Shipping once sipping twice when I first encountered Maurice Sendak’s Timeless book of months, chicken soup with rice, as a child.
I had an almost visceral sense of exactly how the chicken soup should taste. This recipe speaks to that almost iconic version of the soup. Serve it hot, in mugs after ice skating, or in a bowl with butter toast on the side on a rainy afternoon in Seattle.
Makes about six servings.
- One 4 lb chicken
- 8 cups of water
- Two tablespoons salt (the note lowers this to one tbsp.)
- Two bay leaves
- One medium onion peeled and thinly sliced
- One celery heart with leaves sliced
- two carrots, peeled and sliced.
- 1/3 cup long grain rice (this is what’s noted, the original recipe probably called for more. Cooking rice in soup can be tricky which is why they probably lowered it)
- Two tablespoons chopped parsley
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- A pinch a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg, optional.
- point one in a soup pot over High heat, bring the chicken and water, salt and bay leaves to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 45 minutes.
- With a sturdy pair of tongs, pull the chicken out of the pot and put it in a pan or a bowl. Gently break the chicken into three or four pieces and allow it to cool.
- Meanwhile, put the onion, celery, carrots, and rice into the broth in which the chicken was cooked. Simmer the soup gently until the grains of rice are fully cooked and tender, 30 to 45 minutes. .
- When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull off all the meat and put it in the pot with the broth and vegetables. Stir in the parsley, pepper. and, if desired, the nutmeg
Copyright, Greg Atkinson, 2006
“This is a fantastic recipe that I got from Stephen Sloan 20-years ago and thought I’d share.” – Joyanne Sloan
