Souper Sunday #3: Curried Chicken and Rice Soup

This...I should have doubled this.  Or tripled would have been good too.

 

Once in awhile, a soup comes along that really makes The Hubby happy.  This, my friends, is that kind of soup.  The only thing is that it only made 3 - 4 servings, making this a 'must-double' soup for the future, and 'why didn't I double that?' soup of today.  Either way, it's a keeper.

Here it is, Souper Sunday again, and this post is coming in hot and fast at 11pm on Sunday night.  Which still counts.  Today was a domestic kind of a day...grocery shopping, recipe drooling, soup making, house cleaning, errand running, healthy seafood dinner serving, laundry doing, cookie baking, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo watching.  Nice little Sunday.

Anyways, this soup came into my life today through shear stroke of luck / Google search and stumbling onto the website for the Food Network.  I have a bad habit of never reading a recipe through before starting to make it, so it was a surprise to me that the curry/onion/rice mixture gets pureed before adding the chicken/stock/carrots to it.  I haven't had pureed rice in a soup before, and can now report that it adds a really smooth texture and wonderful flavour, though a nice variation on the soup would be to omit the pureeing step and leave the rice au natural.  The curry in the soup is not overpowering, and the mint and dill that are added at the end give the soup a great herby kick and add a lot of depth to the flavour...don't skip including these.

I can see myself making this soup many more times in my life.  Tomorrow night comes to mind as being the next time, as this will be right about when we are running out and craving more.  It's that good.  I would put it up there with Top 3 soups that I have ever made (I am typing this as I am literally licking my bowl clean).

A non-soup related post will go up this week...I swear!  Until then...

Curried Chicken and Rice Soup

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 large skinless chicken breast, bone in or out, halved
• 2 medium carrots, sliced diagonally into 2-inch pieces
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, very thinly sliced
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Madras curry powder
• 1/3 cup jasmine rice
• 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
• 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

Directions
Combine the chicken, carrots, bay leaf, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan.

Add 3 cups broth and bring to a boil; immediately reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the chicken is just firm, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in another saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the onion, sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute.  Add the rice and the remaining 3 cups of broth.  Increase the heat to medium, cover, and simmer until the rice is cooked, about 15 to 20 minutes.  There will still be liquid remaining.

Remove the chicken from its broth, and shred the meat into pieces.  Remove the bay leaf from the broth.  Return the shredded chicken to the same broth.

Puree the rice mixture with an immersion blender until smooth (or use a regular blender, then return to the pan).  Pour in the shredded chicken and broth, stirring gently to combine; bring to a simmer.  Toss in the chopped herbs and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Recipe Source: Food Network Magazine

 

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