Friday, May 26, 2017

Lemon Chicken Rice Soup

I read a bunch of different recipes and put them all together to make this maybe-Greek-?-lemon-chicken-rice soup. 

I have terrible time management, so I wrote instructions from start to finish like I wish someone did for me. Start to finish the meal took about 50 mins to an hour.

FOODSTUFF:
  • 2 c. rice + 1 c. water OR 4-6 cups pre-cooked rice
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Olive Oil or Butter
  • 1-2 lbs chicken thighs
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large vidalia onion
  • 1 lb carrots
  • 1 head of celery
  • 2 lemons
  • 1-3 Tbsp flour
  • 2 boxes of chicken stock or broth
  • 4 eggs


Stuff you should have in your pantry = normal font; italics = buy at store/fresh.

GEAR: 
  • Non-stick Sauce Pan with Lid
  • Cast Iron Grill Pan
  • Stock Pot
  • Cutting Board
  • Awesome chef's knife
  • Tongs/fork
  • Whisk
  • Small Bowl (fits 4 eggs for whisking)
  • Non-scratch spoon (for sauce pan)
  • Ladle
  • Recommended: Dishwasher--human or machine who is not you :)


MAKE IT:
  1. Cook 2 cups of rice in a pot. (2 cups of water/1 cup of rice + a little salt, simmer about 40 mins). Or use pre-cooked rice if you're in a rush or don't want to dirty a pan.
  2. Open and rinse one package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or de-bone and de-skin chicken thighs). (Mine were $6 at TJ’s.) Pat dry.
  3. Add a few Tbsps oil or butter to a cast iron grill pan and turn on medium heat.
  4. Unfold the chicken thighs (they come folded and they won’t cook through if you don’t unfold them), add salt and pepper, turn the grill to medium-low, and toss them on. They should sizzle a bit but not cause the oil to pop too much.
  5. While the meat cooks, put 1-2 Tbsp olive oil or butter in a stock pot and turn to medium-high heat.
  6. Then mince 2 cloves of garlic and dice one Vidalia/sweet onion. Drop those in the heated, oiled/buttered stock pot.
  7. Then peel and rough dice/chop 1-lb bag of carrots. Drop in the pot.
  8. When the meat’s edges start to whiten, flip over with tongs. Some meat may stick to the grill. That’s okay. Char is good, but the thighs should still look juicy.
  9. Stir the rice. Make sure it’s cooking okay.
  10. Then wash, trim, and rough dice/chop 7-8 ribs of celery and drop them in the pot. Once the celery is starting to soften, add two boxes of sodium broth and drop the heat to a low simmer.
  11. At this point, zest and juice 2 lemons and stir the zest and juice into the soup mixture.
  12. Flip the chicken over again. Cut in to see that most of the pink is gone. (Since you’ll be cooking it more in the soup, you don’t have to make sure all pink is gone, but most of it should be.) When the pink is mostly gone and you’ve got the grill marks you want, move the chicken to the cutting board to cool.
  13. When the chicken cools, mix a little flour in the pan and stir to make a roux. Scrape up the bits of stuck on chicken and add a ladle or two of the broth to loosen the roux. Pour into the soup. (This won't actually thicken it, but I hate leaving flavor behind in the pan!)
  14. Whisk 4 eggs in a separate small bowl. Pour into the hot (but not boiling!) soup mixture and stir with the ladle to mix. This will make it a pretty lemony-milky color. 
  15. Chop the chicken in bite-size pieces, and plop into the soup mixture. 
  16. At this point, your rice should be all cooked up. Remove it from heat and stir into the soup. Soup should be still a bit watery but hearty. 
  17. Adjust to taste with S&P.
  18. Hit it with some parsley for color! 


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