Chicken soup with rice 🍲
This can be a very gut-friendly recipe when made with white rice. It will soothe an upset stomach and is easy to digest. Credit: Jani H. Leuschel
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 1 cup chopped or diced carrots 1 large or 2 small
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 5 to 6 cups chicken stock preferably homemade
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 or more black peppercorns
- 1 cup chopped or shredded cooked chicken
- 1 cup cooked rice
- pinch of nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt to taste
- Chopped Italian parsley optional to float on top of the soup
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large, deep pot or Dutch oven.
- Add all vegetables and saute until the onion becomes transparent about 5 minutes.
- Add chicken stock, Bay leaf, and peppercorns to the pot.
- Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add chicken and rice and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Add the nutmeg. Stir and taste for saltiness. Add salt according to taste.
- Serve in soup bowls or mugs, sprinkled with chopped parsley (optional).
Notes
Noodles can easily be substituted for the rice. I like to make this into a meal by adding up to 2 cups of cooked rice or noodles.
If you want to increase the fiber and vitamin content, use brown rice or whole-grain pasta.
The parsley adds flavor and a fresh taste, but most children will object to green specks floating on their soup. (Parsley has antimicrobial activity, so you could try using this as spin to encourage them.)
While this tastes best with homemade stock or boxed stock, you can resort to powdered or liquid stock base. Keep in mind that they are high in sodium.
You don't have to use cooked chicken and rice. Add raw chicken cubes to the olive oil after step 1 and remove the cubes after sauteing for 5 to 8 minutes, cooking them through.
Proceed with step 2, cooking the vegetables until the onion loses its color. Pour the raw rice over the vegetables and give it a stir to coat with moisture.
Return cooked chicken to the pot and proceed with step 3, checking the soup after 15 minutes. It may be ready to eat.
Bear in mind that white meat chicken breast gets tough if simmered in liquid for too long, so you may want to use boneless, skinless thighs if you use raw chicken. (They have higher iron content, too.)
Also, if you plan to store the soup, add cooked chicken and rice near the end of cooking as in the original recipe. Raw rice tends to keep absorbing liquid and become gummy. I find that adding cooked parboiled rice at step 5 makes for delicious leftover soup!
( Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, Wiley Publishing, 1998. )
Nutrition
Serving: 1g
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