Chicken Wild Rice Soup with Lemongrass

This is a light soup with a Thai influence and is made with fresh homemade chicken stock.  You can use pre-made chicken broth and leftover chicken to save time.

Note: If you can’t find lemongrass in the specialty section of your supermarket or specialty store, you can omit.

Ingredients for Stock:

2 chicken thighs and legs or 2 larger chicken breasts
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 oz of fresh grated ginger or ½ teaspoon dried ginger
2 lemon grass stalks
2 dried red chillies

Ingredients for Soup:

2 lemon grass stalks
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
½ cup short grain rice rinsed
Salt and ground pepper to taste
Fresh chopped cilantro (about a handful)
1 finely chopped and deseeded red chilli to garnish
1 lime quartered to serve

Instructions:

Put the chicken into a large deep pan and add all the other stock ingredients.  Cover with water.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer gently with the lid on for approximately 2 hours, until the chicken is tender and you have a rich stock.

Skim off any excess fat from the top of the stock, strain stock into a large bowl or pan and set aside.  Remove the skin from the chicken and shred the meat into a separate bowl, set aside.

Flatten the lemon grass stalks using a rolling pin or the edge of a knife.  Pour the stock back into a soup pan and add the lemon grass stalks, fish sauce and rice.  Simmer uncovered over low heat for approximately 40 minutes.  Add the shredded chicken after 30 minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Slice and deseed the chilli.  Chop into thin pieces.  Be careful when handling chilli and quickly wash your hands after as it can really sting.  Serve the soup into warm bowls and garnish with a little chopped fresh chilli and lime wedge.