Recipe: Chicken Creole Soup

We had our monthly food co-op pickup last week. Some forethought and preparation are needed on my part if we're going to have a healthy, yummy supper the night of co-op pickups, because we're usually gone for at least 6 hours on these days.

And I DID have forethought and preparation last week - YAY, Joj!

I love it when I pull it together and have something waiting for us! Why don't I always do this? I don't know. I have trouble keeping all my little balls in the air. And it irks me something terrible when I've spent practically all day schlepping me and the children around to bring home LOTS of yummy, healthy, organic food...and then we have to have Pizza rolls or something like that for supper because we get home at 4:00 and I didn't think or prepare ahead of time! (Not that I'm trying to dis Pizza Rolls...I, unfortunately, love me some Pizza rolls!)

But like I said, I did prepare ahead of time this past week, and this Chicken Creole Soup was waiting for us when we got home:



I've been making this recipe for years now, from this Betty Crocker Whole Grains cookbook. (I love this cookbook! Let me qualify that statement: I love their from-scratch recipes; I make lots of yummy stuff from this cookbook. I do not however, love their recipes that tell you to start with "this" boxed cereal or "that" boxed cereal as an ingredient. I skip over all of those.)

Chicken Creole Soup

2 tbsp butter

2 medium onions, chopped (1 cup)

2 medium stalks celery, chopped (1 cup)

1 medium green bell bepper, chopped (1 cup) (I usually leave this out unless I have one handy from our garden...they're so expensive at the grocery store!)

2 tsp pressed garlic

2 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces (I usually just use chicken I've deboned from a chicken that I've previously roasted, and I probably use more like 1.5 lb per recipe)

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained (I use a quart of tomatoes that Kris and I canned)

1 cup uncooked long-grain brown rice (I sometimes use short-grain brown, no problem)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)

2 dried bay leaves

1. In 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and chicken; cook 7-9 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are softened and chicken is no longer pink in center.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; cook 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender.

3. Remove bay leaves before serving.

I always double this recipe. And this past week I tried something new and it worked fabulously - woohoo! I followed the above directions exactly...but when the soup was done, I poured all of it in my new, big crockpot and left it on low heat all day while we were at our co-op pickup. Voila - new crockpot recipe for me!