Chicken and Rice Soup

Found this recipe HERE. I think I posted another chicken and rice soup on here before, but this one's a lot different.

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4" pieces

• 1 Tbs Emeril's Essence or Creole Seasoning

• 1 Tbs olive oil

• 2 cups diced onions

• 1 1/2 cups diced carrots

• 1 1/2 cups diced celery

• 1 Tbs minced garlic

• 1 tsp dried basil

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

• 2 quarts chicken stock/broth, plus more if needed

• 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice

• 1 5-oz bag prewashed spinach

Place the chicken in a medium bowl, season with the Essence or Creole seasoning, and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a 6-quart or larger soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, basil, salt, and crushed red pepper, and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the broth and rice, cover the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove the cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the rice is just tender, about 12 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, and serve immediately.

NOTE: If you have cooked white rice on hand, omit the uncooked rice and simply stir in a bout 1 1/2 cups cooked rice just before you add the spinach.

YIELD: 3 1/2 quarts, 6-8 servings

The only changes I made to this was to probably season the chicken a bit more and use kale instead to spinach. Because kale seems to be a bit tougher than the packaged spinach, I decided to add it in earlier. I put it in right before I put the rice in. It was really good, and went over well. It made a lot even though it says 6-8 servings. I think we only ate about half of it.