Chicken, Bell Pepper & Mushroom soup with rice

I have been blogging three mushroom-based recipes that I made the last few days with a CostCo container of Baby Bellas. I like buying in bulk and finding fun things to do with the ingredients during the course of a week, without feeling like I’m eating the same thing over and over.


This soup is completely ‘off the cuff’, and I will do my best to replicate the ingredients as I was just kind of throwing them in to my pot.



INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 lbs of chicken, cubed into bite-size pieces & sautéed with a little olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion finely diced
8-10 Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup brown jasmine rice (or other rice)
6-10 cups water or chicken broth (if broth, omit the bouillon below)
3-4 tbsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base (taste broth to make sure it’s salty & well-rounded enough… add more base if needed)
1/2 tsp Thyme
2 tsp Marjoram
2 cloves minced garlic
2 bay leaves (discard prior to eating soup)
1 tbsp Sour Cream per soup bowl

DIRECTIONS:
  
Sauté onions in the bottom of a large soup-pot, and toss in the rice with the onions & olive oil, as though you’re making a risotto.  Let the rice absorb some oil, & heat up, before adding in mushrooms and bell peppers to sauté. The moisture released from the cooking vegetables will start to absorb somewhat into the rice.  Then pour in water and chicken-base, or chicken broth, herbs, and chicken.  Let simmer until rice is totally cooked through, adding water if needed.  Stir in one spoonful of sour cream for each bowl before serving.  The sour cream really takes everything up a notch, and in my humble opinion, is indispensable.
 

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