Chicken and Rice Soup (Or: It’s All Because No One in My Family Bothered to Go to Medical School)

So I’m now over a week into this cold from hell and it’s still hanging around, taking up space in my chest and head. I’m thinking about naming it. Something like Plague Ferdinand or Contagion Calypso, like how they name hurricanes and deadly storms. And tyrants.

Am I whining?

Sorry.

I was just really looking forward to starting 2016 with some pizzazz – awesome food, great runs, big adventures – but so far, I’ve done almost nothing but mope around my house, go through boxes of Kleenex, and cook foods that, while comforting, are not registering very high on the vavoom scale.

Today’s recipe is a case in point: Chicken and Rice Soup. While this soup won’t win any awards for “most innovative” dish ever to be typed and uploaded onto the web of the world, it really is delicious in a I’m-in-a-wool-sweater-not-stilettos-kind-of-place-in-my-life. You know what I mean? It tastes reassuring and satisfying, reminding you that it is just a stupid cold and not Typhoid and that you will run again and there is nothing wrong with not brushing your hair or wearing the same gray wooly socks for four days in a row IF THAT’S WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER!!!!

I need a nap.

Okay, I’m back. Where was I? Oh yeah, Chicken and Rice Soup. Even though I’m forcing it on you in the dead of winter, trying to convince you it is the perfect comfort dish when you are sick, or tired, or both, I actually make this soup all year long because someone is always requesting it. There is something about a classic recipe that makes the people around you feel loved and cared for, which is really what cooking is all about, don’t you think? This is the recipe that gets trotted out every few weeks because someone in my world just “needs something yummy”. This is the recipe people ask me to make when THEY have the plague. And I’m happy to oblige. Because we all need a warm bowl of love every now and then. The stiletto recipes can wait.

 

Chicken and Rice Soup

Clearly this recipe is best with homemade chicken stock, but if you don’t have any in your freezer, and have the plague, please spare yourself the guilt and just use good organic chicken stock from the grocery store. Be kind to yourself, my loves.

1 large onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

64 ounces organic chicken broth

1 Tablespoon dried thyme

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped

1 cup uncooked rice

salt

pepper

 

In a large dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil (to keep the butter from burning). Add chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes on medium high. Add chopped carrots and celery and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Add tomato paste and stir for 1 minute. Add chicken broth and bring mixture to a boil.

Add apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire, thyme and the bay leaves. Turn down heat to medium low, cover pot, and let simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Add uncooked rice and chicken and cook for another 20 minutes, or until rice is tender.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Serve with a good loaf of French bread with salted butter and a bright green salad, preferably on a tray in bed while watching your favorite tearjerker from the 80s.

 

Tagged as: Chicken and Rice Soup, comfort food