Homestyle Chicken Rice Soup

Are you a soup person? Do you love wrapping your hands around a warm bowl of something delish? That’s me for sure, and this simple Homestyle Chicken Rice Soup is my #1 go to.

My status as a soup-lover was sealed sometime during the never-ending winter of 2014-2015. Even for a New England winter, the weather was quite extraordinary. There was SO. MUCH. SNOW. Record-breaking levels that kept coming late into winter.

I spent more time shoveling than I did cooking! My hands were never, ever warm. All I wanted to do was wrap them around warm bowls of food.

2018’s late winter has brought us New Englanders much of the same in terms of late-winter snow. The snow total numbers may not be as impressive, but we’ve logged in two Nor’easters since March began. Isn’t it pretty ::fart noise::

I started making this winter-warmer chicken rice soup back in 2014, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be stopping anytime soon 🙂

The beauty of soup-making is that everything you need is often in your pantry and refrigerator.

While I will share with you in a future post my method for making delicious from-scratch chicken broth, this recipe works well with ready-to-use broth as well. If you’ve got leftover chicken, frozen rice, and some carrots and celery on hand, you’ll be sitting down to a hearty bowlful of Homestyle Chicken Rice Soup in no time!

Adoration from your offspring is not guaranteed, but highly likely.

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Homestyle Chicken Rice Soup

This homestyle chicken rice soup recipe warms you from the inside out. It's simply seasoned with thyme, salt and pepper, and made easy with leftover chicken and pantry items in around 30 minutes. Get ready to wrap your hands around a warm bowl of homemade goodness!

Course Main Course, Main Meals, Soup

Cuisine American

Author Julia Robarts

Ingredients

• 8 cups chicken broth, ready-to-use or homemade If store-bought, choose a lower-sodium variety
• 3 medium carrots, peeled andchopped about 1 cup
• 3 medium celery stocks, chopped about 1 cup
• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2-1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper or to taste
• 2 10 ounce pkgs frozen brown rice about 4 cups total

Instructions

1. Add broth, carrots, celery, chicken, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to large soup pot. Cover, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until vegetables are softened, 8-10 minutes.

2. While soup is simmering, cook frozen rice according to package directions. 

3. Add rice at the end of the simmering time. Taste, and adjust seasonings.

4. Cornbread is a perfect side for this soup!

Recipe Notes

I like my soups THICK. The 4 cups of rice adds plenty of heft to this soup. The second day some of the broth will have been soaked up by the rice. If you prefer your soup brothy, cut the rice down to 3 cups, and/or increase the broth quantity.

I like to start with lower-sodium store bought broth so I can control the salt content. If you are using a higher-sodium broth, wait to add any additional salt until the end, when you've had a chance to taste the soup.

Frozen brown rice is the key to quick and easy prep. I have not tried simply cooking the frozen brown rice directly in the broth (rather than microwaving it according to package directions). It's possible it could work, but it may absorb more of the broth than you would want. If you try this method let me know how it goes!

I also love using a brown rice blend from Trader Joe's (pictured in the post) which includes black barley and red rice in addition to the brown rice.  *not gluten free*