Forbidden Black Rice Chicken Soup

Forbidden Rice Black Chicken Soup is a healthy and delicious recipe. The kids call it creepy Halloween soup and have a lot of fun eating it.

Forbidden Black Rice Soup

This Forbidden Black Rice Chicken Soup is a delicious and healthy meal that our family enjoys. It's a simple recipe that is perfect for any day.

But it especially works well on these cool autumn days or if someone in the family is feeling sick. Even more fun though, we make it as a creepy Halloween soup.

Black Rice Soup Is Perfect for Halloween

Black Rice Soup is super fun for Halloween. The forbidden black rice become little beetles and bugs. The wood ear mushrooms are bat wings. And I tell the kids it's made with purple monster meat.

It's dark, it's creepy and the kids absolutely love the spookiness of it. The more outrageous it sounds, the more they want to eat this Halloween soup. Kids are fun, aren't they?

We affectionately call it creepy soup. I am so happy when the kids ask for creepy Halloween soup because they devour it and it's packed full of nutrients and vegetables.

Ingredients

• Bone-in chicken thighs
• Onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Wood ear mushrooms
• Forbidden black rice

The full ingredients are in the complete recipe below. First, I'll share a few helpful tips about the ingredients.

What Kind of Forbidden Black Rice To Use for Soup?

Here is my go-to for black rice, especially for this soup.

This forbidden black rice holds up well in recipes. The rice gives off plenty of rich dark purple color for the soup. It's certified organic and tastes great too. It doesn't explicitly say, but I'm pretty sure it's a medium grain rice.

Rice Select Premium Place Rice also works well. This forbidden rice has a bit more texture, like wild rice. I don't like it as much in soup, and I think the rice falls apart a bit more. But it does have a healthier texture, as well as more fiber than other black rice varieties.

Here's a Thai Heirloom Black Rice, if you prefer long grain rice. I haven't tried this one yet, but I'm sure it would work great in this soup recipe.

You can't go wrong with any of these different types of black rice. Like I mentioned above, this is our pick for black rice. But it really comes down to your preference for rice type.

What is Wood Ear Mushroom?

Wood ear mushroom is a delicious dried mushroom that is commonly used in Asian dishes. I have loved it since I was a little kid, and I'm so glad the kids take after my tastebuds. See it in the photo above.

I use it a lot in our daily cooking because it's healthy, convenient and has a fun texture. It gives bite to any food you add it into.

Wood ear mushroom is often found in sweet and sour soup. So while I've never seen it in chicken soup until I made this recipe, it's not too uncommon to add it to soup.

If you are making this for a Halloween soup, wood ear mushroom is practically necessary. The kids pretend the wood ear mushrooms are bat wings, and gross each other out.

It really does have the shape and texture of what I imagine a bat wing would be like too. It's creepy, unexpected, and just a healthy way to have gross fun.

Wood ear mushroom is easily found in most Asian grocery stores, but you can also buy it on Amazon. Here's a small pack if you want just enough for this recipe and a bit more. Here's a premium one if you want more to stash in the cupboard after this recipe (I buy it in bags like this).

How To Make Forbidden Black Rice Chicken Soup

The full recipe and directions are below. However, here's a quick summary to show you how easy it is to make:

1. Sauté the onion, carrots and celery. Add in the chicken and allow it to brown. Deglaze the pan.
2. Add in rice and water and simmer. Add in the reconstituted wood ear mushrooms for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
3. Serve and enjoy!

This soup is super simple to make and uses only real ingredients. Making Forbidden Black Rice Chicken Soup is a very easy one pot dinner for the family. It's a complete meal that requires little effort.

How to Soak and Reconstitute Wood Ear Mushroom

To use wood ear mushroom, it's necessary to soak and reconstitute it first. If you've never used wood ear mushroom before, there's really no wrong way to do it.

Wood ear mushroom is typically sold dried and dehydrated. To reconstitute it, it simply needs to sit in water for some time.

Depending on the brand, dehydrated wood ear mushrooms take about 30 minutes to 3 hours to fully plump up in cold or room temperature water. The timing really depends on the size and thickness of the wood ear mushrooms, and whether or not it's sold as a compressed block.

If you don't want to worry about the timing so much, you can also soak wood ear mushrooms in water overnight in the fridge. There's no exact science to it. Soak it until it's pliable and rehydrated.

To speed up the rehydrating process, you can pour boiling water on wood ear mushrooms and allow it to soak in hot water. It can cut the time down to 20 minutes.

Adding Black Rice To Soup

This recipe cooks the black rice directly in the soup. It's easier this way, and it makes the soup a very dark purplish black color.

Chicken and rice soup recipes sometimes call for cooking the rice separate, and adding the rice into the soup only when serving. I don't do this method for this recipe because you'll lose the color and some of the health benefits from the black rice.

Also, I've adjusted the quantity of rice in this recipe so you don't run the risk of this soup becoming congee. In addition, forbidden rice holds up better than white rice, so the grains stay intact. Each bite of rice gives a nice chew.

Saving Leftovers

This black rice soup is best the day it is made. Because the rice is cooked directly in the soup, it will continue to sit and absorb the liquid. The black rice will eventually become more mushy, though it's still enjoyable.

That being said, we often have leftovers. We simply save it in the fridge. To reheat, use the microwave or heat on the stove top.

More Halloween Fun

If you found this while looking for a Halloween soup, don't miss out on these other fun seasonal activities:

• Halloween All About Me - Free Printable
• Halloween Scavenger Hunt Clues
• Printable Fall Scavenger Hunt
• Filling Cute Halloween Leaf Bags with Kids

Enjoy This Forbidden Black Rice Soup for Halloween

Don't let the color gross you out! It's part of the fun. And this Halloween soup is so healthy and nutritious. Here's a secret about this bug filled, bat wing and purple monster soup -- it taste just like chicken soup.

Love to know what you think below! Did you creep your kids out? Also, do you have different add-in and substitutions that you made? I'm always interested in hearing new ideas.

Print

5 from 1 vote

Forbidden Black Rice Chicken Soup Recipe

Forbidden Rice Black Chicken Soup is a healthy and delicious recipe. The kids call it creepy Halloween soup and have a lot of fun eating it.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Active Time35 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Yield: 4 people

Equipment

• 1 medium dutch oven or other heavy pot

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 large carrots - diced
• 4 stalks celery - diced
• 1 small sweet onion - diced
• 4 medium chicken thighs, bone-in and with skin
• ½ cup forbidden black rice
• 1-2 tablespoons dried wood ear mushrooms - reconstituted (see notes)
• salt - to taste
• fresh ground black pepper - to taste

Instructions

• Heat cooking oil in a medium dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high heat. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• Add carrots and celery and season with some salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the carrots and celery have softened a bit, and are starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
• Using a spatula, push the carrots, onions and celery to the side of the pan. Place in the chicken thigh, skin down, so as much of the skin is touching the bottom of the pot. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the chicken skin has browned. The bottom of the pan should have brown bits stuck to it too. Flip the chicken, and continue cooking and mixing everything together, until the outside of the chicken thighs look cooked. The inside will still be raw.
• Deglaze the pan by adding in a bit of water and scraping the bottom of the pan to remove and dissolve all the browned food bits from the pan. This will provide a rich flavor for the soup.
• Add in the rice and stir everything together. Bring to a low boil, then turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. When everything is just about cooked, add in the reconstituted wood ear mushrooms and simmer for another 5 minutes. The wood ear mushrooms only need to cook for a few minutes, and will not soften completely. Check and stir as needed during the cooking time. Remove from heat when done.
• Using tongs, transfer the chicken thighs into a large bowl. Allow to slightly cool, then remove the skin and bones. Cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, and return back to the soup.
• Serve and enjoy!

Notes

This is my go-to for black rice.

To reconstitute wood ear mushroom, it needs to soak until it's fully hydrated. Different brands will take different amounts of time, but generally expect about 30 minutes to 2 hours in cold/room temp water. Wood ear mushrooms can also soak overnight in the fridge.

To speed up the rehydrating process, you can also pour boiling water on wood ear mushrooms and allow it to soak in the hot water for about 20 minutes. Wood ear mushrooms are ready to use when they are pliable and plump.