net carbs per serving, and most of those are in the pickle chips. Fair warning, though, when it says Hot Chicken, it means it. This is a spicy recipe, so if you’re not into spicy food, stay away from this one. Or leave out all the cayenne and just call it a fried chicken sandwich. It’s also not the easiest recipe, with lots of steps and ingredients. But holy wow, is it worth it.
To begin, you’ll need four boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Using a meat tenderizer mallet, pound them out to even thickness. I just pounded out the thick part to be even with the thin part. Salt and pepper them and leave them aside for now.
In a small bowl, beat together 1/3 cup of heavy cream and two teaspoons of lemon juice. This approximates the buttermilk flavor in the original recipe, without the shocking amount of carbs that are in actual buttermilk. To this, add an egg and two tablespoons of hot sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot because I have a ton of it around the house), then beat it all together until it’s smooth. If you have time, marinate the chicken breasts in this mixture for a few hours. If you’re like me and are doing this all on the fly, don’t bother. It’s still amazing without the marinating. Set that aside and work on your “breadcrumbs”. All you’ll need for that is a half cup of pork rind crumbs and a half cup of parmesan cheese mixed with a teaspoon of paprika and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Toss all that together, add some black pepper to taste, and you have your breading. Put it on a plate.
Heat up a cup of avocado oil over medium-high heat in an enameled cast-iron skillet. When the oil hits about 375 degrees (you can test it with an infrared thermometer), begin breading your chicken. If you marinated it, you can just take it directly out of the bag and put it into the breading. If not, dip it into the cream and egg mixture first, then coat it with a good layer of breadcrumbs. Start with the largest piece and work your way to the smallest, placing them gently into the oil after breading. Cook for about 4-5 minutes per side, until they turn golden brown and yummy. If you’re making chaffles for the bread, you can do it while the chicken cooks. Turn the pieces carefully with a set of tongs so you don’t knock off the breading. I like these tongs with the silicone heads for breaded things, because I think they grip more gently but are still effective.
The chicken pieces after being flipped.
When the chicken is done, remove it to a plate. Let the cooking oil cool in the pan because you’ll be using a bit of it. In a small heat-safe bowl, mix together a tablespoon of cayenne pepper, two teaspoons of kosher salt, a teaspoon of regular paprika, a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of brown sugar substitute, and a half teaspoon or so of black pepper. To that bowl, use a metal spoon to add about 1/4 cup of the oil you used to fry the chicken. Stir it all together and use a heat-safe pastry or grill brush to brush the oil mixture onto each piece of chicken. You probably won’t use all of it, but you certainly can.
The spicy oil, or as my husband called it, a “little bowl of hate sauce”.
Serve it on your favorite bread substitute. I used the same basic chaffle recipe that I used in my Creamed Chipped Beef on Chaffle recipe, but if you want something a little more like white bread, I’d suggest the version I used for my Chaffle McMuffins, only without the flax seed meal. You could also use that Aldi keto bread that’s been going around, if you’re not gluten-free, or even Soul Bread. To serve these, spread your top slice of bread with about a half-tablespoon of mayonnaise, then the dill pickle chips. Put the chicken on the bottom chaffle, put the whole thing together, and chow down.
Keto Nashville Hot Chicken
A gluten-free and low-carb version of the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich.
Place the chicken thighs on a cutting board and pound them to an even thickness, then sprinkle them with salt and pepper to taste.
In a medium bowl, mix together the heavy cream and lemon juice. Beat in the egg and hot sauce. Either set the bowl aside or use this mixture to marinate the chicken for 2-8 hours in the refrigerator.
In another medium bowl, mix together the pork rind crumbs, parmesan, paprika and cayenne. Add black pepper to taste. Spread this mixture evenly over a large plate.
Heat the avocado oil in a large cast-iron skillet to approximately 375 degrees. If you didn't marinate the chicken, dip it in the cream mixture and then coat with breadcrumbs, and starting with the largest piece first, place the chicken gently into the oil. Continue with the next largest piece, saving the smallest piece for last. If you marinated the chicken, remove the pieces from the bag, allowing excess marinade to drip off, then coat with crumbs and proceed as above.
Cook the chicken in the oil for 4-5 minutes per side, turning gently with tongs to avoid knocking off the breading. Remove from the pan and put on a plate to allow the chicken to rest.
For the Spicy Oil
In a heat-proof bowl, combine the cayenne, salt, both types of paprika, garlic powder, cumin, brown sugar substitute, and black pepper. Add 1/4 cup of the cooking oil, stir together, and brush onto the cooked chicken with a silicone pastry brush. You will probably not need to use all of the oil for this.
For the Sandwich Assembly
Spread your top slices of bread with the mayonnaise and pickle chips. Put a piece of oiled chicken on the bottom slice and top with the top slices.
Approximate macros per serving (chicken and sandwich toppings only, no bread): 513 calories, 1 gram net carbs, 29 grams protein, 45 grams fat. This is only an approximation, as it's difficult to calculate how much oil the food absorbs while frying, and how much of the spicy oil mixture you'll use. I calculated that about three tablespoons of the oil was absorbed into the chicken, that I used approximately half of the cream mixture for coating, and that I used half of the spicy oil.
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I already have one Monte Cristo recipe on here, but sometimes when you have a new invention, you have to readjust. And I’m having a lot of fun with this chaffle business. Every day I think of new ideas I want to try. At this point I’m keeping a list. So expect more chaffles up in here.
The chaffles are the key on this one. As always, you’ll need your Dash mini-waffle iron, and a Magic Bullet blender or other type of blender is also useful, because it’s hard to mix up the cream cheese in the batter without it. You’ll also need Sukrin Gold, Swerve Brown, or another brown sugar substitute, as well as a bit of your white granulated sweetener of choice.
How you make this recipe is a bit like my Reuben recipe, in that you’ll be heating the filling up separately from the bread rather than grilling it like a panini. We’re not making French toast like in my original Monte Cristo recipe because the bread by itself a version of French toast. I basically went for the sweetest, most delicious eggy bread possible. If you don’t want it as sweet, cut back the sweeteners by half. These chaffles would also make an excellent breakfast just on their own, with a little butter and syrup.
You’ll also want to be very specific in how you load your blender for this one. If the cream cheese isn’t right next to the blades, it’s a lot harder to get the batter smooth. So if you have a Magic Bullet, you’ll want to load it like this: 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of almond flour, a half tablespoon of granular sweetener such as monkfruit or Swerve, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1 tablespoon of cream cheese, in that order. In a standard blender, reverse the order. Blend all that up, and then heat up your Dash. When it’s ready, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of your brown sugar substitute directly onto the iron, let it melt, then pour on half of the batter. Sprinkle another 1/2 teaspoon on top, then close the waffle iron and let it cook for 3-5 minutes, until it’s golden brown on both sides. Remove it, put it on a plate, and repeat the process for the second chaffle.
While the second chaffle is cooking, layer 2 ounces of ham and 2 ounces of smoked turkey in a round microwave-safe bowl. I ended up using more turkey than ham because that’s what I had, but it’s best if you use an equal amount of both. You’ll want a bowl about the size of the chaffles so you don’t get a ton of overlap. Put a slice of Swiss or Provolone cheese on top and microwave for about 40 seconds, so the meat gets hot and the cheese melts. Take the chaffle that’s already finished and spread your favorite sugar-free jelly on the ugly side (there’s always an ugly side and a pretty side). Invert the contents of the bowl onto that chaffle, so the cheese is on the jelly, then put the bottom chaffle on the meat, invert, and serve.
Bruleed French Toast Chaffle Monte Cristo
A Monte Cristo sandwich made with a sweet French toast chaffle.
Place all ingredients except for the brown sugar substitute in a blender, making sure the cream cheese is closest to the blades. Blend until smooth and slightly foamy.
Preheat your Dash. When the light turns off, open it and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of the brown sugar substitute directly onto the iron. Pour half the batter onto the iron, then sprinkle with another 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar substitute. Close the iron and cook for 3-5 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the iron and repeat with the remaining ingredients.
For the Filling
Spread the jelly onto the inside surface of the first chaffle. This should be the surface that was facing up as it cooked.
Layer the ham, turkey, and cheese in a small microwave-safe round bowl. Heat in the microwave for 40 seconds, until the cheese is melted. Invert the bowl onto the top chaffle, so the cheese is directly underneath the jelly. Put the bottom chaffle on, flip it over, and serve.
Macros per serving: 368 calories, 7 grams net carbs, 34 grams protein, 22 grams fat.
Keyword chaffles, high protein, keto, lchf, low carb, sandwich
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A classic deli staple, the reuben sandwich is given a keto twist by using a simple modification to the basic chaffle recipe to create a rye sandwich bread!
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