Lemon Chicken Soup with Kale and Brown Rice

Lemon Chicken Soup

There is no graceful way to introduce yourself and voice in a world of electronic sound bytes, where Google and Wikipedia can answer your most fleeting questions in milliseconds.    I thought it appropriate, however, to have my first post pertain to perhaps my greatest of all comfort foods in all the world: Soup.

To be precise, I am referring to my Lemon Chicken Soup, which I have had the method of making from scratch ingrained into my very being from my early teens.  

I   imagine that everyone starts out their soup slurping days with the can of Chicken Noodle Soup that you open, combine with a can of water, heat and then serve.  This Can of soup made the occasional appearance throughout my childhood years, and was typically served with a sandwich of some sorts.  Grilled cheese or perhaps a plain turkey and cheese.  Nothing too fancy or out of the box.  I also remember from my childhood those Cup-a-Noodle soups, I think the brand my Mom bought was Liptons?  This was the soup we got when you were sick, so I always associate having a cold with that comforting sodium filled broth.  As I got older, the classic can of Chicken Noodle soup progressed to the Chunky Chicken Noodle soup, which I no longer had to combine with a can of water to serve.  I was going through a black pepper phase at that time, and put disgustingly copious amounts of ground pepper into that bowl of chicken soup.  To complete the trifecta of canned vegetables, , questionable chicken, and the ridiculous amounts of sodium that could probably form a salt lick for a cute little Bambi, I ate this can of soup with Wavy Lays Chips to further increase my salt intake.

Bowl of Lemon Chicken Soup with Lemons dancing around it.

My Lemon Chicken Soup is the soup I made most often, from my undergraduate days, but ismore prominently remembered from my days of being a Masters student.  This lemony, delicate broth was what nursed me through a major breakup, kept me from starving during those incredibly exhausting and exhilarating times of no money, working twenty hours a week as a server in addition to classes and rehearsals.  It is incredibly easy and quick to throw together and freezes well, so I could batch cook to nourish myself during the week and not have to spend an incredible amount of time cooking each day.  

This is also the soup I incessantly craved each time I was in the hospital last year.  The nurses, doctors, and girls who worked in the Hospital Cafeteria were incredibly kind and I was able to have off-menu salads and coffee to my hearts content, but nothing tells me everything is going to be okay more than a steaming mug of this soup.  The feeling of warmth and home can absolutely be bottled - this soup is the embodiment of kittens cuddling you and your husbandlending you a shoulder to burrow into.  I could not wait to get home and make this soup to feel settled and back to myself.

Lemon Chicken Soup in Bowl

This Lemon Chicken Soup is more of a method I use to create the most delicious broththat is both comforting and has a strong bite of lemon to perk up your nose on a cool fall day.  Or in my house, as it is always soup season, any day of the week.  Living in the Southwest, most people think I am crazy for continuously craving soup in this heat. .  A bowl of this soup, or any soup (for me, anyways) is hard to resist, no matter the time of year or temperature. 

 I think this soup is perfect with crackers (Whole Wheat Ritz are a favorite) or if you are trying to fill up a hungry person (i.e. my husband)  some sourdough bread goes beautifully with this.  The tang from the bread offsets the tang of the lemon, but manages to keep that homey feel with the traditional herbs in the broth.

Lemon Chicken Soup Yumminess!

Lemon Chicken Soup with Kale and Brown Rice

Author:  Iris Anna Gohn

Serves: 6-10 (Depending onion main dish or a side)

This is my favorite combination of flavors and textures for this soup, but it is very easy to adapt it to your own preferences or to what you have in your pantry. Personally, I love adding the brown rice and allowing it to soften to the point just before it falls apart, almost like a congee texture or a very loose risotto. If you tend to prefer a firmer texture, cook your rice separately and spoon the broth chicken, and vegetables over it to serve. 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp Olive oil
• 2 Cups chopped onion
• 1 Cup chopped Celery
• 1 Cup chopped Carrots
• 2 Tsp minced Garlic
• 1/2 Tsp ground Thyme
• 1/4 Tsp ground Sage
• 2 Cups chopped Zucchini
• 2 Cups chopped Summer Squash 
• 2 Cups cooked Chicken *
• 12 Cups, Chicken Stock **
• 4 lemons, juiced
• 1 1/2 Cups Sliced Crimini Mushrooms
• 1 small bunch Kale, tough stems removed and chopped
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• parsley, for garnish (optional)
• Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Drizzle 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil in the bottom of a Dutch Oven or 5 Qt stockpot.  Heat over a medium high flame, then add your onions and season with a sprinkle of salt.  This will help draw out the natural sugars of the onion.  Drop the flame of your burner to medium and sautée the onion until it starts browning.  Do not be afraid to let it get past the sweating onion stage, as this will end up giving your broth more depth of flavor.  
2. Once the onions start browning and start smelling fragrantly sweet and caramalized on the edges, add in the carrots and celery.  Sauté for a few minutes and then add some more salt and a couple grounds of pepper.  At this point you can add the minced garlic, thyme, sage and another few cranks of the pepper mill.
3. Add in your zucchini and summer squash, the chicken, and chicken stock. This way your chicken is going to absorb all the flavors of the broth.  Squeeze in the juice of the lemons, taking care to make sure no lemon seeds make their way into the soup.  
4. Lower the heat to just above a gentle simmer, cover, and continue to cook for 20 minutes to half an hour or so.  Taste the broth and adjust salt and pepper levels if needed.  Add in the brown rice, mushrooms,and chopped kale.  
5. After roughly a half hour, the rice should be done.  The vegetables should be meltingly tender at this point and the broth should have concentrated into an aromatic lemony bonanza with a peppery bite to it.  
6. Serve with a couple extra grinds of pepper on your individual bowl if desired, fresh chopped parsley, and a couple lemon wedges to add fresh lemon flavor if you want that extra brightness.  

*As a timesaver, I will often use chicken from a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. You can then make homemade chicken stock in your crockpot for your future cooking endeavors. However, if you have leftover chicken to use up, feel free to substitute here. If you want, two uncooked chicken breasts cubed, seasoned, and added in after you add the carrots and onions in will also yield decent results.  

**I tend to make my own chicken stock, but if you do not have the time Better than Boullion Roasted Chicken base works very well in lieu of homemade.