After attending the Czech Festival in Wilbur, Nebraska, in August of 2001 where we took the cover photo for Cee Dub’s Ethnic & Regional Dutch Oven Cookin’ cook book we continued on to Omaha to visit family. One evening my cousin Cathy fixed this soup for supper! One spoonful and we asked for the recipe to include in the book! So,.. giving credit where credit is due is why we call it Cathy’s Black Bean & Chicken Soup. We’ve made this soup countless times and it always gets rave reviews.
The one comment that always comes up is the superb flavor of this quick and simple recipe. Often times some cooks try to over think or over complicate recipes by adding lots of different herbs/spices in an effort to get great flavor. This recipe simply uses salt, pepper, cumin along with the onions, garlic, and the black beans for flavor which shows “Simple is often the best.”
In this video I brown the chicken along with sauteing the onions and garlic. But, when camping or doing demonstrations where refrigeration is not available we often prepare it with with canned chicken or pre-cooked chicken that we freeze ahead of time. This eliminates food safety concerns of using raw poultry and cuts down on the cooking time.