Meals is made possible by USA Rice, Sunsweet, Ninja, Chef's Choice, and thanks to the generous support of - [Voiceover] The 2016 Subaru Legacy with symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 36 MPG.

It pairs well with every kind of road.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(upbeat music) - The humble leftover doesn't always get it's due respect.

I mean especially when last night's dinner can be utterly transformed into an entirely new dish, the center of a delicious meal.

I'm gonna make my Asian Chicken Salad, and I'm gonna put on it my leftover rotisserie chicken.

This really is quite good if I do say so myself.

My Charred Tomato, Chicken, and Tortilla Soup is so tasty, for a few reasons.

First of all, the ingredients.

They're just great ingredients.

Secondly, they just sort of get broiled, and that makes them all charred and smokey.

And when you put it all together it's just a great vehicle for leftover rotisserie chicken.

It's just great, and you can use it for so many dishes.

Wow.

- And on Ask Sara: Today I have a question, and it's about mayonnaise.

This is magic.

(country music) Hi, I'm Sara Moulton.

Welcome to Sara's Weeknight Meals.

So I'm gonna make a salad for supper.

I'm gonna make my Asian Chicken Salad, and I'm gonna put on it my leftover rotisserie chicken.

I'm just finishing up with my peas.

You know, these are sugar snap peas, which means you can eat the whole thing.

I love them.

But sometimes they can have such a tough string that you eat sugar snap peas and it all gets stuck in your teeth.

But anyway, those were good.

They didn't have them.

And I'm gonna blanch those in just a second, but first I want to get my almonds toasting and my sesame seeds.

So I'm doing them on top of the stove, which is a fine way to do them.

You just have to make sure you keep an eye on them.

So, medium heat, and what we're looking for is for them to just start to change color and have a lovely aroma.

And the reason we're toasting them is because they're gonna have so much more flavor when they're toasted.

They add a toasty taste to the whole salad.

Now, I'm gonna get my peas going.

And this is a funny thing I do at home, and it's truly dorky.

Sugar snap peas are fantastic at 30 seconds blanching, but what I generally do when I add them to the water is I count, one-1000, two-1000, three-1000.

Because if you go above 30 seconds, they become slimy.

We're going to get it right out and put it in ice water.

It's called shocking by putting them in ice water.

We just shocked them out of overcooking.

All right, so here is our Napa cabbage, and I'm just gonna shred it.

You could cut it in half first.

It's always easier when you're cutting to get it flat, and then you're not chasing it all over the counter.

Okay, and then I'm gonna do some romaine.

These are hearts of romaine.

Maybe I'll do the same, lay it flat.

You could do all one or all of the other.

It doesn't really matter.

You can do any lettuce that you do like.

I like romaine.

I mean, the whole thing about the darker the color the more the nutrition.

That's not true of cabbage.

Actually all cabbage is good for you.

Cabbage is in the crucifer family, and all that stuff is good for you.

Let me just get this guy, I turned this off, but it continued cooking, so we're just gonna give it another little twirl.

You know, for two seconds I'm just gonna put it in here to stop the cooking.

And let's see how these guys are doing.

I'm gonna get these out too because they keep cooking.

There we go.

Okay, anyway, back to radishes.

I love radishes because they've got that wonderful crunch, but they've also got that bite.

They're really peppery, and I love peppery things.

Be careful when you're using the coarse side of a 4-sided grater that you do not get cut by it.

Okay, yeah, that's about a cup.

All right, this is going right in with our lettuce.

That was a half a head of Napa and a whole head of romaine hearts.

Now I'm gonna do my scallions.

So I'm gonna chop these four scallions.

The white part I can do coarsely because it's gonna go right into the dressing, but the green part has to be very fine.

Let me get my peas out of the water so they're not all watery.

Let me put those guys on top of here.

I try not to leave them, if you're gonna shock them, try to get them in the ice water, just get the heat off of them, and then get them out because we don't want to waterlog them.

I'm gonna add my scallions.

I'm gonna take down my whites.

We're gonna add some chicken to this in just a minute, but now I'm gonna make my dressing.

So we're gonna start with, this is a cup of carrots.

It's about a medium carrot that I've chopped up.

We did it sort of coarsely because it's all gonna get ground up in there.

This is the white part of those scallions, four scallions.

Now here we have some ginger.

This is really a beautiful piece.

I can tell because it's so firm.

I need a three inch piece, and one way to peel it is with a spoon.

That's a nice trick.

It sort of makes me feel like maybe I know what I'm doing with Asian cooking.

Now, I'm gonna chop it up.

I love the ginger in here, but then again, I just love ginger, I have to say.

Okay.

Then we're gonna add a quarter cup of water.

Now it's interesting, you're like water?

Why water?

It just helps it to have a better texture.

I may even end up adding more water in the end, too, because it gets very thick.

Okay, there's our water.

We need about a third of a cup of, this is just neutral vegetable oil, and I want it neutral because it's just there as a conductor of flavor and for mouth feel.

It's not really there for flavor.

So I would use grape seed oil.

That's my favorite.

Okay, three tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar.

What's the difference, you may see on your shelf in the supermarket, seasoned versus unseasoned?

Unseasoned is just straight-up rice vinegar, made from rice, but seasoned has sugar and salt added.

So, if you're going to use unseasoned just make sure you add a little pinch of sugar and a little pinch of salt.

Here we have some soy sauce.

It's two teaspoons.

There we go.

And sesame oil is one teaspoon.

No, two teaspoons, what was I thinking?

Sesame oil you have to be careful with because it's a very, very strong flavor.

It can almost take over something like nutmeg or vanilla can do.

Also, keep your sesame oil in the refrigerator, because it can go rancid.

Okay, here is our hot sauce, and I'm just gonna put, oh about, well three-quarters of a teaspoon, but you know I love hot sauce.

You can start with three-quarters.

I'm putting one-plus, just 'cause I love hot stuff.

Now, we're gonna let this rip.

Oh boy, could I smell that hot sauce.

Great stuff.

All right, I'm ready to finish my salad.

I just have to get the chicken.

I don't want to forget the protein.

And by the way, I'm using chicken, but you could do this with pork, you could do this with beef.

This would be delicious with shrimp.

I have a little bit of chicken I still need to shred up here.

Okay, and I just have to cut up a little more.

You can shred it, you could cut it into cubes, whatever mood you're in.

Any leftover chicken.

Rotisserie chicken would be good here.

I think that's plenty of chicken right there.

So in goes the chicken.

And then I've got a secret ingredient here that I'm gonna finish it with in just a minute, but let me get my nuts on there.

A wonderful crunch, and you know, almonds are so good for you and sesame seeds, too.

Here we go.

Because we're gonna save some, you can put some more on top afterwards.

And it's sort of bright orange, like it glows in the dark.

That is all from carrot.

You know, that's carotene.

No food coloring in my food.

So you toss it up.

I probably should have started with a larger bowl.

So there we go.

You'll get way down in the bottom and do a better job.

Now I'm gonna put some on here and then top it with yet another secret finishing touch I have for this recipe, which is ramen noodles.

And I'm talking about the stuff that we all ate in college, and you know because it was so affordable.

Let me leave this here to garnish.

But interestingly enough, you can eat the noodles straight up.

You don't have to resuscitate them in the liquid, and the reason for that is because the noodles are already deep fried, they're flash fried.

They're already cooked, they're ready to go.

So you can use them for this recipe.

They add a wonderful crunch.

You can see them as sort of Asian croutons.

But given that they're fried, you might not want to do it because you're just like, well I'd like a healthier alternative.

If you wanted crunch in here, we already have some from the almonds, but if you wanted a different kind of crouton, you could use say some baked tortilla chips, and that would be perfect.

I'm just gonna put a tiny more dressing on top, just because I love the color of this.

There you have it, Asian Chicken Salad, with all sorts of secret ingredients, and I did not turn on the oven once.

So I am a happy camper.

I'm gonna actually take a bite.

There we go.

Your whole family is gonna love this, the kids too, I promise you.

This really is quite good if I do say so myself.

(upbeat music) I get a lot of questions sent to my website, and I love answering them because I get to explore new thorny issues, and today I have a question from Hope from Fairfield, Connecticut, and it's about mayonnaise.

Hey Hope.

- Hi Sara, how are you.

- I'm good.

So, talk to me.

- Well, you know, mayonnaise is kind of a boring thing.

It doesn't always come out tasting as well as I'd like it to in some of my recipes.

I just wondered how you would actually go about making it from scratch.

It's a little intimidating.

- Well, it's a lucky thing you ask because I have a little video to share with you.

Why don't we take a look at this whole process together?

- Wonderful, thank you.

- What goes into a mayonnaise is basically egg yolks and oil with some other flavorings in there, and the other flavorings help for the eggs to absorb the oil.

It's an emulsified dressing.

So because we want our yolks to be room temperature, I'm separating them when they're at room temperature.

So we're gonna want a teaspoon of mustard.

This helps for the emulsification, meaning for the oil to stay trapped in there, and then we want just a pinch of cayenne, quarter teaspoon of salt.

So I'm gonna need a tablespoon and a teaspoon of this lemon.

The next thing we're gonna add is our oil, and we need a cup of flavorless oil, like vegetable oil, like safflower, sunflower, or my favorite which is grape seed oil.

Almost every food processor, every model no matter what brand, you know this little thing that's the plunger tube that goes in there, all of them, every last one, has a hole in it, for this reason.

You may not have known that.

You probably didn't read the manual either now did ya?

So here's what you do, turn on your machine, you put the oil in here, and it will slowly drip down through that hole at the pace that you want it to.

Because if you add your vegetable oil too quickly to your eggs the whole thing will split.

See how that's thickening up nicely?

This is magic.

See, this is why we love cooking, because it's just complete magic.

We've got mayonnaise there, yeah.

- Sara, that was a terrific tip.

I never realized that that funnel made it so easy to do the mayonnaise and control the oil.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah, thank you, Hope, for that question.

That was lovely.

And for you all out there, if you want to come on and ask me a question on Ask Sara, please just send an email to saramoulton.com.

(lively music) - Hi.

- Hi, how ya doing?

- Good, I'd like to get a rotisserie chicken.

- Sure.

- There you go.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- My Charred Tomato, Chicken, and Tortilla Soup is so tasty for a few reasons.

First of all, the ingredients, they're just great ingredients.

Secondly, they sort of get broiled, and that makes them all charred and smokey.

And when you put it all together it's just a great vehicle for leftover rotisserie chicken.

It becomes a meal.

I've got my corn here, husking it.

So, two ears of corn and then some plum tomatoes.

We need about two and a half pounds.

Because this is really the base, it's like a tomato soup.

And then we have some onions that I'm gonna cut in half.

And we're gonna broil, we're broiling, I've already preheated the broiler, the onions and the garlic with the skin on.

The idea being that they'll be protected by their skin, but still roast.

We're doing two things.

We're getting it all nicely browned and sort of charred around the edges, which gives us that smokey taste, but we need them all to get really soft.

Afterwards, and they're pureed, we're gonna reheat them, but this is really gonna cook them.

It takes oh about 10 minutes for the corn and up to 18 minutes for everything else.

You just have to watch it and keep turning it and looking at it until it's nice and soft and got that great charred edge.

And you'll smell it.

It's gonna let you know when it's getting there.

All right, now, we're also gonna make some tortilla strips, and I'm gonna flavor them first.

These are oven-baked tortilla strips.

If you were in a rush you could certainly use bought tortilla chips, but why not just make your own.

It's so simple.

We only need four for this recipe.

Well, one of them is going to thicken the soup and the other three are gonna be the strips in the soup.

And I'm gonna make a little mixture with a tablespoon of oil.

There we go.

Okay, a tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of chili powder.

If you want you can go with the pure chili powder like an ancho or a pasilla or even a chipotle, and that would be fun, because the package mixes also have oregano, sometimes sugar, sometimes salt, so pure chili powder is a good way to go, but it's your choice.

Okay, then I'm gonna add just a pinch of salt, and then what we're gonna do is, this is sort of fun to paint your food.

Let me show you a little trick.

I'm gonna paint two of these and then make a sandwich, and you'll see how that works.

You can make all sort of flavored tortilla chips by just mixing oil with different flavors, different spices, and then you sandwich them.

Okay, now one of these we're gonna save.

See, you see then the oil goes on both sides.

One of these we're just gonna save as our thickener.

So to remind myself not to cut it up, I'm gonna put it down here for later on, and then these guys all get cut into strips.

So you cut them in half first.

And now if you only have one oven, you can put the tortilla chips on the bottom shelf while the top shelf is broiling, and they'll still get nice and toasty.

So spread them out in one layer.

Because I do have two ovens, I'm just gonna pop 'em in the bottom one.

All right, 400 degrees, six minutes.

Let's see what's going on up here.

Oh, not too much just yet.

Nope, oh yep, the tomatoes are getting a little bit.

I'll come back and check.

You just have to baby sit a little bit.

Okay, I'm gonna get my garnishes ready.

I need some cheddar cheese, and I'm gonna grate that, and some cilantro.

If your family hates cilantro, you could certainly use basil or some other herb.

But I've got a little trick.

When I like to grate my cheese, it's so much easier if it's been partially frozen.

So, that's been in the freezer for 10 minutes.

It just hardens up.

Because you know it becomes so gluey when it's really soft, you sort of end up with a cheese ball.

This is a great way to store these kind of herbs.

This is cilantro.

What you do is you treat them like flowers, and they'll really keep for quite a while.

I can do my cheese first.

I'm gonna use the coarse side of a 4-sided grater.

I need about a quarter cup of this cheddar.

You know, you can get the white cheddar as well.

The difference between the white and the orange is not so terrible.

It's colored with annatto seed.

You know how with parsley or with basil you always lose the stems.

Well you really don't need to with cilantro.

I'm just gonna just lose the very bottom.

You know, you don't have to stand there and like pick off each little tiny leaf, because the stems are so tender, and they've got so much flavor, you might as well just leave them in.

Okay, I'm smelling them, I bet that my vegetables are ready, and I bet you so are my tortillas.

Let's have a look.

Oh yes, these are beautiful.

Wow, okay.

That's gonna give me so much flavor.

Now let's see how these guys are doing.

Oh yes.

Perfect.

If they're nice, oh yeah, very nice.

I'm just gonna let those cool.

So here's my leftover chicken from last night, my rotisserie chicken, and I'm just gonna shred it by hand or, you know, you can cut it.

I love rotisserie chicken.

You know, I never met a rotisserie chicken I didn't like.

It's just great and you can use it for so many dishes.

This is like my favorite thing for leftovers.

Great in sandwiches.

Of course it's good for quesadillas.

It's good for enchiladas.

I'm using leftover rotisserie chicken, but if you roasted your own chicken, terrific.

Let's say you had some poached chicken, wonderful.

Some leftover chicken from chicken sandwiches, leftover turkey, all of that would work here.

Okay, so there we go.

All right, cutting corn off the cob.

There's many different ways to do it.

There's all sorts of tricks.

I just do it this way, and yeah it flies, but if you have a nice piece of parchment as I do, I feel secure here that I'm getting all the corn off.

I have a friend, I'm gonna show you how he does it on the second one.

You know how you get comfortable with certain ways of doing things, you just feel like you're in control.

So what he does is he, this is Joey Altman from California, he just lays it flat, which makes so much sense in terms of not letting the corn fly.

So you can pick which way you want to do it.

So there's my corn, but now I've got to get the rest of the vegetables ready.

I'll put this here.

I'm gonna start with my tomatoes.

What we need to do is just peel them.

Okay, very easy.

We're gonna add every part of the tomato.

Now when I went to cooking school, I was trained in the French way, I was told to remove of course the peel, because it's tough, but also to remove the seeds.

And since then I've learned that actually the seeds have tons of flavor, and we're gonna blend this whole thing up, so why lose them because they're just gonna get pulverized in there and they're gonna add so much flavor.

Get off the peel from the onion.

You see this wonderful charred part?

This is gonna add great flavor.

And finally I will do the garlic.

Okay, it's time to make soup.

Pick this up now, it's cooled off.

So all of this goes right into my blender.

Now let me say something, you could certainly do this in a food processor.

You could certainly use an immersion blender if you threw this all into the pot, but nothing makes a smooth puree like a good old-fashioned blender like this.

I'm gonna do it in a few stages.

It's just easier to blend.

Well I'm glad I put that little bit in there.

I think I would have been wearing it if I'd put the whole thing in.

I need to, that needs salt.

Okay, this goes in here.

I guess I could have just added the salt to that.

But meanwhile, did you appreciate the texture on that, how fine it got, how pureed it got.

You wouldn't get it that fine in a food processor or a handheld that's an immersion blender.

It's just not the same.

Remember our trusty tortilla?

You can see that's already thick, so you could actually leave this out, but it adds a wonderful flavor as well.

We could have toasted the tortilla, too, with the rest of the tortilla chips before we put it in here.

Either way, it's gonna be good.

All right, so we're gonna heat this up.

Basically the soup is done.

Do you believe it?

So I'm adding 14 ounces of chicken broth, about one and three-quarters cup, and I'm adding it really for flavor even though I've already thickened the broth, I like that chicken flavor.

There goes our grilled corn.

There we go.

So while that heats I'm just gonna get some little bit of lime juice ready here.

And you can nuke it, really helps to get the juice out.

So another thing to do is to bruise it, abuse it, lean on it.

You know how limes don't really like to give it up.

So we're just gonna put this right in there.

Let me just put, I'm gonna put a little more salt.

I'm gonna put some black pepper in.

How could I forget my tortilla chips.

Let me get those.

All right, I have a little bowl over here for my tortilla strips.

That way everybody can garnish their own.

Okay, I'm seeing bubbles.

We're in business.

Oh my favorite dinner, soup.

Let me put all of the special stuff on there.

Some cheese, some cilantro, and some tortilla strips.

And to serve on the side I've got a Mexican cole slaw that's been dressed with a buttermilk chipotle dressing.

Yum.

Wow.

And you saw how quickly it was to make this soup.

This is my kind of soup.

Charred Tomato and Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Taking advantage of rotisserie chicken on a weeknight.

Can't do any better than that.

(banjo music) - [Narrator] For recipes and videos, go to our website, saramoulton.com.

Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by USA Rice, Sunsweet, Ninja, Chef's Choice, and thanks to the generous support of - [Voiceover] The 2016 Subaru Legacy with symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 36 MPG.

It pairs well with every kind of road.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.