Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

One of my favorite soups, and one that seldom goes wrong, thanks to Betty Crocker, whose recipe this is, with minor adaptation. The original recipe is from the 10th edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook and relatively easy to make, apart from the laborious chopping of ingredients. This is (I think) my first made-from-scratch (with the exception of the canned broth- disinclined to boil chicken bones to make homemade stock till the children are in college) dish since Kate was born. Yes, I've made desserts and breads and cake and whatnot, but baking doesn't really count.

Ingredients:

4 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 medium carrots, coarsely shredded

About 2 tbsp butter

2 large chicken breasts, diced (half-inch) and pre-cooked 

3 cups cooked wild rice, from 1 cup uncooked rice

3 cups half-and-half

About a quarter cup flour

1 tsp salt

Half tsp pepper

2 cups water

2 cans chicken broth/stock

Parsley (optional)

Method:

1 In a large pot (e.g. dutch oven), fry the vegetables in the butter till crisp-tender.

2 Add the flour, salt and pepper and mix well.

3 Add in the stock, water, then rice and chicken.

4 Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes.

5 Add more water or thickening agent (flour, cornstarch etc) to achieve desired consistency.

6 Stir in the half-and-half and keep warm till ready to serve. Do not boil to prevent curdling.

7 Sprinkle parsley (I used dried flakes- about half a tsp).

This makes about 11-12 cups of soup. When the soup is cooled, I usually pour batches into a quart-size freezer ziptop bag, suck out excess air with a thin straw and freeze the bags horizontally. They freeze flat and are easy to stack (like books!) in the freezer and take up less space than in containers.