Rice and Chicken Soup
A Meal and a Book
My mother would often acquire these books for the kids to read when I was a tiny child. I now enjoy reading and writing because of this. We had books by Dr. Seuss, Sweet Pickel, and Little Golden Books. The Sweet Pickel books would be a wonderful gift for my brothers and me. The map of the made-up town of Sweet Pickels would be shown on the back of the inside cover. On the map, there was a house that was both blue and red. It looked a little bit like our red and blue home. That house was sufficient for us to enjoy the books, even though I don’t recall any of the stories.
One particular book was not included in any of these book series.It was titled Chicken Soup with Rice and was written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Every month of the year has a brief poem in the book. In each, the protagonist consumes or interacts with rice and chicken soup. We enjoyed the snappy rhythm my mother added when she read it to us for the first time, I recall. Rather than just reading the narrative, she would nearly sing it. We used the same rhythm when we read it aloud to ourselves.
My dad prepared chicken noodle soup all the time. His soups never really appealed to me. As I grew older, I became aware that he would overcook the vegetables and noodles. Still, we ate it.Eating what was put in front of us was a strict and severe rule. My parents didn’t think food should be wasted. It was a no-no. On one occasion, I recall being late for school because I was unwilling to eat my grits. Or was it muesli? In any case, I was instructed not to leave the table until I was done. That day, I got into problems. Even now, I still won’t eat muesli or grits.
My mother was cooking when we got home from school one extremely cold day. She responded as follows when we asked what was for supper:
“Wouldn’t it be pleasant to eat some while sliding on the ice?”
We knew the rest of the queue, of course.
“Rice and chicken soup.”
Chicken soup with rice became a pleasure we occasionally enjoyed after that day. It was a change of pace from the monotonous, daily chicken noodle soup. When my mother read the book to me for the first time, I couldn’t have been more than five years old. I still like rice and chicken soup better than noodles.
We visited a restaurant one day that served lemon rice soup. It was rice and chicken soup with lemon added. We now add lemon to the soup each time we eat it. If we visit a restaurant that offers rice and chicken soup,We request lemons. Most people automatically bring the lemons with the soup since they know us. Some even expanded their menus to include chicken rice soup with lemon. They deliver the soup to us when we sit at the table rather than a menu. Personally, I order fries and they bring the soup. I enjoy using the soup to dip the fries in.
My mother was ill and in the hospital one day. I was hoping to get her a present. Thus, I got her a book. Her face lit up as soon as I began reading the book.
“Wouldn’t it be pleasant to eat some while sliding on the ice?”
She knew the rest of the queue, of course.
“Rice and chicken soup.”
We like to occasionally eat in restaurants. Cooking at home, however, is far less expensive. My mother had to make her own soup recipe because the book didn’t include one. She never put it in writing, which is the issue. I had to create my own recipe because I had nothing to work with when I first started cooking. I’ve never written anything like this before. Here’s my recipe for:
Rice and Chicken Soup
Ingredients
One complete chicken
One chopped whole onion (yellow or white)
Four minced garlic cloves
Four Big Carrots
Four celery stalks
One chopped green bell pepper
One chopped red bell pepper
One chopped yellow bell pepper
Eight ounces of chopped mushrooms
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Two 10.5-ounce cans of cream of chicken soup
Two 10.5-ounce cans of cream of mushroom soup
Powdered Garlic
Powdered onion
Salt
A pepper
One cup of rice
Two tablespoons of olive oil
Water
Serving Lemon Wedges
Instructions:
1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil and cook the chicken until it begins to fall off the bone.
2. In the meantime, cook rice in two cups of water in a medium pot over high heat.
3. After the water boils, turn it down to low heat and leave it covered for ten minutes.
4. Switch off the heat and keep it covered for at least ten minutes.
5. Remove the skin and bones (as well as everything else besides the meat) from chickens when the meat slips off the bones or comes off with a fork with little to no effort.
6. Take caution — it’s hot.
7. Add the chopped carrots and celery to the stock and keep it boiling.
8. In a skillet, add the bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Sauté for three minutes in olive oil.
9. To the broth, add the onion mixture.
10. Add cream or chicken and cream of mushroom once the carrots are soft.
11. Add the rice after letting the Cream Of’s fully combine.
12. To taste, add onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
13. Continue cooking on low heat for 3 minutes, stirring to combine all the flavours.
14. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a lemon wedge.
15. Accompany with crackers or garlic bread.
16. Squeeze a little lemon into your bowl if you’d like.
17. Enjoy
