Harvest Chicken and Rice Soup

If you would prefer dark meat, you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs in this instead! Chicken thighs are a more affordable substitute as well.

You can use any other smaller potatoes for this recipe. Purple is not necessary. I just used it to bring out a nice color in the soup itself.

Absolutely! You can drain a (15 oz) can of corn and use that instead of an ear of corn. Frozen corn should work also. It can be added right in as it will cook while simmering.

Wild rice is a great substitute for this recipe and really brings out the harvest aspect. My family isn’t a fan of wild rice so I just use the regular long grain. However, wild rice goes really well the vegetables and flavors in this soup.

Real lemon juice is a really great ingredient recipe in this. It is not so much for adding lemon flavor but it helps bring out all the flavors of the other ingredients. It’s hard to explain but it just brightens and heightens the flavors of the ingredients in the soup. You won’t taste it as a separate ingredient. Just make sure you use a real lemon, not the bottled stuff. I suggest you use it, but if you do not want to you do not have to.

Personally we love it with biscuits or rolls. You can dip them in the soup to soak up some of the flavor. Delicious!

Nope! Not for this recipe. The rice will simmer away in the soup and will cook along with the chicken and other vegetables. It’s why we use lots of chicken stock.

You’ve got a couple of options. In this recipe, I am adding in the rice uncooked and I am not cooking this soup for a long period of time. The longer you cook the soup or let it hang out on the stove, the more the rice is going to continue to absorb the liquid.
Or, you can use cooked rice. For example, if you’ve got some leftover rice from your Chinese take out, it would be great for this. You would need about 2 1/2 – 3 cups of cooked rice for this soup. Add it in about the last 5 minutes or so of cooking just so it can get warmed through.

Absolutely! I love creamy soups! Just add about 1/2 to 1 cup of milk or heavy cream.

If you find you want a much thicker soup, then I would suggest taking about 1/2 cup of the broth from this soup and adding it to a boil. Whisk in about 1 tablespoon of flour or cornstarch until smooth. Then, add this back into the pot. Turn the heat up to get a gentle boil and you should see it begin to thicken.

Yes, with conditions. Rice tends to get mushy when you freeze or refrigerate chicken and rice soup. So, if you know you want to eat this for a later date, then cook it all up until the point of adding the rice. Then when you are ready to eat, warm the soup up on the stove and then add the rice about 5-10 minutes before serving.