Wingin’ It: Kansas City Steak Soup

Yes. I know who the Bills are playing this week

You like football. You like food. So do we! So much so, in fact, that we smash the two together to bring you a Buffalo Bills-inspired recipe each week. Whether it’s a take on an opponents’ fave or some real mad scientist **** coming your way, Wingin’ It is the spot to watch. This week we’re prepping for the Jacksonville Jaguars!

In what was probably the most forgettable “Wingin’ It” ever, I spent an inordinate amount of research time trying to find something, ANYTHING that could be considered a signature food down in Jacksonville. I found multiple authors admitting there wasn’t one and a couple citations to a semi-racist named sandwich variant with [gasp] Italian dressing on it. How crazy!

So **** Jacksonville. I spent zero time trying to find out if they developed any sort of culinary prowess in the last three years and decided to go with my runner-up recipe for Kansas City.

Kansas City Steak Soup

Serves: 8-10
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 2 hours

You will need: Large pot, greater than 4Q, large sauté pan

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (two sticks)
1 cup flour
2 quarts beef stock (low or no sodium)
1 cup carrots, chopped
³⁄₄ cut celery, chopped
¹⁄₂ cup frozen peas
14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes
3 envelopes (1.1 oz size) of no sodium beef bouillon powder
salt and pepper to taste
(optional) onion and garlic powder to taste
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 pound steak, chopped (cheap cut preferred)
Onion powder to taste
Ground cayenne pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste

1. Melt butter in a large pot on MED.
2. Add flour and stir in until smooth to create a roux (you can add garlic and onion powder in this stage as well). Stir occasionally until roux begins to brown (see below).
3. Slowly fold in the first quart of beef stock in (a cup at a time or so) and stir in until smooth (see below).
4. Fold in the second quart of beef stock along with carrots, celery, peas, and tomatoes; stir in.
5. Sprinkle and stir in bouillon one envelope at a time. Bring to a simmer, and stir occasionally.
6. Prepare steak: Melt 3 Tbsp butter in large sauté pan on LOW.
7. Increase heat to MED/HIGH and stir in chopped steak. Cook until beef is browned, stirring occasionally; drain.
8. Return pan to heat, adding cayenne powder, onion powder and hot sauce (see below). Stir and cook until beef starts to char. Remove from heat and add beef to soup.
9. Stir occasionally and cook until vegetable are desired firmness (plan on at least an hour, but possibly longer). Season to taste with salt and pepper when cooking is nearly complete.

Wingin’ It Tips and Prep Gallery

This week we’ll focus on the roux in case anyone is unfamiliar with that. This is a common thing for sauces, soups and stews and a few tips can go a long way.

• In the first picture we have the roux right after stirring in the flour. A roux is nothing more than fat and flour. When in doubt, go 1:1 ratio like we do here. The quantity makes a big difference. As a heads up, 1 cup:1 cup is a LOT, meaning this will be a thick food. I start with about a third of this for an entire tray of cheese sauce for mac’n.
• Picture two shows the MINIMUM amount of browning you should aim for. You also can see areas with little bubbles. That’s a good indicator you’re at the right temp but make sure you’re stirring quite a bit. If you’re conscientious about stirring you can go a lot darker brown with a roux. Darker browns usually lead to less flour flavor in the end result and if you added seasoning into the mix, more pronounced flavor from those.
• The next picture shows stirring in the first cup of liquid. For the first several cups the roux will get way THICKER with liquid, rather than thinner. Make sure you stir in thoroughly, allowing the mixture time to heat back up again before adding more liquid. After the first quart, you’ll be back to liquid, which is why you can add the rest of the stuff in bulk.
• The fourth picture is the dreaded “skin” around the outside of the pot. If you’re stirring enough and the heat is at the right setting you shouldn’t ever burn the skin. It’s safe (and encouraged) to scrape and stir it back in.
• The last picture is make-or-break for this recipe. If you do this how I did it the whole thing will be spicy and the beef chunks will give extra pops of heat. This picture shows how much cayenne I used, which was enough to coat all of the beef. I then drizzled enough hot sauce to coat that. The end result is similar to breading but, y’know, straight up red pepper. You can easily cut this back if you’re worried that the “Hellfire beef” might not be to everyone’s liking. Soups and stews with long cooking times are easy to balance. Add a little of whatever, stir in, let it sit a few minutes taste. Repeat if you need more. You can skip adding the cayenne and hot sauce on the beef and instead do a little at a time in the entire pot until it’s to your liking.
• That’s also why all of the ingredients are low/no-sodium versions. You have over an hour to figure the salt level out. Just do a little at a time.