Description
This chicken and rice soup is an easy dinner perfect for busy weeknights. It combines tender chicken with fluffy rice for a simple comfort food that everyone in the family will love. Ideal as a quick soup recipe for a family dinner.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter or more oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 carrots halved then cut into 1cm or 2/5 inch slices quarter if really thick
- 3 celery ribs cut into 1 cm or 2/5 inch slices
- 3 tsp Vegeta stock powder or 2 x vegetable or chicken bouillon cube or 2 tsp powder Note 2
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme optional
- 1/4 tsp black pepper finely ground
- 4 cups 1 litre chicken broth low sodium
- 4 cups 1 litre water
- 600 g 1.2 lb bone in skinless chicken thighs 4 x 150g or 5oz Note 1
- 1 cup 180g long grain white rice uncooked Note 3
- Salt adjust to taste
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley optional
Instructions
- Heat the oil and butter together in a large pot over medium high heat, then add the chopped onion and minced garlic, cooking until the onion looks translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the carrots and celery, cooking them briefly for about a minute to combine.
- Pour in the stock powder, dried parsley, thyme if used, black pepper, chicken broth, and water, then stir well before adding the chicken pieces.
- Cover the pot and let the soup simmer on medium low heat for 30 minutes, adjusting to maintain gentle bubbling and removing foam from the surface as needed.
- Remove the lid and add the rice, stirring it into the soup, then cover and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Take the soup off the heat and transfer the chicken to a large bowl to shred with two forks, discard the bones, and return the shredded chicken to the soup.
- Mix in half of the chopped parsley, taste, and season with salt if needed, then serve with remaining parsley sprinkled on top.
Notes
- Fat is where all the flavour is, so I use bone in thigh for this recipe
- I remove the skin otherwise the soup is a bit too greasy – just pull it off, it comes off easily
- Skinless bone in thighs are sold in packets at Woolies in Australia – they are great value
- Alternative cuts: drumsticks will also work, no need to remove skin, use 1 kg or 2lb
- Skinless boneless thighs are the next best – but only cook for 15 min then add the rice, cook for further 15 min then take the chicken out, shred then return to soup, serve
- Store bought rotisserie chicken: Follow recipe except reduce water by 1 cup, use 2 1/2 cups of chopped or shredded chicken
- Then add the broth and water, bring to simmer, add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes, then add rice, cook for 15 minutes, then serve
- Breast is so lean, it simply doesn’t infuse the broth with enough flavour so I can’t recommend it BUT in the event of an emergency, it can be used
- Simmer 500g or 1lb of breast gently for 10 minutes, then add rice and cook both for 15 minutes, remove breast, shred, return to soup, serve
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 638g
- Calories: 427cal