GF: Curried Chicken and Rice Soup

I’ve lost my voice. I have a sore throat. Neither of these two things bode well for a woman who makes her living by talking. I suppose some teachers can get away with talking less, but a foreign language teacher? Um. No. It doesn’t work.

I went to bed with a scratchy throat and woke up at 5:00AM unable to breathe and unable to talk. My love insisted that I call in sick and stay in bed. Didn’t take much to convince me either.

The other night I had felt a cold coming on. My love was out grocery shopping (usually a task we do together with joy). I had stayed home under a blanket. He called and I gave him a list of things to make chicken and rice soup. I knew I was going to need it.

And then this morning arrived. Soup started calling the minute I finally rose from bed. My plan was to at least move to another room to be a bump on a log there. The dog/blanket was a bonus. (Love that dog! He is the best blanket in the world!)

While I was chopping garlic and shallots for my soup (with the pup underfoot), I began to change my typical plain-Jane recipe. I don’t know why. But it worked for me. I will make this one again and vary the veggies I use. For now, I am satisfied. I’ve eaten two bowls of soup (unheard of when I’m sick!) and have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Hooray! (Wait… did I really just cheer for leftovers? OMG. I did.)

I hope you like this as well. Some curry soup recipes call for a thickener of flour and water to be added to the soup. I used rice in the soup to give it more bulk and thicken. I wonder now if I will add more broth next time or lessen the amount of rice. The picture (not pretty, but tasty!) above is the second bowl of soup – after it had sat for quite a while and the rice began absorbing more and more of the broth. It was significantly thicker than the first bowl with was just right. Here’s the recipe I used this morning – although measurements are estimates as I was just tossing things into a pot. Take heart – it’s soup – you really can’t do anything wrong to it. 🙂

Curried Chicken and Rice Soup
Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
1/2 medium sweet yellow onion, rough chopped
2 Tablespoons GF curry powder or homemade curry spice mix
1 can (15oz) coconut milk
6 cups chicken broth
2 sweet potatoes, cubed into 1/2″ cubes
1 cup frozen corn
3/4 cup long grain rice, rinsed but not soaked
2 organic chicken breasts, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Once all of the items are prepped, heat your stock/soup pot over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the olive oil slides around the pan easily/water-like, add your onions and shallots. Saute until softened and slightly browned. Add the garlic. Saute until fragrant (1-2 minutes). Add the curry seasonings and stir together to spread the seasoning evenly.
2. Add chopped chicken and brown quickly for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add sweet potatoes, chicken broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil.
4. Add rice. Stir well. Return to a boil briefly.
5. Reduce heat to a slow simmer.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Add frozen corn and stir for 1-2 minutes. Turn off heat.
8. Stir to evenly distribute ingredients well.

Servce with warm toast and ginger ale if your throat is feeling like mine.
But I honestly hope it’s not!
Regardless, I hope you enjoy it!
Happy GF Eating!
-Kate