Chicken and Rice Soup

It's cold in New Mexico. We had a huge snowstorm in December–that's a big deal! Dinner just had to be soup, and it turned out so good that I decided to write it down. Originally I was planning on making chicken noodle soup, but since we were low on noodles and there was no way I was heading out to the grocery store, I opted to go with the rice we had in the pantry. I also dug out all of the leftover random vegetables still hanging out in the veggie drawer from Thanksgiving. I think the key to this soup is the chicken stock. I had a package of 6 boxes from Costco so I didn't feel bad using 3 boxes in one pot. It really made a difference with the creamy flavor. The result was delish!

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 4 small onions (or equivalent)
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 bunch of celery, chopped
• 4-ish cups of chopped carrots
• parsnips would be an excellent addition!
• 1 large red potato, diced
• 1 medium summer squash, diced
• 10-12 cups of chicken stock
• 2 chicken breasts (approx. 1+ pounds), diced
• 2-2 1/2 cups of white rice
• water as necessary
• salt to taste

Preparation

This is all very approximate because it was based on what we had. I suspect you can't really mess this up.

Heat olive oil in a stock pot, add onions, garlic, celery, and carrots as you chop them. Saute until onion is transparent and carrots are clearly cooking. Add potato, summer squash, and chicken stock; bring to a boil. Add diced chicken and let cook through. Add rice. Continue to simmer until rice is cooked. Add enough water until the consistency is what you're looking for. (The rice will continue to absorb liquids for a little while.) Salt to taste, and enjoy!

Note: Typically I would have added dried oregano, thyme, and lemon juice if I was making chicken noodle soup, but the "pure" appearance of the white rice and stock without little dark spice flecks was very appealing to me. I feel like the soup flavor was as "pure" as it looked.. That said, feel free to spice to your own tastes.