Easy Chicken and Rice Soup

Life is pretty hectic in my corner of the universe. Between teaching, volunteering, running a part-time business, keeping up with housework, my hubby and our 3 rambunctious snow dogs, I need some easy in my life!

It's probably why I always turn to this recipe when fall arrives.

Before we get to the recipe though, there are two important things you need to know about me:

1. I don't like salt. 

Period. 

I don't like cooking with it. 

I don't like looking at it in a salt shaker. 

I simply don't like salt. 

At all.

So, it's very rare I use salt.

Just ask my husband. 

He literally adds salt to every dish I cook.

It's disgusting. 

However, I'm a HUGE fan of using sea salt in small, minuscule amounts. 

If you like salt, please feel free to add as much as you'd like to this soup. 

2.  I rarely cook with butter.

I am the Olive Oil Queen. 

The only time I use butter is when I'm cooking vegetables, baking, or spreading it on a waffle.

Please, feign shock when you see the picture of the butter below.

Because I like easy, I started making this soup when my husband asked me to make some chicken noodle soup one crisp afternoon. Since I really don't like adding noodles to my soups because--in my experience--they soak up all the broth and turn gross, my mother-in-law suggested rice. 

And so, a great family classic was born...

That classic? 

Chicken and Rice Soup

I'm big on crock pot meals so you can probably guess that yes, this dish was assembled in a crock pot. But there was much work to do before the assembling could begin.

What you'll need:

2 - 32 oz cartons of chicken broth

1 cup carrots

1 cup celery

1 white onion

3 large chicken breasts

2 cups cooked rice

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup olive oil

The first thing you'll want to do is boil your chicken. I dropped 3 large chicken breasts into a pot of boiling water and boiled them about 25-30 minutes. 

If you don't have cooked rice already made up like I did, make it now! Simplest way? Put 4 cups water into a pot on medium-high heat until boiling. Add in 2 cups rice, and let the rice simmer for 5 minutes. Pull off heat and let cool for 10 minutes. 

(Note: this will make more than 2 cups cooked rice. If you want to make less, cut water and rice amounts in half.)

Next, you'll want to pull out your crock pot and empty those cartons of chicken broth into the pot

. Because I'm disgusted with salt, I used one low sodium chicken broth. 

I'd use two, but my hubby wouldn't be happy! 

So, we compromise ;)

While you're waiting for your chicken to finish boiling, chop up those veggies! You can also throw in a load of laundry in between chops. That's what I like to do ;)

I used 1 white onion, 3 celery stalks (or 1 cup celery) and 1 cup of carrots straight from our garden this year. They did not disappoint! If you have not had the pleasure of growing carrots, please do so next year. 

You. Won't. Regret. It.

Next, throw in your butter and olive oil into skillet. 

Once the butter melts, toss in your veggies! I topped the veggies with some pepper!

I cooked them in just the butter-oil mixture for about 10 minutes. 

We like caramelized onions around here.

At this point, my chicken was finished boiling, so I pulled them out, set them aside to cool and grabbed 1 cup of chicken broth straight from the boiling pan to add to my veggies!

Doesn't that look gorgeous?!

I returned to my chicken and shredded it into large chunks. I like my chicken chunky in my chicken and rice soup. If you prefer small pieces, shred away!

Once my chicken was shredded, I tossed it into the chicken broth in the crock pot. And added some spices! I also added some basil from my garden this year. My hubby's aunt showed me how to freeze it so it's easily accessible all year long!

When those veggies were soft and cooked through, I dumped them in--butter, olive oil, chicken broth and all!--into the crock pot. 

Last, but certainly not least, I threw in my 2 cups of cooked rice I had made up earlier. 

I let the soup cook on medium heat in the crock pot for an hour and a half and then served it for dinner!

I think it should be duly noted that this soup will leave your house smelling delicious all evening long!

Enjoy!

--Jessica

To purchase the CrockPot and Cast Iron Skillet I used for this recipe, check out MY STORE.