Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Fall is officially here. Now is a great time to try out some hearty autumn dishes like chicken and wild rice soup. Our recipe is rich and creamy. You can serve it as an appetizer if you want, but it’s filling enough to stand on its own as an entrée. This recipe stands out from the rest because it calls for freshly roasted chicken, plenty of delicious vegetables, and a nice dollop of plain Greek Yogurt. Adding yogurt, instead of cream, for example, helps to make this soup extremely flavorful but also relatively light, calorie-wise.

Yield: about 6 cups for 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 deli-roasted chicken (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 6 cups water
• 2 medium carrots, ends trimmed and cut into chunks
• 1 small rib celery, cut into chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1/3 cup uncooked wild rice*
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup Cabot 2% Plain Greek Yogurt or Cabot Plain Greek Yogurt
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or more to taste

Instructions

1. Pull off meat from chicken, placing skin, bones and any hot or solidified juices in a large saucepan. Dice 2 cups of chicken meat, saving rest for another use, and set aside in refrigerator.
2. Add water, carrots, celery, peppercorns and bay leaf to saucepan; bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to maintain simmer. Cover pan and cook broth for one hour.
3. Pour broth through strainer set over large bowl, pressing on solids to extract all broth. Discard solids.
4. Melt butter in an empty saucepan. Add onions and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes or until onion is tender and just beginning to brown.
5. Pour in strained broth. Add wild rice, bring to simmer and cook covered for 40 to 50 minutes or until rice is tender.
6. In a small bowl, whisk together heavy cream, yogurt and cornstarch until completely smooth with no small lumps; stir mixture into pot and continue stirring until soup thickens and returns to simmer. Add thyme, salt, pepper and 2 cups of reserved diced chicken.
7. Taste soup, adding additional salt and pepper if needed. Stir until heated through and serve.

Notes

* You can reduce the cooking time with “quick-cooking” wild rice, which is done in about 15 minutes, or substitute another flavorful rice, such as brown basmati.

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: Cabot Creamery Co-operative