Bleeding Espresso

11 March 2009

What’s Cooking Wednesday: Homemade Chicken and Rice Soup

Are you someone who would never think of making your own chicken stock because it sounds way too Martha Stewarty, i.e., complicated?

Well this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday is for you.

Making your own chicken stock is easy peasy, plus you’ll feel like a star chef when you’re done…and then you’ll wonder why it took you so long to brave the task of making chicken stock. Seriously. *So* easy and delicious!

In the recipe below, I’ve listed that you need a chicken, but you actually don’t. All you really need are the remains of a chicken with just a little bit of meat left on it, skins, whatever you’d normally discard from a chicken. If you’ve picked clean a rotisserie chicken, use that! It makes fabulous, already well-seasonsed stock.

Aside from the chicken, for great soup, I recommend *always* putting in onion and celery (whole or chopped, up to you), and then, well, whatever else you like and/or have available. This particular go-around, I added carrots and chard because that’s what I had in my fridge, but you can add corn, peas, spinach, escarole, whatever you like.

Now yes, making homemade soup does take a bit of time, but it’s not like you have to stand over the pot the entire time. Especially if the weather is still chilly where you are, may I recommend:

Homemade Chicken and Rice Soup
(about 6 bowls of soup)

1 small chicken
Cold water to cover the chicken
1/2 lb. chard, chopped coarsely
2 stalks celery, chopped or left whole
3 onions, left whole
2 carrots, sliced
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup rice per person
Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Put chicken in a large stock pot and cover it with cold water. Cook on medium to high heat for about an hour and a half, periodically skimming off foam that surfaces.

2. Cook chard in salted, boiling water until it’s soft.

3. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the water and let cool, and remove any remaining foam.

4. Add the celery, onions, carrots, salt, and pepper to the broth, and let cook for another half hour or until you start to see that the onions are getting mushy. Take out the biggest chunks, but if you like, take some of the mushiest and chop them very finely to throw back in.

5. In the meantime, clean off the chicken and put the meat back into pot, discarding bones and skin.

6. Add chard to broth.

7. Cook rice either in broth or separately.

8. Serve with grated cheese if you like (I do).

Buon appetito!

Now, for broth beginners, are you going to try this or what? And for you experts, do you have any chicken stock tips to share?

19 beans of wisdom »

19 beans of wisdom to “What’s Cooking Wednesday: Homemade Chicken and Rice Soup”

Gil on 11 Mar 2009 at 8:00 am #

It wasn’t nice posting that nice picture of cookies being made and then go on about chicken and rice soup!

Sorry…lots of cookies in the archives though
Grace on 11 Mar 2009 at 8:07 am #

That’s looks like just what I need.

Grace’s last blog post..Get Lost In Austen

Mangia mangia!
Tips for Girls on 11 Mar 2009 at 8:57 am #

I love the taste of chicken in soup and with the rice it makes the perfect combination. Thank you for this recipe.

Tips for Girls’s last blog post..7 tips to look fresh after a party

I actually prefer rice in chicken soup over noodles…go figure
Paul U on 11 Mar 2009 at 11:00 am #

I never taste that before. I will make one soon.

Paul U’s last blog post..The TV that blogging bought

Enjoy Paul
anne on 11 Mar 2009 at 11:26 am #

I will give it a go with rice, instead of noodles…

What sort of rice do you use, just normal long grain, or something different?

anne’s last blog post..Our Short Walk…..

I’m so ignorant about rice in general; I use whatever I grab at the store (although this time it did say for soups at least).
Willym on 11 Mar 2009 at 11:32 am #

Well tomorrow isn’t a work day – god I love only working 10 days a month – and there is still a bit of a chill in the air so .. chicken and rice soups… and some brownies… yeah that sounds like comfort food. Mille grazie!

Willym’s last blog post..Mercoledi Muscial

Mmm now you have *me* thinking comfort food….
nyc/caribbean ragazza on 11 Mar 2009 at 11:58 am #

I was just talking to a friend about making my own stock. In the States I would just buy canned stock but it’s not sold here.

I made soup all the time in the States. I miss it… time me to bite the bullet and make the stock.

Chicken and rice soup is one of my favorites. Yum.

nyc/caribbean ragazza’s last blog post..Did Poste Italiane Go On Strike Without Telling Anyone?

You definitely won’t regret it! It’s especially easy if you pick up a rotisserie chicken on say, Friday…soup for the weekend
My Melange on 11 Mar 2009 at 1:24 pm #

Made my own turkey stock this past year with the leftover Thanksgiving Turkey. It was a bit of a pain- but oh so worth it when I made turkey soup with it. You could *really* taste the difference.

We are talking soup on my blog today to M. Hmmm, must be the rainy weather

My Melange’s last blog post..Potato and Leek Soup

The difference between homemade stock and not homemade stock is *incredible* isn’t it? We still have some chill in the air, so it’s still soupy here as well
Mary on 11 Mar 2009 at 2:22 pm #

It’s funny how often we think things are complicated when they really aren’t. The part I dislike though is pulling the meat off the bones. Sometimes I can get someone else (O) to do that or, in other words, con someone else into doing it.

Mary’s last blog post..Like a shot in the…

I actually don’t mind that as much as I would think I might, probably because I’m so used to doing it otherwise for the dogs!
lucy on 11 Mar 2009 at 2:40 pm #

Definitely going to make this on the weekend!

Enjoy Lucy!
Stefanie on 11 Mar 2009 at 3:34 pm #

I have a couple of friends who’ve been on soup-making kicks, and they claim (just like you) that making your own stock is totally easy and totally worth it. I’m not won over just yet. I’d rather they just make homemade soup FOR me!

Well yes, that *would* be rather ideal….
Laura at Ciao Amalfi on 11 Mar 2009 at 4:17 pm #

Ciao Michelle! Yes, as a beginner with making stock I will definitely give this a shot. It sounds simple enough… and very good! Grazie!

Laura at Ciao Amalfi’s last blog post..Out & About: Storm Damage in Amalfi

Hope you enjoy it, Laura…the process as well as the soup
Jeni Hill Ertmer on 11 Mar 2009 at 7:18 pm #

Boy, must be something in the air with your post today being chicken and rice soup and last night, for supper, I made -my own just-made-up recipe of Cream of Chicken and Tortelloni with vegetables soup! And it turned out really good too -even my son-in-law liked it! Although Maya told me after her first bite that she really liked it and it was “Really good, Gram” her opinion quickly changed when she discovered there were those damned evil vegetables floated about in it! KIDS!

Jeni Hill Ertmer’s last blog post..No Middle Ground

Hah, I remember not being too enthusiastic about veggies too…thank goodness that passed!
Amber on 11 Mar 2009 at 7:19 pm #

I always love a good hearty chicken soup. Especially with a little bit of homemade bread on the side. Yum.

By the way, I recently cooked something up that I’ll bet you would love!

Amber’s last blog post..Coffee on a Fork!

Oooh whatcha got over there? Hmm….
Amanda@A Tuscan view... on 11 Mar 2009 at 10:08 pm #

Great comfort food, I always want someone to make me this when I’m feeling under the weather. amanda

Me too. If only Mom would fly over whenever I’m sick!
helena on 11 Mar 2009 at 11:29 pm #

Save yourself the trouble. Chop the onion small in the first place, and absolutely add the rice to the broth. What point is there cooking it separately? The rice also absorbs the wonderful chicken flavour. I’d go easy on the chard, which is a bitter counterpart to the relative sweetness of the other ingredients.

I don’t chop the onion b/c I don’t actually like eating bits of it–which is why I take it out completely. As for the rice, I would recommend not cooking it in the broth if you know you’ll have leftover because then it gets soggy and sops up the broth overnight…and I personally don’t like soggy rice/pasta. As for the chard, I actually enjoy the contrast so I go heavy on it…to each her own
Anali on 12 Mar 2009 at 12:50 am #

I just made some chicken stock last week and made soup on Monday. My tip for others would be to NOT do what I did by forgetting to strain the stock. I had planned to strain it before adding it to the soup, but I forgot. Not my best cooking move. *sigh*

Anali’s last blog post..Which Way?

Oh that’s sad, but something you’ll probably never do again at least
Kashgari @ China Travel on 13 Mar 2009 at 11:53 am #

Hey!
Nice recipe,
I love these kinds of soup,it is good for digestion and it agrees with you when you are feeling bad, Thanks for sharing us.

Glad you like it! Thanks for stopping by
Baotou on 25 Mar 2009 at 11:12 am #

Hi: Nice post. Looks this is very amazing and delicious. I like chicken soup.This soup contains a lot of rich food, can be easier to digest.

Thanks for coming by!