Soup for Lunch

For lunch we each had a huge bowl of homemade chicken soup. I love making my own savory broth for the soup. I get or make a cooked chicken at least twice a month, to take the meat off and slice for sandwiches or cube for my chicken curry dish.)To make up the broth,I cook up the bones, skin (and whatever meat is still clinging to them) from that fully cooked chicken (that I have baked myself or that is from the deli.) Into the cooking water, I put several cut up carrots, celery stalks, 1-2 onions, black pepper and one chicken bullion cube for added salt and flavor. I simmer this for a few hours and I get over a quart of the best broth! I refrigerate the broth to use the next day. After it chills, the fat goes to the surface and I skim most of it off. You want to have some fat in the broth; that is what gives it such good flavor. To make this soup pictured here, I put the broth in a pot and add 1/2 cup each of finely chopped carrot, celery, cabbage (if I have it), and 1/4 cup finely chopped onion and 1 and 1/2 cups chopped chicken and 1 and 1/2 cups raw rice. Simmer 20 minutes. Freshly ground black pepper on top completes this dish. Serve in huge bowls!