Mom’s Chicken and Rice Soup

Mom’s Chicken and Rice Soup

Before you start cooking there’s a few ingredients you’ll want to prep first. You’ll need to slice about 1 cup of carrots, so 3 or 4 carrots, and dice 1 white or yellow onion, you’ll need about 1/2 cup of sliced celery, so about 3 ribs maybe depending on their size, and then you’ll need 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

And last you’ll need about 1 tablespoon of minced or pressed garlic, and 1 tablespoon of freshly minced or pressed ginger. 

Once you’ve got all that prepped, grab a large soup pot and let’s head on over to the stove. We’re gonna get about 1 tablespoon of olive oil heating over medium high heat. Then add in about 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. 

Then we’re gonna season these with about 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. We are not cooking these chicken breasts all the way through yet, we’re just searing them off.

You just want a little color on each side, which will take about 2-3 minutes per side. Then pull these out and transfer them to a cutting board or a plate. 

We’re gonna add them back to the pot later to finish cooking. Now you could always use pre-cooked shredded chicken in this recipe, but I like cooking up the chicken breasts themselves because it does add a lot of flavor. 

We’re gonna add another 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, then we’ll add in our onion, our sliced carrots, and our sliced celery. We’re gonna let these sauté to get a little bit of flavor for about 4 or 5 minutes. All of the little bits and pieces of chicken that stuck to the pan are flavor, so don’t wash or wipe out your pan. You don’t want to lose any of that goodness.

Once the onions just start to get soft you’ll add in your minced garlic and your minced ginger, and 1 cup of some sort of long grain white rice. We’re gonna toast all of this for about 2-3 minutes. 

Now you can use other types of rice. I prefer a long grain white rice because it cooks the fastest and it works out the best with the chicken. If you want to use a different type of rice I’ll include those instructions on my website with the recipe.

After 2-3 minutes the ginger and garlic should be nice and fragrant, and then it’s time to return the chicken to the pot. Then we’ll pour in 8 cups of chicken broth. Then season with 1 teaspoon of dried thyme and 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, and we’ll bring this to a simmer. 

We’re gonna let this simmer for about 15 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through. After 15 minutes we’re gonna pull out our chicken breasts and transfer them to either a plate or a cutting board. 

Now it doesn’t matter if there’s any rice or veggies stuck to your chicken, you’re just gonna grab 2 forks and shred that meat right up.

Then return all of that shredded chicken back in to the soup pot. Give it another 5 minutes for the rice to finish cooking, then turn off the heat and pour in 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice. 

Give it a stir and then you are ready to eat. The rice will continue to absorb liquid, so this soup is best served hot and fresh.