Soupy Saturday

There is nothing better when it's cold outside to be inside enjoying a hot bowl of soup. Chris and I decided to make chicken and rice soup from scratch. I found the recipe through Pinterest, but it is really from The Pioneer Woman which is an amazing blog to follow. It is a bit time consuming (it takes about an hour and a half total), but definitely worth it. The original recipe is here, but I changed a few things.

What you will need:
A pot that is bigger than two quarts (trust me, I used a pot that was just a little over two quarts (8 cups) and it made a huge mess)
1 cup rice
Olive oil
Water
2 chicken breasts
8 chicken bullion cubes
Red bell pepper
Green bell pepper
1 stalk celery
1/2 onion (yellow)
Butter (about 1 stick)
4 TBSP flour
Salt
Pepper

What you do:
1) In a medium sized pot put 1 cup rice and two cups water. Add a dash of olive oil and a little salt. Cover and bring to a boil, when boiling turn heat down to a simmer until water is fully absorbed into the rice.

2) Put two chicken breasts in a large pot (larger than 2 quarts) and cover with two quarts of water. Add 8 bullion cubes, and bring to boil.  Let chicken cook on a constant boil until done (about 20 minutes).

3) While the rice and the chicken is cooking, finely chop the peppers, onion, and celery stalk and set aside.

4) When the rice is done, stir, and set aside.

5) When the chicken is done, remove from pot (keep bullion water in pot), and chop into bite sized pieces.

6) In a small frying pan melt 4 TBSP butter.  when butter is completely melted add 4 TBSP flour and mix completely until it is like a paste.  Pour it into the bullion water and stir.

7) In a larger frying pan melt 2-3 TBSP butter, and add chopped peppers/onion/celery. Heat until soft, and stir in chicken. When soft enough turn off heat, and add to the bullion mixture.

8) Add rice 1 cup at a time until desired texture is reached (I only added about 1 and a half cups).

9) Serve HOT (but be careful) and enjoy!

You can store in an airtight container.  You can also freeze for long term storage.