Cheesy Chicken Rice Soup

I have always loved chicken rice soup, so when I saw this recipe on pinterest, I knew I had to try it soon! It does taste as good as it looked! It is very rich, creamy and filling!

What You Need:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
48 ounces (split into 32 and 16) reduced sodium chicken broth
2 cups shredded mild cheddar
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3 cups cooked shredded chicken (I just bought a rotiserie chicken and pulled off all of the white meat!)
3-4 cups cooked white rice
1/2 cup sour cream
Additional salt and pepper to taste

What You Do:
Place oil in large dutch oven over medium heat. (I don't have a dutch oven so I just used a large pot)
When hot, add onion, celery and carrots, stirring and cooking for about 10 minutes. (Since a dutch oven has more surface area on the bottom, my veggies needed a little bit longer to cook to tender)

Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Once veggies are tender, reduce heat to low.

In a separate LARGE saucepan melt the butter over medium heat.

Slowly whisk in the flour, salt and pepper until thick and bubbly.

Slowly whisk in 32 ounces chicken broth. Increase heat slightly and keep whisking until broth gets thick and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Once thick, reduce heat to low and add cheese, stirring until smooth then add hot sauce.

Add cheese sauce to veggies in pot.

Add cooked chicken and rice.

I pulled the breast meat off of a rotiserrie chicken... it was plenty!

Yep, I did that all by myself. Got my fingers dirty & all.

Add remaining 16 ounces of chicken broth and sour cream to soup, stirring to combine.

If you want the soup thinner, add more chicken broth or milk.

Season with salt and pepper if you'd like.

Reduce heat to low and serve!



Yumm!!