Tomato Chicken Rice Soup

I found this recipe on this wonderful website, who got the recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine. It looked wonderful on her website and it seemed quite easy to make, so I gave it a go.

I am so glad that I did cause this meal was delicious! I will definitely be making this over and over again, well I did last night and it was just as good as I remember it. Perfect meal after a big weekend, perfect comfort food.

The first time I cooked it I used 2 chicken marylands, but I found they didn't have that much meat on them. The recipe calls for chicken breast, but I like my thigh meat as well as the breast. So last night I made it with a whole chicken that I cut up and poached the whole thing in the stock for about 40 minutes. This was much better and I will use a whole chicken from now on.

The first time I made it I think I read the recipe wrong and put in 1 cup of rice instead of 1/2 cup, so it wasn't really a soup. Last night I put in 3/4 cup which I think was the perfect amount. Also at the end of the cooking time I added the juice of 1 lime and some chilli sauce to give it a bit of a kick and acidity.

I am having leftovers for lunch today and I can't wait!

Poaching the chicken in the stock

Frying the onions


Adding the ground coriander and garlic

Adding it all to the stock with the tins of tomatoes

Rice nearly all cooked

The "soup" ready to eat.

I so love chicken cooked this way as well, it's so tasty.

Tomato Chicken Rice Soup - adapted from Iron Chef Shellie

1 Whole chicken
1 Litre of chicken stock
1 tbs oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tins chopped tomatoes (if you can get your hand on the aldi organic ones, they are the best things ever and will be the only tomatoes I use from now on)
3/4 cup basmati rice
Bunch of coriander, chopped
1 Lime, juiced

1. Cut up the chicken (if using a whole chicken) and place in a pot and cover with the chicken stock. Put the heat on low and simmer (without letting the stock boil) for about 40 minutes (or until the chicken looks cooked.

2. Remove the cooked chicken from the stock and set aside to cool, reserve the stock in the pot.

3. Heat the oil in a different pan and then add in the diced onion, crushed garlic and ground coriander. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the whole lot to the stock along with the tins of tomatoes.

4. Simmer the tomato and stock mixture for about 10 minutes, then add in the rice and cook for a further 15 mins (or until the rice is cooked).

5. While the rice is cooking, pull apart the chicken and set aside.

6. Once the rice is cooked, add in the chicken, coriander and lime juice. Squirt in some hot sauce if you like and then season to taste.