Comforting Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Getting my soups ready for cooler weather! This is chicken and wild rice soup. Stick to your ribs good! Those of you who’ve seen my recipes know I don’t really measure anything, but I can tell you what I put in this batch of soup. This made a large batch (this is a 12 qt stock pot).

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, baked, deboned, and cut into cubes
• Broth from the chicken
• 5-32 oz boxes of chicken broth
• Chicken carcass
• 4-5 ribs of chopped celery
• 1/2 bag of chopped baby carrots
• 1 1/2 yellow onion, chopped (or green onions)
• 3 boxes Uncle Ben’s Original Wild Rice (plus the seasoning in the packets that come with the rice)
• ~1 1/2 cups white rice
• 4 small cans mushroom stems and pieces
• 12 oz jar Heinz Homestyle turkey gravy
• 1 can evaporated milk
• ~1 cup milk (2%)
• 1 cup water
• 2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup (undiluted)
• Parsley flakes
• Celery salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder

Instructions:

1. In a 12 qt stock pot, combine the chicken broth and the broth from the baked chicken along with the chicken carcass. Bring to a boil, strain, and remove any leftover chicken remnants from the carcass. Add the cubed chicken to the pot.
2. Add the strained broth back into the stock pot.
3. Add the chopped celery, baby carrots, and yellow onion (or green onions) to the pot. Simmer until the vegetables are tender.
4. Add the Uncle Ben’s Original Wild Rice (including the seasoning packets) and the white rice to the pot.
5. Stir in the mushroom stems and pieces, Heinz Homestyle turkey gravy, evaporated milk, regular milk, water, and the undiluted cream of chicken soup.
6. Season with parsley flakes, celery salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
7. Continue simmering until the rice is cooked.
8. Let the soup cool, then ladle it into quart-sized Ziploc freezer bags and freeze them flat.
9. This batch should last all winter.

Note: You can use leftover turkey and carcass from Thanksgiving for this recipe as well. Additionally, if you prefer, you can use Half-and-Half cream instead of evaporated milk.