Homemade Chicken and Rice soup is kind of like a hug in a bowl, don’t you think? All the soothing comfort so many of us are craving right now, in a steaming bowl of simplicity; rich broth, chicken, veggies and herbs. As the famous ad slogan so aptly stated, Mmmm Mmmmm Good!
Maybe you’ve never made it yourself, but instead have only been on the receiving end of this bowl of love. Or, maybe you’ve made it before and are just looking for a reminder on how to create this classic. Either way, can I just encourage you to head to the kitchen right now and start putting together this healing soup?? If you’re making just the soup alone you can be sharing it and enjoying it in about 30 minutes! And while you can make chicken soup from store bought stock, (and trust me, I have done this on plenty of occasions!) if you have a little extra time, the bit of extra effort is so worthwhile! The ingredient list is short and the skill level is basic, meaning if you can simmer water, you’ve got this!
To start the chicken stock place the following in your stockpot:
- Chicken-cleaned and organ meat removed.
- Vegetables-and here is the cool part, there is no peeling necessary! Just make sure your veggies are free of dirt and you’re good to go! (And yes, I mean you can leave the skins on your onions and garlic!) Cut your vegetables just a bit. I usually quarter the onion, cut the carrots, celery and parsnips in half and cut the garlic in half laterally.
- Herbs/Spices-again, leave whole and just throw in the pot!
- Cold water– 5 quarts for this particular recipe, but the amount of water you use will depend on the amount of chicken you are using. A good rule of thumb is a quart of water for every pound of chicken. The beauty of knowing this rule of thumb of course is being able to adapt to the ingredients you have on hand. If you find 3 pounds of miscellaneous chicken parts in your freezer and decide to make stock, you know you will add 3 quarts of water to your stockpot!
Bring stock just to a boil (it’s important to watch it closely here as boiling will release lots of impurities into the stock and it is these impurities that can cloud the stock and cause it to take on a more grayish color) and immediately turn down the heat so stock simmers ever so gently. Continue simmering (with the lid on) for about 1 1/2 hours.
Once the stock is finished, I like to immediately extract the chicken (using tongs) from the stock, place it on a cutting board, let it cool for a bit and then cut out the chicken breast meat for soup (or other purposes). Sometimes I discard the rest, sometimes I utilize the dark meat in chicken salad, it all kind of depends on the integrity of the meat. The meat has a tendency to become mushy from the simmering and in my opinion it isn’t worth saving. So with your meat, you make the call!
The stock will now need to be strained to separate the solids from the liquid gold. Place a colander (which you can line with cheesecloth if you want to be super vigilant about straining out impurities) a top another stockpot or very large bowl and pour contents of chicken stock through it. Discard all of the solids and your stock is now ready to use or store for later! It will keep in the refrigerator 3-4 days and in the freezer at least 3-4 months. I find I typically make this a two day process. Make the stock one day, store in the fridge overnight and the next day skim the stock of most of its’ congealed fat and then place in storage containers.
Helpful Hints For Making Delicious and Nutritious Chicken Stock
- A good rule of thumb is 1 quart of water for every pound of chicken (bones and meat).
- Cold water start! This helps to reduce the amount of impurities (small tiny insoluble proteins released from the chicken bones) in your stock.
- Simmer your stock rather than boiling. Again, boiling the chicken pulls out those impurities. One little note here though, those impurities will mostly affect the look of your stock (meaning it may look more cloudy and take on more of a grayish greenish color) and not so much the flavor. So if you end up with grayish tinged stock (like I sometimes do!) don’t worry about it! Most likely it will still taste delicious. Give yourself a big pat on the back for making HOMEMADE STOCK for gosh sakes, and move on!
The soup itself takes an easy breezy amount of effort to make it come together. Saute some onion until translucent, add broth/stock and veggies, bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are just tender. Add remaining ingredients and simmer together for a few minutes until everything is heated through! Perfect, you are now ready to share a bowl of love with anyone who needs it, including yourself! Enjoy!!
Homemade Chicken and Rice Soup
Ingredients
Chicken and Rice Soup
- 2 quarts chicken stock
- 1 cup onion, chopped 1 medium onion
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups carrots, sliced 2-3 large carrots
- 3/4 cup celery, sliced 1 stalk celery
- 4 cups cooked chicken breast meat, cubed 2 breast halves
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 1/2 cups cooked white rice
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoons fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly cracked pepper
Chicken Stock
- 5 pound chicken
- 1 large onion
- 2-3 large carrots
- 1-2 stalks celery with leaves attached
- 1-2 parsnips
- 1/2 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 8-10 peppercorns
Instructions
Chicken and Rice Soup
- In a small saucepan, begin cooking rice if you have no cooked rice on hand, as well as prepping chicken and veggies
- In 4-quart saucepan, saute chopped onion in extra virgin olive oil for 3-5 minutes or until translucent.
- Add stock, carrots and celery. Bring soup to a boil, and then immediately lower temperature, simmering for 2-4 minutes or until carrots and celery cooked through.
- Add remaining ingredients (cubed chicken breast, peas, cooked rice, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper).
- Simmer for an additional 5 minutes or so, until all ingredients are heated through.
Chicken Stock
- Place all ingredients in an 8-quart stock pot. Cover with 5 quarts of cold water
- Bring stock to just boiling over high heat (watch it closely at this point) and then immediately turn heat down to a simmer. Allow stock to lightly simmer for the next 1 ½ hours.
- Using tongs, remove chicken from stockpot and place on cutting board. Let cool if desired, and carefully cut off breasts. Cut breast meat into cubes if using for Homemade Chicken Soup, or save for another use.
- Place a colander (you may line colander with cheese cloth if you want to be more meticulous about filtering out any impurities) in a 6-quart stock pot or larger, and transfer stock from its’ original pot to this one, allowing colander to strain out the remaining solids. Discard the solids as well as the chicken carcass.
- At this point chicken stock can be used immediately, or chilled for later use (3-4 days in the refrigerator, or frozen for at least 3-4 months). When making chicken soup, I usually make the stock one day and the soup the next. Chill the stock overnight and skim most of the fat the next day.