8 October, 2020
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
There are a lot of variations on this recipe. I prefer this specific soup to be very thick with lots of veggies, rice, and chicken. This recipe pictured that I made today has lots of short cuts. I’ll outline the longer method and options around the choices you make.
Ingredients:
5 stalks of celery sliced tightly
4 carrots sliced tightly
1/2 large onion diced
3 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp thyme flakes
1/2 cup all purpose flower
5 cans 14 ounce chicken broth (low sodium)
2 cups water
1 whole rotisserie chicken torn/chopped into bite sized pieces
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 pouches instant wild rice long grain
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In large pot on medium melt butter, then add all vegetables, thyme, and garlic. Mix often while it cooks and sweats. When the vegetables are 5-10 minutes in and well reduced add the chicken stock and water. Turn heat up to high until boiling and then turn down so that it lightly simmers. Let the vegetables cook for 15 to 30 minutes depending on the chopped vegetable size. Taste the vegetables so they are lightly crunchy indicating mostly cooked. Add 1/4 cup all purpose flower slowly while mixing quickly. Make sure the powder absorbs before adding more.
Reduce heat and add chicken. The bubbles should pop in a way that indicates it was thickened. You will need to have it on reduced heat so it doesn’t splatter. After you think it’s thick enough, wait another 3 to 5 minutes to add rice. Mix and taste. Add more chicken broth, thyme, or salt and pepper as you need.
Final step is to turn off burner and slowly add heavy cream while you stir. Make sure liquid is not too hot as cream will curdle. As the soup cools it will become more thick.
Alternate methods:
You can cook the chicken and create the broth in a better method if you have the time. Get a whole chicken and quarter it, which means cut it into pieces. You can cut it into 8 pieces or 4 pieces depending on size of the chicken. Place in large pot, add thyme and garlic then cover with water. Boil on high and then reduce to simmer. Cook until chicken comes to temp at 165 degrees, can be 1 to 3 hours depending on size and meatiness of chicken. Pull chicken out and shred the meat. Remove bones and skin so that only chicken meat is present in what you collect. Use liquid in pot as the broth for your soup. You might have to strain to remove the particles from the cooked remnants.
Instant rice pouches often come with seasoning that might be unwelcome. Ideally when you are done prepping the vegetables and adding water plus chicken broth you add raw rice. Allow to cook thru and delay the chicken step until the rice is soft.