Next on our soup list: Chicken Wild Rice.

Next on our soup list: Chicken Wild Rice.

Normally this has a brick of butter and a cow of cream in it, and I love that, but this is an attempt at healthier eating, so it is slightly less rich and therefore also less thick than the usual wild rice soup.

Final contents:

2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls olive oil
1-2 lg onions, minced
1 lg shallot, thinly sliced
2 lg cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3-4 sticks of celery, minced
1 lg carrot, minced
1/4 cup of flour
1 cup of sherry
2 quarts of chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cornstarch
1.5-2 lbs poached chicken, shredded and cut up
4 cups cooked wild rice
8 oz sliced mushrooms cut up (the ordinary white kind)

1. Usual sauteeing of aromatics
2. Flour makes roux (sprinkle over the sauteed veggies)
3. Deglaze with sherry, add broth
4. Add herbs, etc.
5. Decided was not thick enough, so tried taking out some hot soup, mixing it with cornstarch, then adding that back in
6. Once soup was acceptable, added chicken to cook a tad
7. Once basically done, added mushrooms and rice to warm through, because don't want to overcook already cooked rice

I don't really know if using some olive oil and much less butter, less flour and no cream but some cornstarch really makes it healthier than a stick or two of butter with a whole cup of flour and at least a cup of cream. It is more stew-like and less cream of soup like, so I guess if it must be the more usual richness, you gotta do the traditional thing.

The sherry. Have I mentioned the sherry? You have to do this.

I happened to have accidentally made my own delicious chicken broth, so one of the quarts was homemade (so artisanal) and the other was low sodium store broth (made from organic, free-range, hipster chickens).

Made 4+ quarts.