Easy, all natural, soup with all fresh ingredients.

Photos and illustrations made with love by @sponge-bob, doing what I really love to do. Cook!

If you want Chicken Rice Soup, just leave out the potatoes. I use potatoes to make it thick and creamy. Leaving out the actual dairy products makes this soup keep in the fridge for way longer. I make Clam Chowder with cream and it is delicious, but it does not last long in the fridge. Anyway, my recipe is creamless cream of chicken soup. I have been making this one since I was sixteen years old.

This time I am using all dark meat and lots of it! I usually use a mix of what is left on the bone after cooking a whole chicken, which is an economic, delicious, use of left overs. Use whatever kind you like. It is all your choice.

Cream of Chicken Rice soup recipe.

Ingredients:

4 quarts water
4 chicken legs, 4 thighs (or equal weight of breast meat)
2 bullion cubes
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic (optional)
1 or 2 cups of rice (depending on how much you want in the soup)
2 medium potatoes or 1 package of instant mashed potatoes mix

Instructions:

Cook chicken in a frying pan covered, salt and pepper to taste. This allows juices to gather and accumulate which make a nice broth as the chicken cooks.

Start the water and bullion cubes to simmer, add chicken broth to the water as it accumulates in the frying pan.

skip if you are using potato flakes
Peel and dice potatoes, adding them to the water. The potatoes are used instead of cream or dairy products. They come apart and act as thickener for your soup .

When the chicken is done through and through, remove chicken skin and give it to the dog, or in my case, to my 16 year old who loves chicken skin.

Allow chicken to cool and remove the meat from the bones as best you can. I find this works best by doing it by hand avoiding the bones. Get as much off as you can - all the meat will be in the soup either way.

Add bones to broth and simmer for 30 minutes. That adds nutrition by making your broth into bone broth. At the same time, continue to salt and pepper to taste, but do not overdo the salt.

At this time, I take my onion and garlic and get them ready to be added toward the end. Chop onions to the desired size (your preference), and garlic should be minced. Garlic is best when cooked for a short time so both will be added about thirty minutes before the soup is done. Prepare them now and put aside.

You can also cut up the chicken that you had removed by hand and prepare that to be added to the soup. (not yet)

Next, remove bones from the soup, let them cool, and salvage any meat to put back into the soup. Throw away the bones, and strain the liquid to make sure there are no small bones. If you started with real diced potatoes, you can separate them first, then push those through the screen strainer to aid them in dissolving.

By now, you have a tasty broth, so you can begin to add other components to the soup.

Add rice to the soup.

Add the chunks of cut chicken.

Simmer pot until the rice is done.

It is important that you mix regularly, otherwise the potatoes and solids will settle and burn.

When the rice is soft, your soup is nearly done. Go ahead and add the potato flakes (mashed potato mix) and stir it into the mix little by little to avoid lumping. Continue to add potato flakes until the soup becomes thick.

Add the onions and garlic to the mix and stir - the soup.

At this time, your soup is nearly done, so it's time to put out the bowls and set the table.

I like to add three shakes of Tabasco for a kick!

When the soup is just for me, I have used other spices added to the mix while simmering, but for my children I make it with nothing but salt and pepper. This one was made with more meat than usual by special request from @vatman (the same one who loves crunchy skin and extra crispy KFC).

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

---