Chicken Soup for the Soul

Here is another thing that I love about fall… since I’m on the topic this week.

Chicken soup.

And not just any chicken soup….Cream Of Chicken And Wild Rice Soup. Yes, every letter deserves to be capitalized. It’s That Good.

I’ve been making this soup for approximately 11 years. I have the recipe written down somewhere on an old piece of scrap paper that has my lipstick blotted onto it because I carried it around in my purse for a while before I filed it away and used it as a lipstick blotter once. Eleven year old lip prints and a faded recipe is worth a picture on this here blog, but unfortunately it’s packed away with the rest of my recipes somewhere in the pit of my basement. It’s a good thing I committed this recipe to memory years ago, huh?

When the weather turns cool, this is what I crave.

Check it:

Here’s what you need to make this heaven in a bowl:

4-5 chicken breast, boiled until no longer pink in the middle but not overcooked
chicken stock from the boiled chicken
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 tsp chopped garlic
4 T butter
1 box Uncle Ben’s Long grain and wild rice
1 cup white wine
12 oz cut leaf or chopped frozen spinach
12 oz half and half
salt and pepper to taste

The first thing to do is bring a big pot of water to a boil. Add your chicken and let it cook until it’s no longer pink in the middle. Sorry, I have no pics of that because it was already finished by the time I remembered to grab my camera. Don’t overcook it though or it will be chewy and gross.

While the chicken is boiling, melt the butter in a pan and saute the chopped onion and garlic. You could also add some carrots and celery if you were feeling frisky. Me? I just like lots o’ garlic.

After the chicken is cooked, remove it from the boiling water and set it aside. Add the box of rice to the same pot with your chicken stock.

While the rice is cooking you can add your wine. I had this bottle leftover from my girls weekend.

Just glub glub it in there. I hate measuring. Can you tell?

Cover the pot and boil for about 20 minutes until rice is cooked.

After cooking for about 5-6 minutes your onions should be translucent like this.

That’s when you can pour them into the pot with all the other boiling goodness.

While the rice is boiling, take your spinach and put it into a bowl that has been layered with paper towels. Stick it in the microwave for about 3 minutes.

After three minutes it should be steaming hot and definitely not frozen anymore.

Carefully pull up all the corners of the paper towels like this:

And press your spoon or spatula against the paper towels to squeeze out some of that excess juice. Be careful and don’t burn yourself!

You’re probably squeezing out all of the vitamins and minerals in the process, but if you leave it in there it will make your soup kinda greenish and liquidy and gross looking.

See all that juice I squeezed outta there? Yeah that’s what color your soup would be. Bleah.

Who needs vitamins and minerals anyway?? NOT ME! So I plop my squeezed spinach right into the soup. Notice I’ve turned down the heat and it’s not boiling anymore. The rice is cooked and ready.

Then give it a stir and add the chopped chicken breast.

Then pour in the half and half.

And give it a heavy sprinkling of pepper and salt. You will be surprised how much it takes for this big pot of soup, so don’t be light handed with the S&P.

Then stir it up again, and you’re ready to scoop!!

Then if you are high faluty you can sit down at the table with a bowl of hot soup and a nice glass of wine.

Or if you are like me, you will replace the wine with another addictive beverage. And sprinkle it with a little more salt and pepper when you realize the soup is still a little too bland.

Then you will pour the leftover wine into your cheapo Publix brand white cooking wine bottle for future use in other soups and stews.

Waste not, want not my friends.

Enjoy!!