Indian-Inspired Chicken Soup

This soup is just a little more work that most of the recipes that I post here, but as long as you have an immersion blender (and you should, they're awesome! I have this one and I love it) then it's really not a big deal.

This recipe came about by taking my favorite parts of several real Indian soup recipes and combining them. The result is that this "franken-soup" is no longer very authentic (hence, 'Indian-Inspired) but it's really very tasty and wonderfully warming for fall and winter.

Keeping the chicken in quite large chunks to start makes it easier to remove the chicken when it's time to puree the soup. Then you can quickly chop the cooked chicken and add it back into the soup as more manageably sized pieces. This recipe is suitable for munchkins over 10 months.






















Indian-Inspired Chicken Soup

- 1 cup uncooked chicken breast,  large dice
- 1/4 cup onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup carrot, finely chopped
- 2 tart apples (or if sweet, omit sugar), pared and chunked
- 1/4 cup butter or ghee
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp curry powder (preferably Madras)
- 6 cups low sodium or homemade chicken broth
- 1 tomato, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 med green pepper, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp ground mace (or substitute a pinch of ground nutmeg)
- 2 whole cloves
- 1 cup cooked Basmati rice

Cook chicken, onion, celery, carrots, and apple in melted butter un a large saucepan over medium heat until softened and fragrant.

Stir in flour and curry powder and cook 1 minute. Gradually add chicken broth, stirring constantly. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Cook, covered, over low heat until chicken is tender, roughly 20 minutes.

Remove and reserve chicken with a slotted spoon. Fish out and discard the cloves.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is smooth (Alternatively you can work in batches in your blender or food processor). Give the chicken a rough chop to make the pieces bite-sized. Stir in cooked rice.

Enjoy!

* Serves 4-6