This soup is easy to put together and is packed with hearty and comforting flavours. Don’t be deceived by the strange purple colour, this is the soup I crave when I’m feeling under the weather. Mine may have (accidentally) turned purple. I didn’t think that through when adding purple carrots, but if you stick to orange carrots you can avoid this. Maybe I just need to see the positive… purple foods = anthocyanins = good for you.
The key to getting all the flavour into this soup is taking the time to let the vegetables caramelize. This yields a deep rich flavourful base to which you will add your chicken and rice. Feel free to keep things simple and use store-bought or left-over cooked chicken, store-bought chicken broth and skip right to the soup section.
Simple Chicken and Rice Soup
yields: 4 servings
Ingredients
For chicken:
- 3 Chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on
- 1 Yellow onion, cut into quarters (skin on)
- 4 cloves garlic, cut in half
- 2 Litres Water
For Soup:
- 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
- 1 Yellow onion, diced
- 4 stalks Celery, thinly sliced
- 4 Carrots, chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 3 Bay leaves
- 1 bunch Parsley, chopped
- 1 tsp. Black pepper
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2/3 cup Long grain white rice
Chicken: Place chicken thighs, onion and garlic in a large pot. Cover with water and place on stove over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook 1 hour.
Remove thighs from pot and set aside. Strain liquid, keeping it to use as broth for the soup, discard garlic and onion.
Soup: In same (now empty) pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and let cook 5 minutes. Stir in celery and carrots and continue to cook 10-15 minutes, until everything is starting to brown and become caramelized.
Stir in garlic, pepper and salt let cook 2 minutes. Add reserved broth, bay leaf and rice, let simmer for 20 minutes, or until rice is cooked through.
Remove bones from chicken thighs (discard skin if you like) and roughly chop into bite sized pieces. Add chicken and chopped parsley to soup once rice is cooked.
Adjust seasoning to taste.