A creamy style chicken soup with curry, carrots, dill, pureed rice, and a squeeze of lemon.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time55 minutesmins
Servings: 4
Author: Adapted from Curried Chicken and Rice Soup by Food Network Magazine
Equipment
Immersion blender, blender or food processor
Ingredients
1bone-in chicken breastabout 1 1/2 pounds, halved if it's a double breast
2medium carrotssliced diagonally into 1/2-inch pieces
1bay leaf
Kosher salt
6cupschicken broth
2tablespoonsbutter
1large onionchopped
1teaspoonsugar
1tablespooncurry powderMadras or regular
1/2cupjasmine riceuncooked
3tablespoonschopped fresh dill
1lemoncut into wedges
1/2cupfrozen peasoptional
1cupcooked jasmine riceoptional
Instructions
Combine the chicken, carrots, bay leaf, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan. Add 3 cups broth and bring to a boil; immediately reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the chicken is just firm, about 20-35 minutes (see note below on cook time.)
Meanwhile, heat the butter in another saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt; cook covered until the onion is soft, 5 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add the 1/2 cup of rice and the remaining 3 cups broth. Increase the heat to medium, cover and simmer until the rice falls apart, 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the chicken from its broth; discard the skin and shred the meat into pieces. Return the shredded chicken to the same broth.
Puree the rice mixture with an immersion blender until smooth (or use a regular blender, then return to the pan - see note below). Pour in the shredded chicken and broth, stirring gently to combine; bring to a simmer. Add the chopped dill and serve the soup with lemon wedges. Optionally, you can squeeze the lemon directly into the soup. Start with half of a lemon, taste, and decide if additional lemon is desired.
Notes
My chicken breast was a single 1 1/2 pound piece. Because it was so thick, it required 35 minutes to cook. I scooped the carrots out of the broth and set them aside after 20 minutes so they didn't get too soft.
See the optional step in the post for using cooked shredded rotisserie chicken.
Let soup cool for 5 minutes before using the standard blender option, and only fill the blender half full.