Chicken and Rice Soup

I make soup about once a week. Truly. It's such an easy meal to make and feeds me for about three days at a time. And between school and work, it's great to have something readily available in the fridge that I can just heat up with some rice or noodles and have a warm, satisfying meal.

When it comes to coming up with a soup, I often just use what I have on hand. I always keep homemade stock in the freezer stored in labeled deli containers. The best thing you can do is spend an afternoon making homemade stock and storing it for later. So much flavor with just scraps, water, and a few aromatics. It's amazing! A cool tip I learned along the way: whenever I use vegetables for any dishes, I keep the scraps and store them in large freezer zip-top bags. Onion ends, carrot peels, celery leaves and tops. The pieces you don't actually cook? Keep them for stock. Rotisserie chickens from the store? Keep the bones and throw them in the same bag. Tips from chicken wings that you cut and that backbone from the spatchcock chicken you tried out? Keep them for stock. Once you have homemade stock, you won't want to go back to the boxed stuff, I promise.

Soup is something that I love making because it's so adaptable. All you really need is a good foundation of mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery) and a good broth. Whatever veggies you have on hand? Use them. Any protein? Use that. If you want to skip protein and just do a vegetable soup with a flavorful broth? Go for it. Have some grains like rice, noodles, or barley laying around? Sure thing. Make it yours! Sometimes I like to get a little refined and make fancy soups with cute little noodles and a fine dice of vegetables stirred in with delicate greens, but most of the time, I go rustic and keep things chunky and colorful. It's easy to personalize it based on how you're feeling and with what you have on hand. Have fun with it!

Reina's Chicken and Rice Soup

Honestly, this makes a lot, so have containers ready for leftovers to freeze!

Vegetable oil

2 medium yellow onions, diced

4-6 medium celery stalks, sliced

6-8 small carrots, peeled and sliced

4 large garlic cloves, smashed and minced

1-2 tbsp dried thyme

1-2 tbsp dried oregano

1-2 tbsp dried rosemary

2 large bay leaves

Kosher salt

Black pepper

6 cups of homemade chicken stock

4 grilled chicken breasts, diced (I used what I had on hand leftover from culinary class but I normally use a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs)

1 small head of green cabbage, very thinly sliced (you could also use the bagged kind)

Cooked rice, for serving

Lemon, to taste

Valentina or Cholula hot sauce, to taste

In a large stock pot, over medium-high heat, add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Once warm enough, add the yellow onion, celery, and carrots. Season liberally with kosher salt and black pepper and stir. Cook for about 7-10 minutes until the onions are translucent. You don't want to brown the vegetables too much because you're just wanting them to sweat a little bit. Then add the garlic cloves, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves. Stir well to incorporate the herbs and cook for about 2 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant.

Next, add the homemade chicken stock and stir well. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil. Then, add the chicken. Remember, if you're using pre-cooked chicken, you're just wanting to heat the meat through and if you're using raw chicken, obviously boil the soup until the chicken is cooked through. Then, taste and adjust your seasonings. I don't make my stock with salt so I can control the sodium intake of whatever recipe I'm using it in, so now is when you want to season it how you want.

If you're using pasta or any grains to add in the soup itself, here is when you'll add them and cook until they're done. I normally serve my rice on the side so it doesn't get too mushy in the soup. So I'll have a small pot of rice waiting to pour the soup over in the bowl when serving. If I'm using noodles, I'll typically throw about 2-3 handfuls of orzo or fideos into the soup. I normally stick with La Moderna brand of noodles for my soups; they're sold in the Hispanic section of the grocery store and you can snag a bag for as little as 50 cents. They're great!

After seasoning up the soup and cooking your grains or pasta, add the thinly sliced cabbage. I always add any greens at the end of cooking so they don't get too wilted and overcooked. I like my cabbage with a bit of a bite, so I don't cook it until it falls apart. Keep this in mind if you're adding cabbage, spinach, or kale. Remember, when it sits on the stove simmering and waiting on you to get seconds (because you'll want to get seconds, trust me), the greens will have more time to cook down a bit; especially if you're using heartier greens.

When serving the soup, hit it with a splash of fresh lemon juice, a few glugs of hot sauce (Valentina, Cholula, or homemade Puerto Rican piqué are my favorites), and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Cozy up with your bowl of soup and enjoy. Leftovers are always better the next day and you can easily freeze the remaining portions of soup into plastic deli containers and store them for another time.

¡Buen provecho!