I wanted to make a chicken and rice soup so I could freeze it for lunches over the next month. I’m a little bit hesitant to make a huge batch without having tried the recipe before.. and I just couldn’t find a recipe I liked.. so I figured F*it, I’ll make up my own 😀

Features I wanted: I want to cook the rice in chicken broth. I want to use already pre-cooked chicken. I want to add tumeric and.. some green spice.

I don’t want the veggies to disintegrate into the soup.

Chosen method: Brown/soften veggies in a butter/olive oil. Cook rice in broth in a separate pan. Add more broth/veggies/shredded chicken to rice/broth. Warm to serve. Cool and then freeze.

I ended up with something tasty.. but not as tasty as I’d like. I think it needs more salt and pepper. Add to that, after I let it cool the rice soaked up nearly all of the broth.. so I now have a very nice chicken rice pilaf. My plan is to add 3 more cups of broth to what I have so that it’s jucier when I freeze it.

In the recipe below I’ve already added the 3 more cups of broth.. so it should be plenty soup-y the next time I make it.

Oh, at the proportions below, this only barely fit in my biggest pan. Cooking it with 3 more cups of broth will need to be done in one of my big soup pans.

Chicken with wild and brown rice soup

2 Tbsp butter or olive oil
3 ribs celery, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
2-3 leeks (trimmed to only white parts), diced
1 med/large onion, diced
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp dried thyme

2.5 cup brown/wild rice (I found a pre-package of brown/wild rice)
2 Tbsp butter
9 cups chicken broth/stock, separated

1 whole roasted chicken (I used rotisserie chicken from the grocery store), deboned
sea salt, to taste
ground pepper, to taste

De-bone the chicken. Discard bones/skin/fat. Cut the meat into small dice. Set aside.
Cook rice using broth instead of water (I used 1 package of brown/wild rice cooked in 5 cups broth with 2 Tbsp butter). Set aside.
Melt 2 Tbsp butter and brown/soften veggies in butter (~5 mins). Add turmeric and thyme and cook for an additional 1 minute. Combine remaining broth, veggies, chicken, and rice. Cook until all ingredients are warm. Salt/pepper to taste.

This soup may be frozen in individual portions.