Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

Mmmm... comfort food! Summer is fast approaching. With its sunny days and warm nights soon to come, I wanted to take advantage of yesterday's cool, rainy weather and  sneak in one more soup night before we replace warm comfort food for cold watermelon and dinner cooked on the grill. 

I had some chicken left over from last night's rotisserie chicken dinner, so this recipe for Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup sounded like the perfect way to use that up and warm our bellies before the sun makes its full debut.  

As usual, I made some of my own alterations to the recipe. Since I had the cooked chicken already, and could make my own broth from the bones, I replaced that for the uncooked chicken and water with bouillon called for in the original recipe. Don't be afraid of making your own broth, it's really easy and makes a delicious base for your soup.

Here's how I made Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup:
 

First, I dumped my two chicken carcasses into a large pot. I filled the pot with water, just till the chicken was covered. Then I turned the stove to high, and when the water got to boiling I covered the pot and turned the heat down so that it was just simmering. Then, I left it simmering for about two hours before removing it from the heat. 

After letting it cool I drained the broth, and set it aside to be the base of the soup. Isn't that beautiful broth?

Then I separated the meat from the bones. Using the leftover rotisserie chickens gave me a really nice mix of both white and dark meat. I am always surprised how much meat is left even after I'm sure we got most of it off of the bones before boiling. I think I had about four cups this time.
 

Next I cut up the vegetables and put them into the bottom of the crock pot. I took my beautiful chicken broth and poured it over the vegetables, adding enough extra water to make ten cups of liquid. (You could make this in a large pot on the stove instead if you didn't want to wait the couple of hours it will take in the crock pot. Just be sure to stir it up every once in a while while it is cooking, and cook it until the vegetables are soft and the rice is fully cooked.) 

After that I just added the spices, threw in the meat, splashed in the rice, put on the lid, and turned my crock pot to high. 

After about two hours, once the vegetables were soft and the rice was cooked, I added a can of cream of chicken soup. This is what adds the creamy to the recipe. I stirred it up, and let it cook another twenty minutes, then served it up! Yum!! 

I may be able to sneak in another soup night before it's really not soup weather anymore, but if not, this was a good choice to end our soup season with! 

Ingredients: 

10 cups chicken broth/water

4 cups cooked and diced chicken

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup diced celery

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf

1 cup rice

1 can cream of chicken soup

Mix everything but cream of chicken soup into crock pot. Stir and cook on high for two to three hours. Stir in cream of chicken soup. Cook another half hour. Serve and enjoy!