Cream of Chicken, Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

Simple soup #2 in the soup extravaganza...this is hearty and warm and very filling...and pretty easy on the waste line. I made this last Saturday night when I was feeling under the weather. I also baked bread in my bread machine, the house smelled awesome but I proclaimed I had turned into an 80 year old woman (no offense Grammy) baking bread and making soup on a Saturday night.

Again I am making this with 1 cup of chicken which makes about 5 servings so you can expand as you need to.

Cream of Chicken, Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup
1 cup shredded chicken
1 cup wild rice (if your like my mom and don't like wild rice then any white or brown rice will do)
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1/2 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 cartons mushrooms rough chopped (you can use any kind you want I used 1 carton of button and 1 of baby bellas)
1 carton chicken stock
Rosemary to taste

Start by cooking your rice. I used chicken stock to cook my rice in because I think it brings out more flavor and if there is any left over in the cooking process it will blend right into the soup. Cook the rice based on package instructions. As the rice is cooking, heat olive oil and a little butter in a large stock pot...add the onions and cook until translucent; add the mushrooms with the thickest first so they can cook longer. For mine I added the baby bellas for about 2 minutes longer than the button mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms until still firm but tender then add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the chicken, can of cream of mushroom soup and remainder of the chicken stock and let come to a low boil, reduce heat and add rice and rosemary and let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until thickened. The cream of mushroom soup, chicken and rice will allow the soup to thicken up and be creamy without the addition of cream. You may not need to add much salt to this but you may want to add a generous handful of pepper if that is your thing.

If you want to be bad you could grate some fresh Parmesan on top of the soup or a little bit of cream to make it pretty sinful.

This soup also freezes up really well.