Gluten Free Chicken and Rice Soup

Today I want to share with you a great recipe for fall and winter.  Why?  Because that is when everyone gets SICK.  And nothing helps all the cold weather ailments liked a good soup with a nourishing broth.  This recipe post was supposed to be on something totally different, but we ended up with this soup because the stomach bug hit us, and HARD.  My daughter was up sick most of Wednesday night last week, so of course I got about 2 hours of sleep as well.  We both needed a little pick-me-up.  Halfway through the morning my mom showed up with a HUGE pot of this soup, enough for probably 3 meals.

The secret to making this delicious is in the broth.  To get a REALLY good broth, it is best to cook a whole chicken, bones and all.  We also add saffron to the broth.  It just gives it an unbeatable flavor.

Here’s the recipe for the stock/broth.  If you already have a good broth, just use 2 quarts of broth and 2 cups of chicken.

• 8 cups water
• 1 whole chicken
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• celery leaves and ends
• 2 carrots, washed, unpeeled
• 1 onion with skin
• 1 tsp each parsley, majoram, chives

Add all stock ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 2 hours.  Remove chicken from the broth and strain the broth through a sieve.  Cool and chill the broth, and remove the fat when it hardens (I do not always do this step too thoroughly, because we aren’t afraid of a little fat in our household, and I think the fat adds a lot of flavor.  We usually leave at least a little of it.)  Debone chicken.

Here’s the recipe for the soup, once you have your stock and chicken:

• Deboned chicken (about 2 cups)
• Clarified soup stock (about 8 cups)
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 1 cup GF noodles, cooked (or you can use all rice)
• 1/2 cup corn (or more if desired)
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 chicken bouillion cubes
• 1/4 tsp marjoram
• 1/4 tsp basil
• 1/8 tsp thyme

The thing about modifying recipes to make them gluten free, especially soups containing pasta, is that you really need to pre-cook your pasta.  When you just throw the pasta in, it tends to turn the broth white and make it really thick.  So I have just gotten in the habit of pre-cooking my pasta, and actually I like to pre-cook my rice too.  So my GF pasta measurement above means, 1 cup of dry gluten free noodles, which have been cooked (and therefore will be more than 1 cup).  Just try measuring cooked pasta; it’s kind of annoying, so I did it the other way around.

Bring soup stock, vegetables, and seasonings to a boil and simmer one hour.  Add chicken and heat through just before serving.  May add more water and seasonings as desired.

Of note, obviously for GF diets you would need to make sure the bouillion was GF.  I use Herb Ox.  Those little crackers on the side were Sesame Garlic Sesmark Crackers.  They are one of our favorites to go with soup.  Now hopefully everyone’s tummy troubles will go away!

Adapted from a recipe in the Seasoned With Love cookbook, contributor Peggy Smith.

Janelle is wife to Brad, who is celiac, and mom to 2 sweet girls, one of whom is celiac.  She blogs about the gluten free life on a budget, including coupons, deals, recipes, and other money-saving tips at Gluten Freely Frugal.