Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup Recipe | Ep. 1333
Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale and on this episodeof Laura in the Kitchen, I want to share with
you how to make a really simple, easy andcomforting chicken and wild rice soup!
It's creamy, it's delicious, it's full offlavor, it's a one-pot-wonder of course!
And it's perfect for this time of year whenit's still so bitter cold here in Jersey,
or on the East Coast.
But, you know, it's just delicious anytimeof year but extra delicious right now.
The list of ingredients is very short andsweet but it's all the right ones.
You've got your usual soup suspects here,you've got your carrots, celery, onion, I've
also got garlic and some baby bella mushroomsthat I have just chopped, I've got some fresh
thyme, I've also got, this is a combinationof long grain rice and brown rice, it's got
a little bit of bullion powder mixed in it.
This is what I find in my local grocery store,but just wild rice works perfectly here, but
this happens to be what I find and it's delicious,so I'm using that.
I've got a combination of milk and chickenstock here, you'll also need some chicken
breast, a little bit of flour, salt and pepperand some butter with a little bit of light
olive oil or a flavorless oil.
In this big heavy-bottomed pot, I've got somelight olive oil preheating over about medium
heat, and to it I'm going to add my chickenand I'm going to season this with salt and
pepper, now I'm using chicken breast herebecause it works really well and it's going
to cook for about an hour so it's going toget really tender and delicious but chicken
thighs would work even better and they'rehalf the price, twice the flavor, but chicken
breast, if I have it on hand, and that's typicallywhat I tend to use - it's typically what I
have on hand I should say.
So that's what I tend to use, but chickenthighs would be perfect.
I'm going to let those sear, develop a littlebit of color and I'm going to take these out
to a clean plate and move forward.
That looks good enough!
Remove the chicken, now obviously this isgoing to get a lot more cooking and some pieces
might not be all the way cooked through yetbut that's fine.
You just need a little bit of color becausecolor makes it better.
Am I right or am I right?
Now I still have a little bit of - oopsie!
I still have a little bit of cooking oil - oopsiesI lost one - in the bottom of the pan, but
this is the time I want to add a good amountof butter, I know, don't let it scare you!
But this soup will feed a good eight people,I mean it makes a lot!
And I'm also going to add my veggies, andI'm going to let this cook for a good ten
minutes or until the veggies really sweatdown, develop a little color, you know just
get that flavor going.
Oh it's going to be so good and like I said,this really will feed a crowd, but I just
want to give you a big tip.
When you add the starch, like potatoes, riceor pasta to a soup, you know that as it sits
in the fridge, that starch will swell andit will thicken the soup a lot.
So if you're going to make a big pot of thisbut you don't want to serve it all today,
what I would do is I would cook the wild riceseparately, and scale back on the cooking
liquid by a couple of cups, that way you canadd your cooked wild rice, you can reheat
your soup, add a scoop of your cooked wildrice to it and eat that throughout the week
and you don't have a really swollen thicksoup that you have to reheat and keep adding
liquid to it throughout the week.
So, I'm just going to let these cook and I'llshow you what they look like when they're
done.
Veggies look good, I'm going to add a littlebit of flour now, you don't need a lot but
it kind of helps thicken the soup just a littlebit and gives you a really creamy velvety
delicious, delicious result.
And now we're going to add the chicken backin and any of it's juices that have collected.
I've also seasoned my veggies with some saltand pepper, and now we're going to add in
the stock and milk mixture.
Good!
Give that a really good stir, and you're goingto add in your fresh thyme.
Now what you're going to do is you're goingto - so, rewind!
My wild rice mixture takes about twenty fiveminutes to cook, but I want the soup, my base
to cook for about forty minutes before I addthat to it because in total I really want
this to simmer for a good hour, so I'm goingto bring this to a boil, pop the lid on and
let it simmer for about forty minutes andthen I will show you what it looks like before
we add in the rice.
But you're really going to have to check therice you're using to make sure that you're
giving it plenty of cooking time, but in totalyour soup should simmer for about an hour.
Alright, it's been about forty minutes, it'sbeen simmering.
Now I'm going to add the rice, and this isgoing to take another twenty minutes or so,
like I said - my daughter does that, Mia,that's her new thing when she wants to say
a word and it's not coming out she goes blabla bla.
Like mother like daughter.
Now as I mentioned, the wild rice that I'musing is a blend that I purchased at my local
grocery store that has long grain rice andsome wild rice and some seasoning in there
that's kind of like a powdered boulion cube,it is really delicious but if you can't find
it just regular wild rice works perfectly,you will just have to tailor the cooking time
according to the kind that you're getting.
And I know that a lot of them take about fortyminutes to cook so just keep an eye on that
and that way you'll know you won't over cookit or under cook it so what I'm going to do
now is keep my eye on this and let it simmeruntil the rice is done.
Get rid of the sprigs of thyme.
This is done and look how gorgeous and thickand delicious, it's not thick enough to be
a stew, but it's not as thin as a brothy soup,it's creamy it's delicious, and if you want
to make it a little bit more creamy indulgingyou can add about four ounces of softened
cream cheese at the very end, really to kickup that creamy delicious yummy-ness of the
soup.
This is perfect like this, and I think addingjust a couple of tablespoons of flour really
helps get that really creamy consistency withouthaving to add the cream cheese but hey, you
the boss apple sauce, you do you.
Mmm!
Mmm!
The rice is so lovely and nutty, and it'sgot such good texture, the flavors of the
soup are actually incredible, it's so delicious,there are no words for it, it's just, I don't
even know how to explain it, it's full offlavor, the mushrooms make it really just
rich, you know what I mean?
Chicken is super tender, I mean it is delightin a pot!
Go to LauraintheKitchen.com, get the writtenrecipe, I hope that you've enjoyed spending
time with me, I promise you this will be anew go-to soup for you because it's that easy
but that delicious!
I'll see you next time, bye!
To get this complete recipe with instructions and measurements, check out my website: http://www.LauraintheKitchen.com Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mrsvitale Official Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/LauraintheKitchen Contact: Business@LauraintheKitchen.com Twitter: @Lauraskitchen