How Ree Drummond Combines Chili And Beef Stew Into A Hearty Soup

Ree Drummond is famous for creating comforting, stick-to-your-ribs recipes that feed a lot of people. Of course, this all makes sense when you learn that Drummond lives on an actual cattle ranch where her husband and family works. On her Food Network show, "The Pioneer Woman," she's often depicted preparing meals for her family and team of hungry ranchers. With their long days and demanding physical work, these men and women appreciate big portions of heavy foods. Drummond's Cowboy Stew is a great example of what she cooks up best.

Drummond describes the soup as something resembling a combination of chili and beef stew. Cowboy Stew includes ground beef, bacon, and kielbasa for plenty of protein plus hearty potatoes, corn, beans, and a smoky broth flavored with plenty of chili powder, cumin, and tomatoes. To further play on the chili factor, Drummond loves to serve this soup with cornbread, a classic chili accompaniment. 

The dish comes together the way most stews and chilis do. First, the meat is browned, then the aromatics are cooked in the meat drippings. Seasonings are stirred in along with flour, which is used to thicken the soup. The liquids and canned ingredients are added, then the meats go back in and finally everything is simmered together until the potatoes are soft and the flavors have combined.

Some of the heartiest soups are inspired by dishes that otherwise belong on a plate, not a bowl. Ree Drummond combined two substantial soup dishes into one (if you can call chili a soup) to make Cowboy Stew, but she's also known to take other classic comfort dishes and transform them into spoonable meals. Her chicken pot pie soup is essentially the filling of pot pie (Ree Drummond makes hers with white wine) in a soup bowl served with chunks of baked pie crust. I make something similar but top each bowl with split biscuits. You could also top each bowl with rounds of puff pastry and bake them in the oven.

Drummond has also taken the comforting Italian favorite, lasagna, and made a soup of it. Her lasagna soup contains ground beef and sausage, tomatoes, garlic, wine, oregano, and broken up dried lasagna noodles which are cooked in the hot soup (sort of like how Ina Garten softens her lasagna noodles in hot water). It's served with ricotta dumplings made with ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and herbs.

These are just a couple of examples of robust soups Drummond has created, but there are many other main dishes disguised as soup like loaded baked potato soup, steak and potato soup, and chicken enchilada soup. Any of these would satisfy the appetite of hungry friends and family members, whether they're ranchers or not.