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.
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.