For me, cream soups are some of my favorites. This one in particular takes me back to high school. We used to go to this mom and pop restaurant in town whenever we had early days or days off and get cream of chicken rice soup. It was so perfect and comforting.
What makes this soup so silky?
I use evaporated milk in this recipe versus heavy cream. I have made it and had it with heavy cream and it is still cream and delicious. Yet, the evaporated milk adds a certain silkiness that you cannot mimic. It also has a super clean mouth feel.
How can you speed this up for a busy weeknight?
You can use leftover or rotisserie chicken in this recipe to help speed things up. You can also use already cooked, leftover rice. Just make sure the rice is plain and that you cut the cooking time on that portion of the recipe.
Also, having homemade stock on hand is going to help you out here as well. If you don’t than you can use a good quality, low sodium pre-made stock.
Chef’s Tip
When you are using the evaporated milk versus the heavy cream, you will mix the flour in with the evaporated milk prior to adding into the soup. As all other thickeners, bring the soup up to the full boil for the full thickening power. Taste for salt/pepper as you build the soups layers to make sure you are creating depth of flavor.
Cream of Chicken Rice Soup
Ingredients
- Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
- 1 medium carrot peeled and diced
- 1 celery rib washed and diced
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 red or orange bell pepper diced
- 1/3 cup long grain rice uncooked
- 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 32-36 oz homemade chicken stock or low sodium chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1-50 z can evaporated milk
- 2 cups cooked and diced chicken breast-leftover or rotisserie is great for this
Instructions
- In a sauce pan, heat the oil over medium to medium-high heat. Saute the carrot, celery and onion until tender. Season the mirepoix once added. Add in the pepper and the garlic and saute until softened. This will take 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in the rice, basil and season. Then add in the stock, start with 32 oz and then if you need to add more towards the end you can.
- Bring the stock to the boil and then reduce the heat to simmer. Let simmer for about 15 minutes or until the rice is tender.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and the evaporated milk together until smooth. Once the rice is cooked add the milk mixture into the soup and cook until the soup has thickened. Check the seasoning and then add in the diced chicken. Heat until the chicken is warmed through, about 2-3 minutes. If you need to thin a bit with more stock, you can do it now. Lastly, check one more time for seasoning. Remove from the heat and ENJOY!
Notes
